Page 59 of Synodic

“Then he can have no way of knowing you are here,” Takoda breathed with relief. He reached for my wrist and monitored my pulse. “Your strength has returned. Sure as a river, your pulse beats stronger, clearer, more focused. And while there may be a new light in your eyes, there is also a new sadness.”

Rowen shot me a concerned glance as I pulled my hand back to my chest.

Takoda was right on all counts. A cannon blast had pulverized my heart, the barrel aimed and lit by my own family. But I’d also never felt stronger. The truth had set me free, lighting me with flickers of energy that pulsed throughout my veins.

My cage was finally open, but like an eagle held in captivity for too long, I had no idea how to fly.

“You did well, both of you. Even though it was exceedingly dangerous for you to join her, Rowen. You could have both been lost. Only those who have accepted their soul flame have ever dared try a Hymma joining, and with great risk,” Takoda said, looking between Rowen and me. His words meant to scold, but they came out more as bewildered shock.

“I knew the risks,” Rowen ground out from the back of his throat, a fierce adrenaline rolling off him in waves. “She was breaking in there, and you know it.”

Takoda couldn’t argue with that. I had been breaking, was still breaking. “I’ll summon the Summit and meet you at the Sacred Vale,” he said as he stood, then darted away with a speed and grace I could only admire.

“You shouldn’t have put yourself in danger like that,” I said to Rowen, who vibrated beside me with an energy I couldn’t place.

“I couldn’t sit idly by,” he barely whispered, cupping my cheek and forcing my silver gaze to his. He pulled me closer and tilted my chin until his warm forehead pressed against mine. “I would help pull you out of any darkness. But it was you who did brilliantly, Keira. To come back whole.” His thumb gently stroked my cheekbone, and I felt dizzy when his breath hit my face.

I placed my hand over his. “For a moment, I didn’t think I would be able to find my way, but you helped pull me back.”

“You were screaming. I ran in and you were…clawing at yourself.”

“I was frozen, attached to tubes and machines that I tried to rip from my body, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.”

“You’re back now. That’s all that matters,” he said softly, his sensuous mouth so close to mine. His breath skittered along my jaw, and I would only have to slightly tilt my head back for our lips to meet.

Seeming to remember I wore nothing but a blanket, Rowen looked me up and down and cleared his throat. “We need to get you ready for the Summit. They will be waiting,” he said, picking up my bundle of clothes and fisting them to me. As I reached for my vest and leggings, my fingers lightly brushed against his, featherlight and unintended, and a spark of ice-white light shot from my fingertips and zapped him on the hand.

He hissed between his teeth.

“Did I hurt you?” I asked, quickly pulling my hand back as memories flooded in—I’d shocked people before: friends, teachers, the men at Prism, even my parents.

Yet another reason I’d been drugged into oblivion.

“No, it was only a slight jolt,” he said as a forest swirled in his eyes, but a grave shadow circled his irises like a dreaded forecast. “You’ve done it before, but now it’s more…potent.”

Despite the beads of sweat that trickled down my brow, ribcage, and arms, I was covered in goosebumps—hot but chilled all over. And I knew in that infinite second, people would kill for the power coursing through my veins.

* * *

Dressed and hydrated, we arrived at the Sacred Vale, the symphony of long thin waterfalls echoing in the distance. The Summit members sat under the hovering remnants of the Alcreon Stone.

Alvar pounded his fist on the glittering table, and Driskell’s brows furrowed as everyone spoke over one another. Upon my entrance, the valley quieted, and Rowen and I took our seats in front of their expectant gazes.

Nepta, never missing a detail with her unseeing eyes, said, “You are all here now then, child.”

It wasn’t a question.

“Do you finally have your wits about you enough to inform us of what is going on?” Driskell asked, searching my face as he would the stars. “Why now?”

“As it turns out,” I exhaled deeply, “I have been drugged for most of my life.” Rowen snapped his head towards me, and a resounding silence settled over the glen. “Growing up I had dreams of you, of Luneth, of walking this land and returning home with things I couldn’t explain. It frightened my parents, so much so that they tried to suppress my abilities with experimental medicines from my world. It seems my parents succeeded, to all our detriment.”

I barely got the words out as my breath escaped me. There wasn’t enough oxygen, it was fraying from my lungs too fast. But stating the facts aloud cemented the truth. There was never anything wrong with me as I’d been led to believe. What I had was a gift so powerful, it frightened those who couldn’t understand it.

The Alcreon Light was inside me. I knew that now, without a doubt. And the heavy weight of fear and inadequacy sat in the pit of my stomach. What if I couldn’t help? What if I let everyone down?

How could I be The Marked, the bearer of such a celestial light? It was all too much, too fast. I didn’t want to accept it, didn’t know if I could, not on top of everything else.

“A potion to suppress power? Takoda, have you ever heard of such a thing?” The feathers and crystals dangling from Alvar’s long white hair shook and whipped about his face as he looked back and forth between the members of the Summit.

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