Page 110 of Heart of Night and Fire

Her head throbbed, so she tried to stop thinking. Tried to just rest and wait for death to come. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw it—that river of blackness sprinkled with stars. Like she truly held the sky in her hands.

The star anchor in her heart flickered to life, spinning as it sent warmth into her limbs.

At that moment, no one was there to see Zarya. She was surrounded by a haze of dust, lost amongst the rubble, and even if someone were coming, it might be hours before they found her.

If anyone had been there to see her, they might have seen the way her mouth opened in a small gasp.

Because her five-pointed anchor had changed.

That warm and welcoming presence continued to spin in her heart, but now… it had six points. She stared in her mind’s eye, hardly daring to comprehend what she was seeing.

The star glowed and spun faster like it was showing off. Telling her to look at what it had accomplished.

Fire. Air. Water. Earth. Spirit.

Darkness.

Zarya’s breath twisted in her lungs as she choked on the tears running down her cheeks.

Darkness.

She tested it, feeling its texture and shape.

It was weighty and solid with presence. If the air was light and the water was cool, then the darkness was a forbidden smoky swirl, curling around the pillars of an abandoned civilization.

She continued crying, still coughing on the dust burrowing in her lungs, not understanding what to do with this knowledge.

The darkness.

She recalled the ominous words in Dhawan’s book. The lost piece of the Aazheri. The brothers who’d lost control and needed to be tamed.

It had nearly been the end of everything.

And now it lived in her.

After a lifetime of loneliness, Zarya had suddenly never felt so alone in her life.

Her vision swirled, the ground underneath her spinning, before everything went black.

THIRTY-NINE

When Zarya awoke, the sky was just beginning to lighten, the haze of dust finally settling. She waited, surprised to see she was still alive. She shifted slightly, and every muscle and tendon in her body wrenched in agony. The wounds on her back and her stomach and her legs and every last inch of her burning skin were hot and tight.

Fuck.

Now she wished she had died.

She lay on the ground for another few minutes, summoning the energy to stand. Somehow, she’d survived the night, and Zarya wasn’t a quitter.

Sucking in a deep breath, she maneuvered her arms under her and heaved herself up, pushing back to settle on her heels. The movement shot pain through her back, where the worst of her injuries seemed to be concentrated. She took several more deep breaths, trying to put last night’s events into order. And that’s when she remembered.

She searched inside herself, looking for her anchor star, hoping that she’d just been mistaken. That, in her nearly dead state, she’d imagined it.

Her star flared to life, springing open like a flower welcoming the sun.

Six petals. Six anchors.

There it sat, slightly dimmer than the others. Less like the sparkle of stars and more like the glow of twilight over an inky pond. She shook her head, wishing she understood this. Wishing she had someone she could talk to. But it was all clear now.