A spark.
A warmth where there should’ve been none, and it spread in my chest. Slow at first. Gentle. Like the soft light of dawn. Then hotter, forcing its way through my arms, into my hands.
My handsburned.
I looked down.
Light.
Golden. Alive. Moving like water under my skin. It shimmered across my fingers and pooled in my palms, glowing brighter with every beat of my heart. It felt like something ancient was being pulledthrough me, spilling into him. A thread of life, stitching him back together.
Will twitched, shuddered, and his chest heaved beneath my hands before he finally coughed. A ragged breath tore through his throat and his eyes flew open. Water clung to his lashes as his mouth opened, coughing and choking, but breathing.
He wasbreathing.
I sobbed, my whole body shaking as tears poured faster than I could stop them. Will was alive.
Then everything spun. The light faded from my hands and the cold rushed back in. I slumped to the side, dizzy and trembling, but Licia caught me before I hit the ice.
“I’ve got you,” she breathed.
I could barely hold my head up as my vision blurred at the edges.
“What... what was that?” she asked, her eyes wide.
I blinked, trying to form words, but all I could do was cry.
“I don’t know,” I said between sobs. “I don’t know.”
My head tipped again. Licia steadied me, holding me gently but firmly in her arms. Then we heard footsteps, fast, crunching through the snow. Licia’s eyes darted toward the sound, then back to me.
“Don’t tell them,” she whispered, her voice suddenly urgent. “Don’t ever tell anyone about that. You don’t know what they’ll do.”
I nodded weakly as the noise of the world closed in, my teeth chattering so violently I thought they might crack. Then came the arms around me, scratchy wool against my cheek and the scent of pine in the air.
“Come on now, girl. Stay awake,” the voice of a woman said. She took me into her arms. “You shouldn’t have been out here. The ice isn’t thick enough yet. Don’t you kids know what cold can do? Idiots, the lot of you.”
I couldn’t speak. My breaths came short and fast, and somewhere behind us, Will was being carried too, wrapped in blankets. Pale and still, but breathing.
The woman moved fast through the snow as she muttered to herself. I couldn’t keep up with the words. The woman put us by the hearth in a fishing cottage. I couldn’t focus on anything but Will’s chest rising and falling. As long as it moved, I didn’t care about anything else.
Then my brother arrived. I didn’t know how much time had passed or how quickly the news had reached him. Licia’s father had already come for her, so it was just me, the boys, and the kind woman. Einar’s jaw was tight, his eyes sharp.
“We’re leaving,” he murmured, already pulling off his coat to wrap around me.
“Ican’tleave him,” I protested.
“I’ll stay,” Aran said quietly. “I won’t move until his parents come. I swear it.”
Will’s eyes fluttered open just enough to find me. “It’s okay,” he croaked. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“He needs to stay in the warm a bit longer, anyways,” the woman said from her seat by the hearth, heating soup for Will.
I looked between them—Aran, hunched over Will like a guard dog, and Einar, waiting at the door.
I didn’t move.
“Kera.” Einar’s voice was sharper that time, leaving no room to argue. Then the door shut behind me and the warmth was gone. The cold slammed into me as snow swirled thick in the air.
