If it needed a piece of me to work, maybe it needs…more. More sacrifice than a little blood. If I’m wrong, I could lose the chance of getting Graylen back. But I have to try.
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I begin to let the curious magic within the shard in. Instead of existing around my Essence, I open myself up to it in a desperate attempt to give it what it wants—even if I don’t know what that price is yet.
With a shaky breath, I decide that this choice is the only way to save Graylen. That giving it what it wants is the only right option—the alternative is leaving him in the Vale, and that’s no option at all. I lift the floodgates and let it fully in.
The fire in my veins—so like Graylen’s—answers it first, roaring to life and tangling with an ancient and unfamiliar magic. It feelswrong, like trying to run backwards instead of forwards, or like trying to bathe with sand instead of soap.
Strands of loose hair around my shoulders float in front of my face, and my chest tingles with tiny pricks.
The power of the shard runs deeper, hastily exploring the rest of my magic.
As if the thread of it in my soul was doused with a bucket of water, the piece of me that belongs to the Aegis begins to dim, slowly being leeched away from my body little by little.
I gasp.
It’s trying totakemy magic.
No, no, no.
I can’t help Graylen in the Vale if I don’t have a way to protect us. I don’t know what state he’ll be in and if he’ll be able to help, and I certainly don’t know the horrors of what awaits us down there.
The shard can’t just…takemy magic.
I resist it, pulling back my Essence and trying to shut the door between me and the shard.
The pull lessens instantly, as if it’ll only take what I allow it to have.
It has to be my decision.Fullymy choice to give itwhat it wants.
I swallow, knowing I’m running out of time with the beasts closing in and the power of the shard dimming.
What if it takesallof my magic?
The magic that I’ve come to understand—come to love—is what I must give it. It’s somehow become a part of me, always there beneath the surface, but hidden. Before my magic, before coming to Penyth, I wasn’t whole. Wasn’tme.
I’ve found who I am through my Essence; who will I become without it?
A tear slips down my cheek as I realize what I have to do—what I have to give up. All magic has a price.
With a painful sob, I reopen the connection and allow the shard’s magic back in.
It rushes in, eagerly exploring my Essence once more.
I push my Undine side front and center, knowing it’s my weakest. The ancient power sweeps in like a cresting wave, pulling my magic out to sea. But it isn’t a painful, abrupt end; it’s as slow and as steady as the drifting current.
It takes and takes, draining it down to the final dregs.
My chest tightens as I prepare to feel it rip my Undine side away from me.
But it slows to a halt, as if satisfied.
The air shifts, and my eyes snap open. One of the beasts in front of me lunges, its jaw opened as it soars through the air toward me. A rippling bright light explodes from my hand, cutting the creature off from my view and making the entire forest disappear.
Twenty-Nine
Tourmaline
There wasa time when I thought being in Crea was the worst place in the entire realm. Crea reeked of darkness—an evil so vile that it licked against my skin each and every day. The people there weren’t much better, their hearts cold and greed palpable.
