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“I don’t know what you just did,” Ren said. “I’d never seen anything like it. Thank you.”
He called for a servant, and when one appeared, he sent for Ellie.
“We should go,” Nylah said. “Leave them alone together.”
She wouldn’t look at me now that it was all over. For a moment, we’d been perfectly in sync, but now she shut down on me again, pushing me further and further away.
I reached for her, aching to touch her. I didn’t know if she meant it, or if it was coincidence, but she took a step back, beyond my grasp.
I dropped my hand by my side, feeling her absence acutely. The magic had drawn us closer. I’d felt as if we’d been connected somehow, although we hadn’t touched at all.
Now, in the wake of it, I wanted to touch her, to draw her closer. I wanted to breathe her in. The intensity of my need to be close to her pulled me up short.
I opened my mouth to speak, but what would I say?
I turned to go in my own direction.
At least Deron was safe now. That was what mattered.
We were mere servants to the throne—Nylah and I. That was bigger than either of us. Or the two of us together, apparently.
3
NYLAH
Iunwrapped the leather bindings that held the scroll and dropped it next to me on the couch. Carefully, I unfurled the old brittle paper. The ink that had been written centuries ago by hands of old was faded on the yellowed paper and written in an ancient tongue called Erili. It had been a tongue studied and used by priestesses a long, long time ago.
The language was dead now. No one spoke it anymore—not since the humans had become beings without power. The priestesses learned the language to decipher scrolls that had been passed down from generation to generation.
The scrolls and tomes I had in my bedroom had all been given to me by my mother before she’d passed away.
It had been centuries since I’d lost her. I’d learned to live with the loss, but days like today, when nothing made sense, I wished she was still here to tell me what to do.
What was going on? I’d felt something when Dex and I had been with Deron together—our power had done something it had never done before. That wasn’t possible, was it? How could we never have felt this in the five hundred years we’d known each other?
Afterward, the pull between us had been incredible. It had taken everything in me to step away from Dex, rather than to fall into his arms. It was a strange sensation, barely holding onto my control. It was almost like we’d already…
No. I refused to believe it had something to do with us being fated mates. I wasn’t going to allow that to happen, not if I knew I would lose him. Terra was doing something to me, and I didn’t know what it was. I wasn’t interested in whatever she had lined up for me.
I just had to stay away from Dex as much as possible, and nothing between us could happen. It was simple.
Except…it wasn’t. How could I push away someone I’d been close to for so long? He deserved an explanation, at the very least.
I didn’t know how I would explain any of it to him. I barely understood it myself. Yesterday, when our power had come together like that, it had been something I’d never heard of or seen before. It hadn’t been anywhere in any of my teachings. I was in uncharted territory. I wasn’t in complete control.
That made me nervous. It was easier to back away than to face it. After years and years of learning everything there was to know from scrolls and tomes, the unknown wasn’t my specialty.
I wasn’t going to seek Terra out and ask her, either. If she even wanted to talk to me. Usually, I spent this time of day reaching for Terra, opening myself up to whatever she might want to show me, however she might want to use me. It was during times like this that I’d found answers about Ellie and where she’d come from, answers about the war, about Vanya and Hazel and their ability to heal the Conjurites.
Today, I wasn’t interested in talking to Terra. Two could play at the silent treatment.
I forced myself to focus on the ancient scroll, deciphering the words as I read.
This scroll talked about humans. I mouthed the words, reaching into the crevices of my mind for the language I’d learned so long ago as I translated the page for myself.
Ages have passed since the Goddess, Terra, came to the earth, and she found there two species of beings who lived in harmony with each other. She saw their hearts, and she saw that they were good. She took pleasure in being around them and decided to bless them with magic that would make their lives easier—the magic of growth, the power of healing, the ability to ease burdens, and the strength to forgive those who chose the wrong path.
I looked toward the window in thought. The rain had started to fall last night and came down in a relentless sheet that pattered against the windows, driving away any semblance of warmth that might have tried to regain footing yesterday.
