Page 76 of Summertime Hexy

---

I am chaos made useful.

I plant my feet—floating or not—andpourmyself into the final glyph.

It accepts me.

The forest explodes in light.

The trees bow.

The wind dies.

And silence slams down like the lid of a coffin.

A heartbeat.

One beat.

Two.

Three.

The circle lowers me gently back to the ground.

I fall to my knees.

Still breathing.

Stillhere.

I look up.

The Grove is changed.

The trees glow faintly in the underlight of dusk. The stones sing a low, soft note. The rift isgone—sealed so cleanly there’s not even a scar in the air.

And in front of me?

Derek.

Eyes wide.

Face unreadable.

I stumble toward him.

He catches me.

And Ibreak.

“I did it,” I sob into his coat.

“You did.”

“I didn’t lose control.”

“No,” he whispers into my hair. “You finallytookit.”

It starts with a breath.

---