Page 79 of Skyshade
Quickly, she got dressed and slipped the second ring on her finger. Without Wraith they couldn’t fly, so Grim portaled them to a location just outside one of the rural villages. Some of his people lived far from the tunnel system, so he would bring them to safety himself.
Rain had just started to fall; it was cold on the crown of her head. A flash of lightning soon joined it.
The clouds above began circling ominously.
Villagers rushed out of their houses at the sight of their ruler. He portaled them all to the castle. Isla took more, using her starstick. After everyone was evacuated, they went to another town.
Bells were still ringing faintly from other villages. Warnings of what was about to come. Villagers began pouring out of their houses again, possessions pressed to their chests. But, before Isla and Grim were past the wall surrounding the cluster of houses, the first tornado touched down.
Then another.
Another.
Grim’s power shot out. He portaled a few screaming people away, as the tornado barreled right toward them. Then his own abilities faltered.
Just like the last one, this tempest was full of tiny pieces of shade-made metal, swirling everywhere, stabbing into surrounding trees and grazing her skin, nullifying power.
“Hearteater, get down,” Grim said, before pulling her behind the stone wall. The storm roared behind them, sending trees and bricksflying. She reached for her power, but it had dimmed. Gone, as though she were wearing her bracelets.
There were screams.
There was nothing she could do.
This—this was why they needed to close the portal. She held the ring tightly, waiting for it to tremble in her hand, to heat—but nothing. She was too far away.
Isla made to stand, and Grim pulled her back down. “You’ll get yourself killed,” he said over the roaring; but he meant all of them.
He was right. She closed her eyes tightly, wind bellowing around them, the ground peeling away in coils, dirt smattering against her every inch, metal cutting through her clothes, and knew that getting close enough again would be almost impossible.
It seemed like hours before everything went still again. Grim stood first, then helped her up.
She choked back a sob.
Destruction. Death. Bodies...
It was just the beginning.
For a week, there was a new storm every day. The season had started in earnest. Each time, Isla attempted to capture part of it; but she never got close to a tornado again. Most of the tempests raged far above—and with Wraith still injured, she couldn’t go that high. Her Skyling ability wouldn’t work, thanks to the metal.
Every death—every quiet morning after, watching the aftermath, seeing the ruin—made her remember.
Ashes. Bodies. Destruction.
There was less than a month left of winter when she finally took the feather between her fingers again.
And wrote, Teach me.
SKYRES
Skyres draw power from blood.
That was what Aurora said.
They can only be formed with shademade metal.
She had been practicing the symbol for days, on parchment. Aurora knew one, she said. One to funnel power. To control it.
It was exactly what she needed. A replacement for the bracelets. A safeguard in case her visits to the island to unleash her power weren’t enough.
