Page 137 of Song of the Heart Scale
Waist-deep now, the rain mixed with river spray and the world around us became nothing but gray haze and rushing sound.
“Damien!” I shouted when my foot slipped on the slick riverbed.
He caught me immediately, wrapping his thick arms around my waist. “I’ve got you!”
I looked up at him, shivering, drenched, but alive. My heart ached with how much I loved him.
And then I felt it.
A pull—not physical or magical.Celestial.
The water shimmered around us in a widening ring of light. Beneath the surface, something began to glow and pulse with a soft golden hue. The portal.
Damien looked down, his eyes wide. “It’s opening!”
The glow spread, encircling our legs before rising up our bodies like we were being consumed by starlight. My breath hitched as warmth shot through my chest, through the twin flame mark on my forearm.
“This is it,” I whispered.
The storm around us seemed to still. For one breathless moment, the thunder faded, the rain slowed, and the river cradled us like a womb.
And then the world tipped.
We were yanked downward—not drowning, buttraveling. Through light. Through time. Through worlds.
My body went weightless, but my hand stayed locked in Damien’s.
And then we were falling—fallingup—out of the water and onto solid, wet pavement.
I gasped and coughed violently as air rushed back into my lungs. Damien rolled beside me, groaning.
I blinked through the pouring rain.
Streetlights.
Billboards.
The metallic tang of car exhaust.
Car horns honking in the distance.
Los Angeles.
We lay on the ground in the middle of a raging storm, surrounded by the slick asphalt of some forgotten backroad behind the hills. No… this was the road that wound near the lake where I performed the stunt that took me to Elaria. The once wide, churning River Elara had become a narrow, glimmering stream behind us on this side of Earth.
Damien pushed himself up with wide eyes as he stared at the concrete jungle beyond. “By the Immortals!” he muttered.
I nodded, tears mixing with the rain on my face. “Welcome to my world,” I whispered.
He reached over and brushed a hand along my cheek. “Then let’s make itourworld.”
And for the first time in a long time, I believed we actually could.
27
ARYA
It was Saturday night and I was doing something I never thought I’d be doing in a realm without proper nobility, moonstone goblets, or magical duels.
