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Zetas grumbled beside me, her paws shifting with fear. Her nose sniffed the dangerous crackle of Runa’s power, sensing what I did: if that power loosened, the entire grasslands and every creature living in it would be blackened into dust.
The chief and chiefess grabbed Solin and spoke to him urgently. Their son kept weight off his bound leg all while gaping at the bright orb that was the girl he’d tried to hurt.
She really shouldn’t have shown everyone how much strength flowed in her veins. That sort of power had the tendency to terrify people into two extremes: blind worship or livid hate.
Runa’s magic was the exact opposite of mine.
I could conjure the very darkness into day.
And she could shed light on every corner of the night.
What that meant, I still didn’t know, but I did know we were wise to keep each other close. To keep learning about each other, keep testing our boundaries and gaining control over the powers we had forgotten. Because if we didn’t—if we pretended to be like them—then eventually, our pasts would catch up with us.
No one else was safe until we remembered.
No one else could be fully trusted until we knew.
And no one else could understand what it felt like to be empty of mind yet occupy a body that bristled with such potency.
The chief suddenly grabbed the Fire Reader, pulling him away from Runa and hissing in his ear. Solin nodded once, then untangled himself roughly from the chief’s grip. He shifted back to Runa, studying her gilded skin as if searching for a way to turn her back to mortal.
Her gold-blazing eyes met mine across the kneeling crowd, blinded by fire and as bright as the sun. I couldn’t make out her features or see the fear in her gaze, but I sensed it. I felt her calling out to me. I trembled with her panic as she glowed brighter and brighter, unable to stop.
I couldn’t look away.
I opened my heart entirely to her and let the whispers of her spirit shout loudly into mine. We both jerked in synchronicity, bolted by the searingly intense connection even on opposite sides of the camp. Our lips parted as we sucked in a shared breath.
Something forgotten skated around my recollection, teasing me to know.
This sudden sixth sense wasn’t new.
We’d shared such a gift before.
We’d spoken in silence and walked in purpose. We’d shared a destiny and accepted that whatever we were, we would never be fully mortal, even though we wished to be.
What are we?!
I screamed into the void in my head.
Nothing replied.
Silence mocked.
And in that silence, Runa’s voice, bright as the stars and fragile as flowers, resonated directly in my mind. “Darro...”
I stepped forward, leaving the grasslands behind, intending to run to her.
“Darro...I-I can’t...stop.”
I clenched my fists as a shroud of shadows peeled off me, swooping toward her at the head of the clan. Just like she couldn’t control her light, my shades appeared without summoning.
Nhil members swung their stares from Runa to me as my shadows cast over them. They clambered to their feet as they were barricaded, standing in the middle of light and dark. They shied away from my lengthening blackness as it whipped out and veined the courtyard. Some shuddered with fear, and others cuddled their younglings close as if to prevent them from becoming infected by my night.
I sank deeper into the spirit-link that bound me to Runa. My shadows thickened into billowing black clouds.
Zetas barked, nudging her wet nose against my wrist.
I was only vaguely aware of the external world, drowning in the intensity from this newly-remembered, internal one.
“Darro...”
I tried replying in the same silent way but couldn’t.
Frustration and need to touch her fed such commands into my darkness. Shadows twined around clustered males and females, licking through the fire without any pain, sailing straight for Runa.
I held my breath to touch her.
To offer her comfort and protection.
But the moment my shades brushed Runa’s incandescent glow, something happened.
A ricocheting boom.
A heart-rendering crack!
Both of us cried out, dropping to our knees.
Her light snuffed out.
A splintering vision sucked me deep.
She arrived as suddenly as I had.
A tear in the air, a lash of wind, a flash of sunshine.
I was no longer alone.
She glowed with golden glitter as if her bones had been forged by sunlight and her skin couldn’t contain its fire. Her white hair looked like the heart of a blazing star, blistering with life and power.
The silence that’d stalked me since my awakening two nights ago seemed less somehow. Less stark. Less thick. Less oppressive.
She broke it with her breathing.
Softened it with her presence.
Slowly, she raised her head and noticed me. Her eyebrows quirked up her flawless, sunglow face. Her eyes reminded me of twin suns—mirrors to her soul, blinding me with yellow brilliance.
We were the same, her and I.
