Page 93 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
I pulled myself up another inch, and then another, until I was hugging Kieran’s chest.
“Kieran!” My voice was a small shriek lost in the larger, ear-splitting shriek of that dark wind. Behind him, in the distance, that once-turquoise sea was as black as tar. It thrashed violently, like a caged beast readying to escape its captor. “Kieran, please! I don’t know what’s happening, but please follow the sound of my voice and come back to us. Please…”
I was talking to myself, and I knew it. He couldn’t hear me.
I pressed my face into his chest and willed the utter destruction around me to disappear. Even though his skin was chilled, there was also a warmth to it. The same warmth that I felt that morning in my bedroom.
My bedroom.
Where while I was on top of him, I had unknowingly started draining his power.
I knew what I had to do.
Still holding onto Kieran with everything I had, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and cleared my mind of all but one thought.
I imagined Kieran’s magic as a tangible thing, something I could reach out and grab onto. I listened for it and focused my thoughts, my energy, my being on calling out to it.
During this process, I felt an absence, something departed, and I understood that Larimar’s magic, as well as the side effects of using it, were gone. But those last remaining remnants had healed me.
I allowed myself only a moment of gratitude, only a moment to consider what would have become of me if not for them, and then I set those thoughts aside. There would be time to be thankful later. When I could add being thankful thatallof us were saved to the list.
I waited. Visualizing that thing…that tendril of darkness…like ink spilled across a sheet of paper…
There.
I saw it. I was seeing Kieran’s magic.
I followed the same steps I had followed when Larimar lent me their magic. I took another deep breath, steadying myself as much as I could in these circumstances, and then I reached for it. Not with my hand, and not with my mind either. I reached for it in a way that I couldn’t quite explain.
When I connected with it, it felt different from Larimar’s magic. That was to be expected, right? I felt a prickly sensation all over, almost like something was exploring, testing. Deciding.
This wasn’t just different, it was very different. What exactly was happening to me?
I no longer felt Kieran against me.
My eyes flew open, and I was standing on an unfamiliar hill. At night. Alone.
I couldn’t begin to understand what had just happened. Where was I? Was I physically here? Or only mentally? Spiritually?
It was night. True night this time, with a star-filled sky. And I was standing on a hill. A dune. Covered in tall, spiky fans of marram grass.
I half-walked, half-slid down the sand until I reached level ground. All that lay ahead of me was a quiet beach. The ocean was so calm that aside from the gentle shifting of the water right at the edge, lapping at the sand, it resembled a sheet of midnight glass.
Sitting in the sand, out of reach of the water, was a boy. He was facing away from me. But as I approached, I noted that he couldn’t have been more than seven years old. He sat with his legs pulled into him. His dark hair was short, but shaggy. A few tufts hung in his eyes.
His gray eyes, tinged in ethereal silver.
“Kieran?”
The boy wouldn’t look at me. But he said, “What?” in a small voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar.
“Do you mind if I sit down?”
“It’s not my beach. Do what you want.”
I sat down beside him and pulled my legs into my chest, mirroring him. My eyes drifted over his face. The little nose. Cheeks that had a slight pudginess to them. A jaw that was still softened by youth. My heart swelled.
We sat in silence for a while. He refused to so much as glance in my direction.
