Blaze.
I push open the door to the training room, pass the fire pit, walk through the forest.
Blaze.
I reach the pool.
Blaze. Blaze. Blaze.
I crouch down beside it, listening. The water. It called me here. But why?
Slowly, I reach out my fingers, gently caressing the surface, and in that moment the glassy stillness shatters. The pool becomes a frothing frenzy and I jerk my hand back in shock. And that’s not all. The water is glowing. Glowing gold.
Blaze.
‘I’m here,’ I whisper back.
It’s like it hears me, and grows still once more. I peer down into this pool of liquid sunlight. There’s something at the bottom. I can see it. I canfeelit.
Blaze.
My mind is swimming inside my head. It floats on golden water.
I don’t even take a breath before I jump.
Cold – the water is deathly cold. And deep, as deep as the ocean. Screwing my eyes shut, I wait to hit the bottom or wake up, whichever comes first. But I don’t. Instead I fall right through the pool … and out the other side.
Wincing, I get to my feet. Strange light dances across the floor, and I look up to find a watery ceiling suspended above me. What is this place?
The chamber is spherical. No doors, no windows. Empty but for a single object lying in the centre.
Round her neck each sister wore a talisman.
I walk towards it, water dripping from my nightdress. Whispering fills my ears. My name, repeated like a pledge.
When Syla died, her Eye vanished. One last enchantment, it seemed.
I stare at the golden eye in front of me.
The key to power itself.
My arm shakes as I tentatively reach out my hand, and finally,finally, touch it.
Agony.
Euphoria.
Currents of something that exists beyond the realm ofwords travel through me, surging through my veins, singing through my blood. Every fibre of my being is set ablaze, and I wonder through screams if this is what swallowing lightning feels like.
I am life. I am death. I see stars. They skim my skin. I am a star.
I am nothing at all.
When I wake the sun is streaming through the windows.
The dream clings to me. I shake my head to clear it and realize that my hair is damp, as if I’ve just bathed.
Did I make it rain in my sleep?
