Page 79 of The Fifth Heir

“Each other.”

I went back.

The second brazier died when I pulled my power from it. The bridge remained intact, supported now by the Frost Talia had directed beneath it.

At the first, I placed both hands around the flame and drew it inward.

Fire absorbed into my palms.

The brazier went dark.

The wall at the beginning of my path opened.

The center chamber waited beyond it.

Talia knelt inside the clear rune with one hand pressed to the Fire channel and the other stretched toward Storm. Wind tore through the room, pulling loose strands of hair from her braid and whipping them across her face.

She looked too small at the center of four competing powers, her injured shoulder held rigid while the channels pulled at her from every direction.

She also appeared to be the only person in the mountain who understood any of them.

I crossed the threshold.

Her head snapped toward me. “You’re back.”

“You told me to come back.”

“I wasn’t certain the path would release you.”

“You could have mentioned that.”

“You might not have listened.”

“I listened when you told me Rafe was in danger.”

The wind intensified.

Talia’s body slid several inches across the floor.

I caught her around the waist and pulled her away from the Storm channel. Her back struck my chest, fitting against me with a force that drove the air from her lungs. She grabbed my forearm to steady herself, her fingers warm against my skin.

The instinct to pull her farther from every channel hit hard enough to feel like another command.

“Rafe is reversing the fourth vane,” she said. “I have to maintain the connection.”

“You can do that without sitting inside a wind current.”

“I lose the view if I move too far.”

I lowered myself behind her, bracing one boot against the raised edge of the clear rune. My legs formed a barrier on either side of hers, and I kept one arm locked around her waist.

“Try now.”

She pressed her hand to Storm.

The force returned immediately, but it pushed both of us only a few inches before my boot caught against the stone.

Rafe appeared inside the silver channel.