“The ashen? Daimos?” I asked, sitting up onto my elbow.
Bayne shook his head, his forehead creased.
“Something worse. Something I don’t fully understand,” he murmured.
I opened my mouth to probe further.
“We all need to prepare. We need to be at our strongest.” Bayne’s eyes had taken on a glassy effect as he stared at the ceiling of the cave.
My stomach twisted.
“I know you’ve struggled with the Transcindiel…” The words dripped with hesitation as they left his lips.
A weight pressed against my chest, and an unspoken strain pushed against our connection.
“You think I should focus my efforts on the transformation,” I said quietly for him. “Forget about the death of the Lady of Tomorrow for now.”
He murmured his confirmation.
Unease settled in my stomach. Something about her death reeked of evil. Could I let this go?
And the ashen transformations… I’d been trying. The question of why I’d been failing continued to nag at me, an accusatory finger pointing at my own insecurities, at my own selfish fear of losing the man I loved.
I knew so deeply in my heart that Bayne loved me. My failures had nothing to do with saving Lida and turning her back into an elf. I knew that when I finally transformed Lida, Bayne’s last love, thereasonhe’d gone to Kayj in the first place, that he’d stay with me. He might still love Lida, always love her insome way, but there was something deeper between Bayne and I. Wasn’t there? Wasn’t that what this connection was between us?
Yet that same, shameful thought crouched at the back of my consciousness. That maybe I didn’twantto change her. That I was so selfish, I couldn’t allow someone else near his light.
Bayne’s palm flipped up as little bits of fire and light danced above his hand. Beautiful, white flames dipped and swirled together. We lay there, watching the light ebb and flow in fascinating patterns.
“Try it,” he murmured into my hair as my mind drifted to my own powers.
My body tensed. I didn’t have this level of control. I could summon the Obscura easily now, but it was a blast of raw power. Directing a small bit of concentrated power like this…
Bayne’s reassuring warmth slipped into that connection of ours, and my heart calmed.
“Try,” he said again, brushing soothing strokes of his hand through my hair.
I flipped my hand over, summoning a small bit of Obscura to rise above the luminous star at the center of my palm. The blue of my veins turned midnight black as I let darkness pool at the surface. It flowed to my palm, slow and steady. I released a breath as I allowed a bit of it to escape.
A small, steady black tendril of power winked into existence above my hand. It hovered, unmoving, like a teardrop of black sky suspended in midair. Bayne slid a cautious curiosity down our connection, enough for me to release more.
Darkness exploded in the small space. I let out a cry, terror seizing my chest at the loss of control, uncertain if it was Bayne’s fear or my own, when white light swept through the cave, smothering the shadows.
He let out a low whistle as I clamped my fist shut.
“Too much,” I said, shakily.
“Maybe a bit,” he murmured with a breathy chuckle.
I let out a low, shaky laugh. But that one bit of power… We’d have to find more time to train together in the coming days. I opened my mouth to say as much when Kresida’s demanding voice barked from outside the cave.
“Her Majesty requires an audience, Captain,” the War Slayer called.
My stomach twisted at her undetected approach as her words hauled us back to our weighted reality.
