Reeve nodded. “It happens when too much is used at once, whether that’s from a concentrated burst of powerful magic or a slower release over a long period without resting.”
“So in the case of kids who don’t Impart…?”
“It’s the concentrated burst, but it’s not by choice—it happensaccidentally from an unstable buildup of ellixen.” Before she could ask, he shared, “To avoid that, I had to learn how to control my magic—to train the muscle, so to speak. The same would have been true for Wynter.”
“I still can’t believe that,” Viri murmured, though she knew deep down that it was true. Even so, she planned on having averystern talk with her best friend after she returned to the city.
“Do you know what I can’t believe?” Reeve asked, looking around the blue cavern, a frown creasing his brow.
“What?”
“The husband,” he said.
Viri blinked. “Sorry?”
“The husband, the wife, and the friend from the story,” he clarified. “I told you earlier that I doubted they hiked all the way to the tower, but there’s nowaythey made it down here. Something isn’t adding up.”
Realizing he was right, Viri pulled the map from her cloak, relieved to see it had survived the lake and was now dry again thanks to Reeve’s magic. But then she opened it, and any relief she’d felt vanished.
“No,”she whispered, certain it had to be wrong.
Reeve peered over her shoulder, then tensed with disbelief. “That’s not possible.”
With a shaking finger, Viri traced the magical line—the one they’d been so close to reaching the end of…but now led to another place entirely, almost all the way back to the necropolis.
A stream of curses left Reeve’s mouth, but Viri was staring at the map, thinking hard, words he’d said flitting across her memory:
“The map belongs to your family line, so the magic only works for someone with Solace blood.”
And later:
“I never understood how the husband could have hiked through the Mistwood if he was as weak as the legend claimed.”
Then finally:
“I asked your mom about it…and she just smiled and said, ‘Anything is possible with magic.’ ”
A theory came to Viri, something that was surely a fool’s hope, but she listened to her instincts as they guided her to unsheathe a dagger and prick the tip of her finger.
“The magic only works for someone with Solace blood.”
Reeve was right that the husband never would have been able to make the journey…but what if he hadn’t needed to? What if the wayportal wasn’t located in any one place but moved around the Mistwood, just like how the trees shifted and the rivers turned and the ground formed and re-formed.Thatwas why the map had changed—because the portal hadmoved.
And if it had moved once, then it could move again.
Especially if it was summoned.
“Anything is possible with magic.”
If Viri’s mother had spoken true, then maybe a Solace could do more thanreadthe map—maybe a Solace could alsocontrolit.
Praying her instincts were right, Viri touched her bleeding finger to the line on the parchment, tracing it all the way back to where she and Reeve were standing, willing the map to recognize her, toobeyher.
One second passed. Two seconds. Three—
And then a bright flash lit the cavern, and the shimmering wayportal appeared on the pebbled shore before them.
An incredulous laugh left Viri. “I can’t believe that worked.”
