Owen moved up one more rung, standing precariously at the top of the ladder and leaned over as far as he dared.I held my breath.The last thing I wanted to see was Owen toppling off.
“Got it!”His hand wrapped around the disk as he pulled it from the wall with a swift jerk.
But that nearly cost him.He almost lost his balance and fell backward.He grabbed the top of the ladder with his free hand and waited until he got his bearings before he moved again.Then he climbed down with the talisman in one hand.At the bottom rung, he leapt off and turned to me.
“Let’s go.”
He tried to breeze by his father, but Dougal caught his arm and pulled him to a stop.
“I can’t let you take it.”His face was hard, his voice stern.He meant it.
Owen’s jaw tightened.“Dad, we need it.”
“Why?”Dougal’s gaze shifted between us, hard and searching.
“Because something is using the crossing,” Owen said.“And it followed her home.”
Dougal’s eyes snapped to me.“What followed you?”
I swallowed, my voice quieter than I meant it to be.“A pressure.A shimmer on the road.It tracked us from my house.”
“Whatever’s on the other side that’s been listening,” Owen added, voice grim.
Dougal’s grip tightened on Owen’s arm.“That thing is dangerous, son.Whoever wants it—whatever wants it—knows it.”
“I know,” Owen said.“But if we don’t use it, the crossing won’t hold.”
I looked between them, heart hammering.I didn’t know what the Sun Disk did.Didn’t understand how a talisman mounted on a wall could help seal a portal that was bleeding darkness into the woods.
But Owen did.And I trusted him.
Dougal studied his son for a long moment, jaw working.Then his gaze shifted to me—assessing, measuring.
“You understand what this means?”he asked me quietly.“Once it’s drawn to you, there’s no going back.”
I didn’t understand.Not fully.But I nodded anyway.
“I understand.”
That seemed to stop Owen in his tracks.He angled his body so he could see his father and me.He glanced between the two of us and I sensed it then.
His hesitation.
He wanted to do what his father wanted.
But he wanted to help me, too.
“There isn’t another choice,” Owen said finally, voice quiet but firm.“I’m sorry, Dad.”
Owen handed off the disk to me.
The moment my fingers closed around the gold, the feeling shot through my arm to my shoulder.I sucked in a sharp breath and staggered back a step.
Like something inside me clicked into place.
A dizziness swept through me so quick and so fast my vision dotted with black.
“Piper?”Owen was there in a second, his hand on my back as he reached for the talisman.
