Page 61 of Synodic

“It is decided, Rowen Damascus,” Nepta said with unquestioning authority. “And she will not be alone. She will have you.”

“And me,” Takoda replied without hesitation.

“Very well. You will leave at first light.”

My head was reeling, but I needed to come to grips with my new reality. The Alcreon Light chose me, for whatever reason. And now I needed to prove it hadn’t chosen wrong.

23

The next morning Takoda stood at the edge of sunrise, straight as an arrow, his hair shining like a mane of frost against the dense forest wall. His sleeveless tunic revealed the taut line of a bow draped from one shoulder to opposite hip. He wore sandstone breeches and a calm, reassuring expression that slowed my nerve-wracked heart. “Are you ready, star-touched?”

I nodded, afraid that if I spoke, my voice would reveal just how inadequate and unworthy I was for this responsibility.

“Though the Summit needs proof, the Alcreon Light rests within you. You must learn to harness its power,” Takoda said, checking his pack of arrows and supplies for the journey. “Rowen was correct in that.”

“Of course I was right,” Rowen said, suddenly materializing out of the darkness. “Though it seems I stumbled upon this conversation a little late. Remind me of what again?” The pale golden hue of the sun welcomed and illuminated him, and I was immediately struck by how different he looked.

He was completely clean-shaven.

His smooth appearance revealed the sharp edges of his jawbone and the hard square cut of his chin, even his lips looked fuller. He appeared younger, neat, and courtly without his close-cut beard, and I couldn’t help feeling he’d gotten rid of it because of my comment from before the Hymma.

I said I liked it, so naturally, he had gotten rid of it.

It was a slap to the face. He didn’t want me liking him—any part of him.

While I preferred his rugged scruff, he was painfully beautiful either way, but in this moment I couldn’t stand the sight of him.

“Takoda and I got this. You don’t need to come,” I said, receiving his message loud and clear. He was in love with a ghost. I couldn’t compete with that, and he was asking me not to.

“Who else is going to keep an eye on you, Copeland?” he asked, walking right up to me, his fluid movements like a lazy river, but I knew his calm exterior masked a raging undertow of pain and anger just beneath the surface.

Regardless, his patronizing tone was getting old.

“Not this again.”

“I’m sorry if it upsets you,” he said, not sounding sorry at all. “But I made a promise to Nepta to protect—”

“—Protect me? Yeah, I get it. You’ve made it very clear you’re only doing this for Nepta.” He flinched, and a stray lock of his dark brown hair fell into his face. On instinct, I wanted to push the chocolate curl back from his eyes, but I kept my arms stiff by my sides.

From here on out, I would train my brain and body to see him as nothing more than an associate with vested interests. I could do that—as long as he stopped looking at me like that, like he was reaching out to me while asking me to stay away.

“You will barely even notice I’m here.”

Somehow I doubted that very much. “When will I be able to roam freely without you as my irritating shadow?”

“How about we say…” he raised a hand to stroke his smooth chin as if contemplating a deep thought, “when you can knock me on my ass,” he said smugly. “So it might be a while.”

I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was the overconfidence from taking Dyani down or the fact that I was so fed up with Rowen’s savior complex, but I couldn’t take that pompous look on his face for one more second.

I wound back and unleashed my fist as hard as I could, aiming directly at Rowen’s infuriating clean-shaven face.

I braced for the pain his sharp jaw would inflict on my hand, but it never came.

Rowen plucked my wrist out of the air with ease and pulled me within an inch of his mouth. “As I said, it might be a while, sweet girl.”

Holding my closed fist to his chest, he was near enough that I could smell his rosewood and charcoal scent as it enveloped me wholly. I raised my seething stare up his mountainous frame, trailing upward until our eyes locked. “When I do knock you on your ass, I’ll make sure you feel it for weeks,” I said, my chest heaving from outright fury.

“Sounds delightful,” he said in mock pleasure.

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