Page 125 of Moonlit Fate

I frowned and peered at the pages. “Old magic?”

“Very old. Now the seer reaction’s makes sense.” Ilaric looked up. “We already know the two of you are the shifters spoken of in the prophecy, the ones chosen to bring about change, but it seems to be far more intricate than anything we could have expected. These powers are not random.” Ilaric paused. “The ritual that we thought failed... It did something else. It started this.”

“Started what?” My heart raced as I thought of all the insanity since that night.

“An awakening,” he said. “It bound you to your fates irrevocably.”

Aria clasped her hands together. “Can we fix it?”

“We may have veered off path, but...” Ilaric closed the book, his expression serious. “We can still mend what’s broken. This imbalance is from the from the ritual’s true effect.”

“True effect?” I echoed.

“Awakening supernatural forces,” he replied. “Not beyond repair, though, I don’t believe.”

Aria’s furrowed brow and the turmoil she projected into my mind mirrored my own confusion.

“You’re saying these markings”—I waved a hand over the glowing symbols on my arm—“are doing more than just sitting pretty?”

“More than you know,” Ilaric said. “They’ve linked the two of you on an emotional level. This is uncharted magic. It could be what we need to tip the scales back to balance. Or it could rip everything apart if you can’t manage it.”

“Great,” I muttered, exchanging a worried glance with Aria. “No pressure then.”

“Why have you only told me this now?” Aria asked Ilaric. “This would have been valuable information when we went to the seer.”

“Honestly, it didn’t occur to me until now. When you don’t have the full picture, it’s difficult to come up with a working hypothesis. Had I known what you were both experiencing, the connection you now share, I might have been able to guide you earlier. Your link to each other brought to mind a passage from a book I’d found in my research.” He held our gazes, his expression conveying his seriousness. “You must understand the significance of your connection and the need to work together.”

He picked up the book again, flipping through it to a page filled with notes in the margins. “There are places mentioned here.” He pointed to a map. “Sacred sites. They might hold the key to learning more about your powers and understanding their true potential.”

“Journeys and ancient sites?” I ran a hand through my hair, digging my fingers into my scalp. “Sounds like a fairytale quest.”

“Perhaps,” Ilaric conceded. “But these sites are not just geographical points; they’re focal spots for the magic that runs through the earth. Finding them, connecting with them, could help you master your control over all your abilities.”

“We’ll need that if we’re to do anything meaningful,” Aria said, looking over Ilaric’s shoulder at the text.

Ilaric closed the book with a sense of finality. “It comes down to understanding yourselves and this connection. Harness it, and you have a chance.”

“Understand ourselves, find some magical places, and get a grip on this bond.” I scoffed. “That’s the plan?”

“That’s the plan,” Ilaric said, his gaze flicking from me to Aria. “Time isn’t exactly on our side.”

“Let’s hope enough of it is on our side. Isolating ourselves isn’t working,” I said, glancing at the others. “We have to be a unit. These marks”—I raised my shirt again, revealing the twisting symbols—“have linked us.”

Aria nodded, her eyes tracing the lines on my skin before meeting mine. “We need to protect what’s ours. The world out there.”

“It feels right, doesn’t it?” Seren added softly.

“Being here with you all, especially Aria, is calming the storm inside me,” I admitted. Once I’d tamped down my initial jealousy at seeing her with Eldan, a sense of tranquility had washed over me. Being near Aria eased the restlessness under my skin.

A stillness settled over the room as everyone processed my words. Aria tilted her head to the door and murmured, “Can we step outside for a moment?”

“Sure.” I slipped out of the antechamber into the library. I waited briefly, listening as she asked Seren to make a note of something, and then she caught up to me, rubbing her arms.

“What’s happening? Is it the markings?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m fine. It’s strange. When you left the room, the painful buzzing started again. But now that we’re next to each other again, it stopped.”

“Is that why you wanted to talk to me? To test out Ilaric’s theory that we’re connected?”

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