Page 156 of A Dance of Water

"No, I’m okay," she lied, weakly struggling to get out of his hold and sit up. But the hands on her turned forceful, urging her to stay lying down.

Brittle and cracking, the threads splintered like the pieces of her soul, splayed outward from her overuse of magic.

Rings cut into her cheek as Vale gripped her face. She sighed at the contact, feeling the fraying of the threads stall.

"You cannot defeat the Tenebrae if you die before you can use your magic. It’s too much. It’skillingyou," Vale said, his warm breath ghosting over her sweaty cheeks.

"Too much power," Tharen mused. "But that might not be all…" He trailed off, and she was too tired to ask what he meant.

"We can’t keep forcing her to do this," Graves implored; his deep voice shivered over her, music to her ears.

"She will die if we continue. Do you want her blood on your hands?" Bastian let his words linger. "But not just hers, the deaths of us all. Thousands have already died, and there will be thousands more if this ends now."

Shewantedthis—a purpose. Strength. Control.

"No," she breathed. She made her voice firm, even though her throat ached with every word. "Let me have this choice. I can do this… I want to do this."

Vale’s hand tightened. "If you would willingly walk into your death, that makes you a fool."

"It would make me light in the darkness," said Luella. She reached up with a weak hand and locked their fingers, pressing theirjoined hands to her chest, over the mark. "Don’t take another choice away from me."

Burning embers and cedar did nothing to quiet the unrest within her.

Vale’s touch left her, and fragile bits of the thread between them turned to ash. "I’ve made my decision. We will return to the castle, you will rest and eat, and we will try again tomorrow."

The Binding mark pulsed. But at least he did not take the choice away from her fully.

Az bundled her to his chest and stood. Her head fell to his shoulder, and she nosed along the crook of his neck, feeling cool chains against her.

He rumbled, unable to speak, but for her, it was more than enough.

She pressed her lips to his neck. "I’ll be okay, Az."

As the demon walked the short pace to the horses, she found herself drifting, barely aware as she was lifted upon a horse and settled back against a broad chest. Wintry tendrils melted against her flushed skin as she breathed Tharen in, too exhausted to care she was nestled against him—her torturer.

Thunder rumbled distantly. The air was charged with electricity and heavy with moisture, but there was no storm. Not yet.

As the fire roared around Luella, she realized something was truly wrong with her.

They had barely been in the forest for an hour before she started to feel the effects of overusing her power.

It had started small, as all dangerous things do—thrust into a nightmare of the past where Caliban had held Enora against the edge of the water, lovemaking turning violent. She had been shown various pieces of the past; none of it had made sense. When she had awoken, she only wanted to fall back to sleep.

Sleep escaped her as she was stolen away to the forest.

Her limbs felt stiff, movements awkward, as Tharen exacted his preferred method of torture for the day.

Fire.

It roared around her and filled her lungs with ash and soot. She coughed as she ran. Every breath burned.

She couldn’t get enough air in her lungs.

A night of sleep—no matter how restless—and a full meal had done nothing to ease the sickness in her body. It had only gotten worse.

"Extinguish the flames!" Tharen ordered, voice rippling through the crackling heat around her. "Push your magic out and let it save you."

Her bare feet dug into wet earth. Sightless, she tried to ground herself as he had taught, feeling the wind in the air, tinged with smoke, the lick of the flames on her skin, the slowest drizzle of rain, evaporating around her from the heat.

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