Never, Kalinda promised.
She held on tighter, pulling for her magic, infusing it with green for healing. The ground wasn’t as hard under her knees anymore, and sweet air buffeted her face. Kalinda didn’t pay attention to any of it. Everything in her was focused on the light between her palms. She sent all the love and care she could, wrapping herself, Silva’s body, and the pink light into the color of green.
The ancient flames inside Kalinda pushed out from her body, whipping around her and blowing her hair free of the tight bun she had during practice. Her dark strands flared in the maelstrom, power prisming out in a rainbow dance of colors.
I’m a lightshow, Silva. Come see.
Slowly, painstakingly so, each threat wrapped around the light where it fell and twisted around Kalinda’s fingers before burning away to ash. With each one removed, Silva’s light grew. Larger and larger, heavier and heavier. And with the growth came such overwhelming magic, Kalinda could barely hold on.
Freezing ice. That’s what Silva’s light became—so cold it burned. She was Kalinda’s opposite; hard where Kalinda was soft. Ruthless where Kalinda was kind. It almost felt nothing like the woman she’d known, and yet there was laughter there too. Freedom contained under rules and rites she couldn’t fight.
She felt like she was seeing Silva for the first time.
When the light grew too heavy, Kalinda forced it back into Silva’s form, into the bloody cavity left by the bullet’s vicious trajectory.
“Come on, Silva.”
Silver dust exploded, blinding Kalinda for a moment before a very different Silva was in her arms. Kalinda blinked, sure she was imagining things.
“Silva?”
“Dude, I think I rock. Like … even more than I did before. Oh, and nice aerodynamics.”
What?
Silva smiled and pointed down. Okay, so that was a very unladylike scream that came out of Kalinda’s mouth when she realized they were hovering in the air—way up in the air. Skyscraper fucking high.
“What the hell?”
“Shhhh. It’s okay. You brought me up here, and now I won’t let you fall. See?”
Yeah, she saw her potential death. Not cool.
“Look, Kalinda.”
Kalinda forced her gaze to her friend, who now sported a gorgeous set of black and silver wings like a butterfly. They were much larger, though, and bent at an odd angle when she flapped them so they appeared to almost be treading the air like water. Kalinda hugged her friend close.
“You scared the hell out of me” she forced out through her tears.
“Are you crying?”
“Only a little.”
Delicate fingers pushed into Kalinda’s hair, softly untangling knots as they went. “You saved my life, Kalinda. It’s my job as your cosantiór, Princess.”
“What does that mean, the word you just said? And did you call me a princess?”
“Your guard or protector, and yes, I did.”
Kalinda pulled back and looked at Silva. “Where did that come from? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Oh, Kalinda, I remember everything. And we’re so about to piss off the Trinity.”
Chapter Fourteen
“You were all mad like whoa, and then got on Giuliana like death to Sunday. Oh, and then you flew. You freaking flew, Kalinda, way up in the air.”
Kalinda had to laugh as Zoey described what had happened. Not that it made a whole bunch of sense, but since Kalinda had been there, she figured out the particulars. Silva still sat beside her, her wings tucked away now. Silva said most of her kind could hide their wings in slits in their back when they needed to. It itched like hell, but they grew up practicing it, so they could take it. Oh, and she wasn’t actually called Silva. Her name was Niamh Danaan of the Silver. “Silva” was the only thing she’d known when she woken up after being bound.
