Page 78 of Synodic

Pride aside, I needed to see what was in that crevice, it might hold the answer to tapping into my full potential. But I had no idea if the icy tug calling to me was dangerous or not. I didn’t want Rowen getting hurt again on my account.

Trying to get one up on him, I asked, “What about your injury?”

“Takoda gave me a clean bill of health, thanks to your excellent mending.” He did look alert if not a little tired, but overall healthy and clean in a new loose shirt and trousers. His roguish beauty was faintly lit by the glow of distant luminorbs, and though I missed his beard, he was still the most mesmerizing human I had ever seen. “In a few days the moss will have fully dissolved, and the scars shouldn’t be too bad.”

“What about your rest and recovery? You look exhausted,” I said, grasping at straws.

“What about you having no idea where you’re going?”

Checkmate.

“Alright, you win.” I walked off without allowing him to gloat, then stopped in my tracks, realizing he hadn’t moved. Rolling my eyes, I exaggeratedly swept my arm in front of me, “After you,” I said, because he was right. It was too dark to find the crevice on my own.

He chuckled again with dark satisfaction and sauntered ahead of me. “It’s actually this way,” he said, uncovering a small luminorb to light our path.

Ass.

Walking alongside one another, we wended between the sentineled trees, their silhouettes dark and jagged against the canvas of night. The sky was crisp and clear due to last night’s rainfall, accentuating every twinkling star, comet, and spiraling galaxy across the blue-black velvet of space. By all accounts, it was a perfect night, but as we ventured further into the woods and the lightning-shaped crack loomed up ahead, my skin prickled. It almost hurt how on-end my hairs stood.

Did I still want to do this?

The feeling of pain and anguish brushed along my senses and curved around my body. It was too late to turn back now, and nothing deserved to feel such emptiness.

“Wait here,” I said to Rowen.

“Absolutely not.”

“Whatever is in there, I don’t think it will show itself to me if you come. I’ll call you if I need you. I promise.”

His smooth jaw set. “No.”

“Have I not proven I can handle myself?” I asked, gesturing to his moss-healed side.

Rowen sighed none too happily and handed me the luminorb. “I’ll be right here.”

I nodded once and turned back to the serration in the mountainside.

The forced perspective from where we stood made the split seem like a narrow fissure, but the closer I walked towards it, the wider the chasm grew. The cool breath of the crevice pulled me along by a million invisible strings as it opened just for me.

28

I lifted the orb as I walked through the passageway, zigzagging my way forward. The cold feeling intensified with every step, sucking all the warmth and light out of my pores.

Just when I didn’t want to take another step, a small den was revealed by the light at my hand. At first glance, it appeared empty, but a bone-chilling moan echoed through the opening. It froze the base of my spine, and I knew I wasn’t alone.

I raised the orb higher, squinting to get a better view of what could make such a noise, when I saw the hunched-over figure of a man.

He was dressed in tatters of what appeared to have once been fine clothing. His face was slightly turned from me, revealing only his profile.

He was stooped over, pronouncing the skeletal ridge of his spine. And through the thin fabric hanging from his gaunt form, his sharp shoulder blades jutted out like folded bat wings.

“It’s raining,” he said in a voice with absolutely no emotion or inflection.

It stopped my blood cold.

He must be confused, it had rained yesterday, but today there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I strained my ears, waiting to hear something beyond the lightning split. Maybe it had started raining again. But there was nothing, just a hollow silence deafening in its emptiness.

“What…what happened to you?” I asked, trying to hide the terror in my shaky voice.

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