Page 153 of Storm Caller

Another cloudburst erupts across the sky, and I sense the roiling of the storm. The way its power doesn’t just belong to the sky but is fundamentally tied to who I am.

I understand now that it feels me, just like I’ve felt it for so many years.

We’re symbiotic. We need each other.

Maybe being a Caller isn’t about using it but rather feeling it.

Allowing it to become a part of me.

I stretch my arms out as it flows through me, my feet grounding me to the earth.

And then someone takes my hand.

I jump and then spin around as my heart stops.

“Rook?” I ask, hardly daring to believe that he’s real.

“Poe,” he whispers, and then I throw myself at him.

He wraps me in his arms and squeezes me tight.

“You’re here,” I whisper over and over, running my hands over his shoulders and jaw and arms. “You’re here.”

“I got your messages,” he says. “All of them. I’m sorry I couldn’t reply.”

“I just hoped you were reading them.”

He’s kissing my nose and my cheeks, my forehead, his hands cupped around my face. I close my eyes, trying to commit everything about this moment to my memory forever.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he says. “I can’t stand being separated.”

“I thought you left,” I say. “I thought you’d gone home.”

“And leave you here?” he asks, tucking back a lock of my hair. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you don’t belong here,” I say. “Why would you stay when they’re lying about you and hunting you down?”

His expression softens, and I’m tempted to ask him to stay long enough for me to count every freckle dusting his nose and cheeks, just so I can be here with him forever.

“Poet, I would never leave you,” he says, his voice turning rough. “You are where I belong. You are where I will always belong.”

My heart squeezes inside my chest.

“You’d be safer if you left,” I say. “But the very thought . . . Skies, I thought I might never see you again. Where have you been?”

“I got to know the tunnels well when I was searching for answers last year. There are a hundred places to lose yourself underground.”

I clutch him by the shoulders. “So much has happened, and I had to tell you. I’m sorry. This was risky.”

I can’t seem to catch my breath as Rook takes my hand and draws me down onto the rocks. The storm is still tumbling, more bursts exploding in the distance.

“Slow down,” he says. “Start from the beginning.”

We face each other with our legs crossed and our knees touching. I tell him everything we learned from Dr. Mowry and how Edward is working to access the research files.

Rook nods as I’m speaking. “And what else?”

“I spoke to your father,” I say. “I’ve been staying with Domino, but I needed to feel closer to you, so a few nights ago, I slept in your bed. Your phone rang, and it was your dad . . .” Tears fill my eyes as I take Rook’s hand. “They attacked a Whisper Sanctum. Your brother . . .”