He set his next to hers. Only an inch between them.
“Ready,” he echoed.
Cautiously, Domenic reached into the tree with his magic. The moment he connected, like a match dropped in kerosene, aflash detonated behind his eyelids. His power exploded, spearing automatically out from him like lightning pulled to the earth. It splintered across countless paths of roots, miles and miles of them. Until he couldfeelthe entire land awaken from a silent slumber, sizzling with energy.
No, not the entire land. In the far reaches of the North, his connection cut out—the border of the fallen territory.
But Domenic didn’t have the chance to dwell on that disturbing notion, as suddenly, he sensed Ellery’s magic. Not simply within the roots, but beside him where he stood, startlingly, exhilaratingly cold. And even as he touched the bark, he swore her palm lay against his own. As if reality had severed any distance between them. As if in connecting to the network, so, too, had their magics connected to each other.
They wrenched back from the tree, each leaving behind a handprint: one silver, one gold.
Domenic’s awareness of the roots faded away. But even as both he and Ellery bent over, panting from exertion, he felt each shudder of her breath like a breeze against his neck.
“You feel it, too,” Ellery whispered, somewhere between a statement and a question.
“I sure do.”
They straightened and stared at each other: Ellery seemingly with bewilderment, Domenic with alarm. He staggered back, but two steps, four—it made no difference. He wondered with mortification if she could somehow sense the yearning that scorched within his stomach, if her every sense was as attuned to him as his felt to her.
As if he hadn’t already felt that way about Ellery Caldwell. As if he didn’t automatically angle his body toward her or keep constant measure of the distance between them or think of her beside him when she wasn’t.
This is it,he thought direly.Not a scurge. Not a ghast. This will be what kills me.
All around them, the trees swayed, a melody of rustles and scratches and creaks. And in it, Domenic heard words.
when the darkness descends to its deepest,
a hero’s flame illumes the cast of night
“We did it,” Domenic gasped.
“I know Mayes—Hanna—called it fortifying,” Ellery gushed, “but it felt more like… awakening. Like beneath the country, there’s an ancient livingthing. And our magic revived it. It’s so much stronger. It’s… What? Why are you laughing to yourself?”
“I heard the next prophecy piece.”
She hitched her breath, and even with four feet between them, the graze of it made goose bumps prickle down his spine.
Another laugh escaped him, a little unnerved, a little thrilled.
Ellery pressed her hand against her check. She’d felt his breath, too.
Simultaneously, they smiled.
XXELLERY
WINTER
Ellery sat on her hotel bed, restless. After a long afternoon debating what the newest prophecy piece might mean, they’d come to a consensus: “darkness descends to its deepest” and “flames” had to refer to the Aldrish solstice ceremony, when the country lit candles to brighten the longest night of the year.
The solstice was two-and-a-half weeks away—a long wait after their breakneck last few days. But with potentially only two to four pieces remaining, Ellery had assured herself it was a wait they could afford.
However, the prophecy wasn’t the only reason she felt restless.
She drew Iskarius and cradled it in her lap. Despite the hours since she and Domenic had fortified the alban network, so long as she held the wand, the connection between them remained as steady as ever. Heat gusted behind her shoulder in what she now knew was the rhythm of his breaths.
The hotel phone rang shrilly.
“Hello?” she answered.
