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This time, Teryn didn’t need all night to make progress. The first hour he lay in the space of his body, he managed to flinch every one of his fingers on both hands. The second hour, he moved his left leg. That had woken Morkai up enough that he’d rolled over and shifted Teryn’s body on its side, but Teryn wasn’t daunted. Instead, he adjusted his ethera to fit the proper bounds, aligning his hands, feet, torso, shoulders, and face, filling his form the way his soul was meant to.
Now it was time to work on the task he’d come to consider his highest priority: forming speech.
He breathed deeply, feeling his lungs expand, the air moving through his nostrils. His heart beat a steady rhythm while his pulse sang with his blood. He lost touch with the passing of time, focusing instead on the perfect harmony between his ethera and vitale. The singular connection that ensured he was—undoubtedly—still alive. That this body was still his.
Once he was fully settled into this awareness, he poured all his focus into repeating the feat he’d only barely accomplished last time. Shifting the course of his breath, he exhaled out of his mouth. His lips parted to release the warm air, and he breathed again. As the air left his lungs, he felt it tingle against the sides of his throat, the roof of his mouth. A hum of energy rose around him, surging through his blood, merging his body and ethera. The energy was as tangible as the vibrations from a string quartet, a beautiful melody that elucidated Teryn’s control. His capabilities. Now all he needed to do was shape that energy into movement and sound.
Teryn.
His name wove through this melody and stitched itself into his consciousness. He didn’t let it break his concentration, even as he searched his mind to identify the voice. Was Emylia talking to him? No, she’d returned to the bounds of the crystal and had left him to practice alone. Besides, this voice filled him with warmth. With purpose.
It was Cora.
At the door again.
“Teryn, I know it’s the middle of the night but…but that also means you’re in there. I know you are.”
I am, he thought, but it wasn’t enough to think it. He had to speak it.
A new sense of urgency—of need—filled him. Cora was right there, on the other side of his bedroom door. All he had to do was tell her.
“I’m not leaving until you open this door. I’ll get Master Arther to unlock it if you won’t do so yourself.”
Teryn directed his attention to the inside of his mouth, the placement of his tongue. Slowly, his tongue lifted, the back of it connecting with flesh at the roof of his mouth, and his lips formed anOshape.
“I don’t even know how badly you were hurt.” Her voice came out with a quaver, a sound that nearly cleaved Teryn’s heart in two. But instead of breaking, he used it as fuel, gathering his pain, his desperation, and sending it out in a surge of energy through his vocal cords.
“Please. Ineedyou right now.”
“Cora!” The word left Teryn’s mouth in a shout. A bit uneven, perhaps, but it was clear.
He’d done it.
But in that same moment, Teryn’s body bolted out of bed, and Teryn was no longer in control of it. No matter how he tried not to feel disappointed after such a success—even one so short-lived—it was impossible not to. Especially when Morkai’s eyes slid to the door.
“Teryn, I heard you,” came Cora’s voice. It was oddly more muted now that he was out of his meditation. Somehow, she had sounded so much closer before. Like she’d been speaking directly to his soul. “Please let me in.”
Morkai glanced around the room, eyes wild, then stormed over to the door. He gripped the handle…but halted. Doubling back, he retrieved a discarded black jacket from the foot of the bed and hastily shoved his arms through it. He secured the jacket’s buttons as well as the laces of his ruffled shirt collar, hiding not only the thin cut at the base of his throat but any sign of the crystal he wore. Only then did Morkai return to the door and fling it open.
Teryn finally moved from the bed. A sense of loss fell over him. In the wake of having regained temporary control of his body, being nothing more than his ethera felt wrong. Broken. How had he forgotten everything he’d been missing as a body?
Those worries fled his mind as soon as he saw Cora’s face. She blinked up at Morkai from the doorway, dressed in only a white chemise draped in a floor-length velvet robe of violet and gold. Her expression alternated between relief and anger.
The latter gained dominance over her features. “Where have you been? I looked for you all day. Have you any clue how many times I’ve knocked on your door? You didn’t attend dinner. You forbade servants from entering—”
“I was resting,” Morkai said, voice hoarse from sleep but still so much like Teryn’s own.
“From your injuries?” Cora’s eyes widened as they searched his face. Teryn knew what she saw—the dark circles, his gaunt cheeks. Her expression turned to one of panic. “Teryn, are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
She shook her head. “No, you look…unwell.” Stepping in close, she lifted a hand to his cheek—
Morkai caught her wrist so abruptly, Cora froze. Teryn, however, found himself suddenly at Cora’s side. Whether he’d run, floated, or simply transported his ethera from one space to another, he knew not. All he knew was the rage that coursed through him at the sight of Morkai’s fingers clenched around her wrist like that. He hated that he could do nothing. That he could only watch, only feel his heart race as fear raked claws through him.
Morkai’s expression hardened with startled anger, but it lasted only a split second. In the next moment, the look was gone. Had Cora noticed it at all? Her eyes were locked on Morkai’s fingers.
With a too-convincing smile, Morkai loosened his grip and brought the back of her hand to his lips. After a brief kiss, he dropped her wrist and took a subtle step back. “I told you I’m fine. Please don’t worry about me. We have much bigger things to face in the morning.”
