Page 54 of Blood Currents
For a heartbeat, no one moved.Then Keane’s fingers found mine, solid and sure.Cyrus took my other hand, his touch warm but careful.Elio completed the circle, his connection to Cyrus and Keane professional and distant.
The moment our circle closed, I felt their magic rush toward mine—and stop.
Not the easy harmony we’d found before.This was hesitant, guarded.Cyrus’s fire wanted to reach for my necromancy but held back.Elio’s illusions flickered with uncertainty.Even Keane’s steady portal magic wavered slightly.
We were trying too hard to control ourselves.To keep our magic as careful and distant as our hearts had become.
“It’s not working,” Elio said, frustration bleeding through his composure.
“Because we’re fighting it,” I realized.“We’re so busy protecting ourselves from each other that we can’t let our magic connect.”
“So what do we do?”Cyrus asked.
I looked around our circle—at Keane, who’d trusted me with his healing; at Cyrus, who’d kissed me like his world was ending; at Elio, who’d shown me pieces of himself he’d never let anyone see.Whatever was broken between us personally, whatever we couldn’t figure out how to say to each other—that was our problem.
But our magic knew better.
“Stop thinking,” I said.“Stop trying to control what you’re feeling.Just… let it be what it is.”
I closed my eyes and let my defenses drop.Let myself feel everything—the hurt from Elio’s distance, the confusion about Cyrus, the gratitude for Keane’s steadiness, the love I couldn’t untangle even when I wanted to.
Around me, I felt them do the same.Cyrus’s fire bloomed warmer, reaching for my necromancy with the same desperate intensity he’d kissed me with.Elio’s illusions softened, becoming beautiful instead of controlled and showing me glimpses of the vulnerability he kept hidden.Keane’s portal magic flowed through it all like silver thread, connecting our separate powers into something whole.
My death magic—usually so cold and separate—warmed in response to their heat, becoming something that felt more like transformation than ending.
“I can feel it,” Elio breathed, wonder replacing his careful distance.
The air in the center of our circle began to shimmer—not with heat or light but with possibility.Reality was becoming negotiable under the pressure of our combined will.
“Focus on what we need,” I said.“The silver bell.The path to Levon.”
Keane’s portals pulsed brighter, creating gateways that reached into spaces that shouldn’t exist.“Something’s there, just beyond the veil.”
The shimmer intensified, and suddenly I could hear it—a sound like crystal singing, like starlight given voice.The silver bell was answering our call.
It materialized slowly, as if testing whether our will was strong enough.Silver metal that seemed to contain its own light, etched with symbols that hurt to look at directly but somehow made perfect sense.It hung in the air between us, beautiful and impossible.
“Now we ring it,” Cyrus said, his voice tight with concentration.
“Together,” I said, understanding flooding through me.“We don’t touch it.We make it ring through our magic.”
We reached out as one—not with our hands but with our combined power.The moment our magic touched the bell, it began to toll.
Each note opened doorways in my mind, showing me glimpses of what was and wasn’t, could be and had been.I saw the peace treaty signed in this clearing.I saw my father gathering evidence.I saw Levon, ancient and tired, guarding truths that could reshape the world.
And with each toll, reality shifted around us.
A gateway opened, and through it I could see an impossible library.There, sitting at a desk and looking like he’d been waiting for us, was Levon.
“He’s there,” I breathed.“It worked.”
“The passage won’t stay open long,” Mr.Walton warned.
“I can hold it,” Keane said, though I could see the effort it was costing him.“But not indefinitely.”
“Then we go now,” Elio said.“All of us.”
I looked around our circle one more time.Whatever was complicated between us could wait.Right now, we had work to do.
