Page 119 of Rising Out of the Darkness
“Freckles?”
“Guilty.” I shrugged.
“Lena? For gods’ sake, you scared the life out of me!” An extremely out-of-breath and slightly disheveled Clara emerged from behind Killian. Killian’s tunic was missing three top buttons, and his hair was ruffled like he had just woken up.
Killian folded his arms over his chest. “What are you doing out here, Lena? Eloise told me you had gone to bed hours ago.”
I raised my chin to match his glare. “What exactly were you two doing out here?”
Killian’s shoulders fell as Clara ran her fingers through her ravished hair. “We, uhh…we were just… umm.”
Unable to suppress the mirth, I watched as Killian stumbled over his words. Eventually, he gave up, running a palm over his flustered face.
“Can you blame me?” He tossed his head towards Clara, whose cheeks flushed.
No, I couldn’t blame Killian at all. If Declan were here, I could only imagine what I would be doing right now. The thought instantly heated my cold cheeks, until I remembered why I had rushed up those stairs in the first place.
My palm crashed against my forehead. “Hells, I almost forgot why I was in such a hurry.”
Fishing the papers from underneath my tunic, I shoved them towards Clara and Killian. “Our dynamis is being suppressed,but someone else has figured out how to fix it,” I whispered. “They used blood magic.”
Clara’s breath hitched, and Killian rubbed his chin as he thought. We made our way over to the small stone bench, now overflowing with three of us. Clara’s eyes wandered over the pages of elixir recipes, and she paused now and then to raise a hand over her mouth. Killian riffled through the letters. With each one, the crease between his brows grew deeper.
Silence lingered. Every so often, Clara and Killian would cast silent looks towards each other, and they would switch papers and continue reading. My hands fidgeted within my lap as I chewed at my already bloody bottom lip. Just when I thought I was about to scream to erase the silence, Killian rose from the bench.
“What is it?” I whispered.
“Where did you find this, Lena?”
“Over there.” I pointed at the trapdoor I had discovered earlier.
“Cover it back up, now.” The urgency in his tone startled me. “Make sure it looks like it was before. It’s important that no one knows that this exists. Understand?”
Swallowing down my fear, I nodded.
“Good. I need to inform Declan. He’ll want to know about this immediately.”
Flustered, I went back to the trapdoor. Clara followed behind. Scooping soil back around the door, I realized there was no way that we could make it look like it had before.
That was until I remembered my dynamis lesson from earlier with Nayla. I reached for that same emotion I had used before to grow life over the door beneath my fingertips. Just like before, I felt the warmth of my dynamis ripple against my skin and flow through my fingertips into the soil beneath.
“Gods, Lena…you’re glowing,” Clara breathed.
Opening my eyes, I saw the moss beginning to take root over the door. Moving slowly, I let my dynamis flow until I was confident there was no longer a trace of the door to be seen. I even let it flow over the metal latch, just in case. Before I pulled away, roots began to take shape on top of the door. Twisting and turning, they formed into branches as thick green leaves sprouted on top.
I had to blink to make sure I wasn’t dreaming when pale pink peonies began to bloom over the newly created bush. Earlier I’d been able to create a single flower. Tonight, I’d created a whole damn bush. Still in shock, I fell back onto my heels, raising my trembling hands in front of me in awe.
“Lena”—Clara gulped— “I’ve never seen a Terran do that before.”
“Me either.” Killian gawked from behind us both.
“Nobody else’s entire body glows while they work?” I scoffed, trying to make light of the situation.
“No one else has ever created life, made something grow anew like that, Lena,” Killian whispered.
Panic began to flood through me, and I felt my dynamis prickle against my arms. Something about the way everyone had reacted to my Terran dynamis made a million thoughts rush through my head, none of them good.
My chest constricted as I struggled to pull myself out of my downward spiral. A warm palm landed on my back, rubbing circles. Another fell on my shoulder. Warmth began to spread throughout my body as Clara worked her healing magic in more ways than one.
