"Where our Diath cast his spell," Brighid shouted. "Can you mend it closed?"
I took a step forward, and my heart plummeted.
That twister pouring from the hole in the sky would be raging in the center of the city. Unchecked. For nearly thirty years.
Under these conditions . . . how would anyone have survived?
Why had this happened to my home? Who had done this?
Despair washed over me like a cold wave. I had known all along this was the only possibility. Something—or someone—had long silenced my people.
Hot rage twisted through my veins, chasing away the frozen grief. Yanking Cierthine from its hilt, I pulled on the deep well of magic buried within the blade.
And felt nothing heed my call.
The violet light pulsing on Cierthine's steel faded, and it felt foreign in my hands, as though it no longer belonged to me.
Reese had warned me this would happen.
'Killian had tried to reach Tirnanog. But Cierthine stopped obeying him.'
The magic running through my veins muted. I felt like a child looking upon an ancient hero—an ant before a dragon.
Staring up into that terrible hole in the world, it was like the winds themselves whispered to me.
'You are nothing. Less. You breathe because I allow it.'
If the changing of the world when we touched marked us as Diath, if the birds heralding danger confirmed our identity, then . . .
Then I was no Diath of storm. But of shadow.
"I'm not who you think!" I shouted. "Cierthine won't heed me."
"What?" Brighid blinked. "But if not you, then?—”
"Ferris," I blurted out. "Diar said the same thing that happens between us happened with Ferris. It's him."
Brighid's eyes darted around. Slowly, they steadied on my face. "If you are not storm, then you are . . . "
I flinched as lightning struck the ground nearby, cleaving a crater in the earth. "Going to be dead soon." I finished her dangerous thought. "We need to turn back."
Wincing, Brighid turned and fled down the hill. I followed close behind, trying to shove Cierthine back into its hilt.
It was like it resisted me. Like it wanted to stay.
The tension around it snapped, and it slid into its hilt with a loud click. We sprinted across the plain, toward the glow of gold waiting for us on the other side.
Fire raced down Brighid's arm, searing in her veins. Her shield fell away, and she collapsed onto her hands and knees a few paces from the horses.
I stumbled, landing on my knee beside her. Reese was at my side within a heartbeat.
"Are you alright?" He asked, taking my arms.
"I'm fine," I gasped, voice trembling.
I could still hear the thunder, vibrating deep within my skull.
"I'm alright," Brighid coughed. "Don't check on me, really."
