Page 63 of Synodic

I knew the power was within me. I’d felt it after the Hymma, and I wasn’t the only one. Rowen had felt it too. Merely touching him had rushed the light in me to the surface. I wondered if he even knew the effect he had on me? The impact he had before I even knew he was real.

I stole a peek at Rowen out of the corner of my eye. He was giving us space just as he promised, his shoulders tense and his hand never leaving the eye of his holstered ax. He was on guard, wary and watchful of what lay hidden in the stale wind.

I looked away and squeezed my eyes closed, trying to concentrate. Attempting to think of anything but Rowen, I thought of my parents, but a quick whip to the heart stopped me. Recalling anything from back home was off limits.

My mind slowly wandered back to Rowen, to the first time he had touched me, that lightning I felt, to this morning with his hands on me, and all the stirring little touches in-between. I thought of when I had first learned I was an astral traveler. That Luneth was real, my dreams were real, Rowen was real.

A slight tug pulled at my fingertips, building in pressure. My hands became alive, buzzing, and a beautiful glow began emanating from my fingertips, peaking out like timid bits of moonlight behind heavy storm clouds.

I sensed Takoda beside me, looking on with ecstatic wonder.

I touched my hands to the barren soil, sinking my fingertips into the blighted dirt. I waited for hundreds of silver roses to bloom and unfurl their petals, but nothing happened, and my hands flickered out like a broken bulb.

“You did it, star-touched,” Takoda said with unadulterated pride.

“Then why isn’t anything happening?” I asked disappointedly. I’d harnessed the Alcreon Light and it had done nothing. Had the drugs broken the Light? WasIbroken?

Takoda scooped up a handful of dull soil and dropped it into a vial before placing it in his pack. “You may yet have sparked life. Time will tell.”

Unsatisfied, I tried again but Rowen sprinted over to us, his eyes wide with terror. “Forest laiths are headed this way,” he said, ax drawn.

Takoda immediately shot up from the ground, stringing his bow and arrow with fluid dexterity. “They never roam this far from the Weir.”

Rowen moved to me as I stood and pulled the knife from my pants. He inspected my grip with satisfaction. “Good girl. If anything should happen, cut them once and make it count,” he said as he brought his hands to either side of my neck and pressed on my hammering pulse. “Slice here,” he instructed, never taking his eyes off me, and I nodded within his grasp. “And here,” he said again, his hands lowering to my ribcage, his thumbs pushing into the soft flesh between my ribs and up into my lungs. "And here,” he said finally, his touch sweeping against my inner thigh.

“G…got it,” I replied through a constricted throat, though if I never saw one of those creatures again it would be too soon.

Takoda’s eyes narrowed. “They must have sensed you, Keira, or were informed of your location. It would be best if we left now.”

We moved in unison, eager to return to the safety of the village, when a small pack of laiths emerged from the shadows, blocking our path. The white figures were slightly hunched, panting, and baring several rows of razor-sharp teeth.

My heart caught in my throat. They were even more terrifying than I remembered.

Their flat faces peered towards us with starved fascination, and their verdant hair hung long over their sunken-in cheeks and elongated bodies—even their antlers tipped towards us with claiming aim.

But it was their slow blinking gaze that frightened me most, red upon red upon red, their eyes held no white whatsoever.

I had never wanted to be close enough to know such a thing about them.

Rowen said their eyesight wasn’t the strongest during the day, but their carnivorous eyes seemed locked on us now, and thick ropes of drool dripped from their salivating mouths and blood-stained chins. Their claws flexed open, ready to strike and take down their prey.

With piercing shrieks and lethal instinct, the beasts charged toward us. Rowen grabbed my arm and I lurched forward with him as the three of us took off running deeper into the Sillarial Peaks.

I kicked up the ground behind me as I sprinted for my life, driving my feet as hard as they could possibly go. I was faster than Rowen and Takoda, leading the pack, but the laiths were gaining on us, already riding up on our heels.

Their raw-boned bodies were lithe, their strides long, and the gnashing of their teeth grew louder behind me. They would catch us and rip into our flesh if we didn’t do something soon. There was no way we could outrun them.

Takoda turned and released an arrow with a backward glance, and I couldn’t help but follow its trajectory, watching as the arrowhead pierced a laith right through the eye. The gargled screech echoed throughout the forest and sent ice-cold daggers of dread down my spine.

I shot my head forward and kept running, only to see two more laiths charging straight towards us. They’d had us surrounded long ago.

I skidded to a stop and I looked down at the knife in my palm—there was no question I was going to need it. I’d have to thank Rowen later, if we made it out of this alive.

One lunged at me, fangs pointed at my throat, ready to rip and tear and break. I thought I heard someone scream my name as I braced myself, holding the dagger as Dyani taught me.

Suddenly, the laith lurched forward and dropped to the ground as if it were made of sap and bark, not skin and bone. Landing face first in the dirt, the creature lay dead, Rowen’s single-handed ax squarely lodged in its back.

Undeterred by its fallen comrade, another laith launched at me, claws flexed and crimson eyes pulsing with hunger. As it leapt, my body seemed to move on its own accord, and I lunged at its ribcage, thrusting my blade forward as I’d practiced on the training field.

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