Page 82 of Blood of the Stars

She reached out to the wall of vines for support even though a thorn cut her other hand. The absence of the magic’s pressure and temptation nearly made her crumple. It wasn’t completely gone, not like when Arvid and Vera had drained her, but the surplus settled into a pleasant, controllable hum.

And it only costs the freedom of one mortal. The sprite’s slim shoulder lifted and dropped. Not even a powerful one.

An image of Cyrus flashed before her, his innocent freckled face pale, lips blue. For a moment, she recognized it as a memory, a vision from her Awakening, but it was too vivid to be a recollection. The sprite had pushed the image into her mind, had given it to her as easily as she’d given it the starlock.

“No.” She clenched her shaking hands. “The price is too high.”

The sprite cocked its head again. No? Its cheeks lowered; its bulging eyes blinked once more. The film remained, the image of Cyrus growing hazier. The sprite leaned forward, draping the leather cord over Aeliana’s head until the starlock settled around her neck.

For a moment, the creature’s nearness had a sinister pause. Its wings beat like a loud drum in her ear, its hot breath drifted across her face from its enlarged nostrils, and its fingers tightened on the cord. It could kill her in that instant with just the leather around her neck. Maybe it wanted to.

A buzzing sound filled the space, followed by the iridescent glow of a dozen sprites rounding the corner from the depths of the cave. Their wings fluttered in a rainbow of golds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies. She froze as they rushed toward her, realizing this hauntingly beautiful image was likely the last thing she’d ever see.

Instead, the red sprite spun her to face the vines.

The moment you asked for the deal, you’d already taken it. Its voice no longer held music, just a deep growl filled with hatred. Your freedom or his.

Dozens of little hands pressed on her back, shoving her through the vines, which sliced at her arms and face. Her boots slipped on wet rock, then lost purchase as the sprites pushed her through the waterfall and beyond.

The scream erupting from Aeliana’s throat was drowned out by a mouth full of water. She spluttered as the shock of weightlessness overpowered her, and the black of night swirled with cerulean water and thick leaves. Before she could regain any sense of direction or reclaim more air, her body plunged into water.

It filled her nose, and her proximity to the waterfall pushed her deeper, churning her beneath its force. She fought against its power, lungs burning, but that only kept her revolving within the water. Her vision dimmed, the fight draining from her body. As she went limp, the current finally carried her out from under the waterfall, where she could sense up from down. Breaking through the surface, she sucked in fresh, hopeful air, hacking and spitting out water. The current took her nearer to the shore, her now bare feet scraping the sandy bottom.

But in the water, her hands brushed against fabric, skin, and hair, and her heart stilled.

Moonlight glinted off the water, leaving the heavy object before her in shadow. She blinked the water from her eyes, pushing aside familiar long red hair with trembling fingers.

“Please, no.” Her words came out like a desperate prayer as she fought to turn Cyrus over.

Blue lips and wide eyes left her sick.

“Help!” The word left her mouth at a fraction of the volume needed, but her body couldn’t produce anything louder. She hooked her arms under his and dragged him to the water’s edge. His weight became unbearable as his body hit the sand, and she collapsed against his still form, water lapping at their legs.

“Sweet Stars, no!” She pulled at the fabric clinging to his chest, trying to remember the motions she’d once seen a healer do with a little girl who had drowned in the creek. Something to make the heart beat, to pump the water out. But she wasn’t a healer. She didn’t know what to do.

She bent forward, placing her forehead against his cold skin. It was her fault. He’d been doomed since the day they’d met. She’d always known it, and still, she’d led him into the trap like an animal to a butcher.

“This isn’t what I wanted.” She pulled back, the starlock miraculously still hanging from her neck, swinging between them.

The sprites had tricked her. She didn’t want their deal. She turned to the waterfall, glaring at the space where she knew the creatures waited, probably watching.

“I told you no!” Her shout echoed across the water, her voice finally regaining its force. She turned back to Cyrus. “The cost of freedom is too high.” She yanked the cord from her neck, and at her touch, the starlock pulsed, not unlike the blood pumping through Aeliana’s veins.

Your freedom or his. The sprite’s words came back to her, taunting her.

But also guiding her.

It was her choice. Her freedom or his. His life or hers. In order to save him, she had to give up the freedom she craved. She had to use her magic.

She closed her eyes, squeezing the starlock tight in her right hand while placing her left across her face, which oozed with blood from the vines that had sliced into her skin. Arvid and Vera had always spoken of manipulating the elements, forcing substances to obey their commands. It had sounded clumsy and imprecise.

Instead, she recalled Sylmar’s words of altering the elements, enhancing them.

She focused on the beat of her heart, the pumping of her blood, the energy pushing through every drop in her veins. She placed her hands on his chest and willed the energy out from her blood and into the water around her, reaching for the water deep within Cyrus’ lungs. She sensed it then, on a level deeper than knowledge or understanding, intuition that went beyond the senses. A need to pull the water out and replace it with air. To press the energy in until his heart could once more beat. To heal the parts of his body already damaged. Even with her eyes closed, they lit up in her mind’s eye like points in a constellation, targets to direct the power constantly threatening to spill out of her.

For the first time, she purposely let her energy flow out uninhibited, the power expanding within her even as it left her body. It unfurled like a cat stretching, filling her veins before pumping out. She gasped as it wrenched through her, opening her eyes as her palm filled with heat.

When Arvid and Vera had drained her, the power only flowed out, but with the starlock, power also flowed in. The source felt frighteningly bottomless, and in her panic, she pushed the energy out faster. The heat of the starlock seared against her palm like the starting point of a string running through Aeliana’s body and extending out to Cyrus’ lungs.

---