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The same two legs, two arms, two eyes, and living heart.
I knew what she was.
She knew what I was.
I hummed with our unfolding potential.
“We are all alone,” she whispered, looking away from me.
I felt the loss of her attention. My skin grew cool, and my heart hung dejectedly in my chest. Even my stomach twisted with the need to have her focus on me again.
Such a frail form we’d been given. So vulnerable to bone-bruising, breath-stealing emotion.
“There’s no life here.” She drank in the barren wasteland that stretched to every horizon. Flat and unremarkable. Brown and unexceptional.
Nothing but us and the stars—
The crescent-moon mark on my thigh shattered the vision, plummeting me back into a body that felt foreign. The searing mark dripped with fresh blood.
Runa’s loud gasp of pain ripped my head up.
I knew without seeing; her mark had bled like mine.
She kneeled like I did, her hands digging into the earth for balance.
I went to stand.
To go to her.
But...
Something smashed against my shoulders.
Something icy and heavy and violent.
I grunted as my chest was shoved toward the ground, forcing me to bow over my knees.
I fought.
I punched the dirt and tried to stand.
But it was no use.
I couldn’t move.
Not even a fraction.
I jerked and scrambled.
The pressure merely kept tightening until I could barely breathe.
What’s happening—?
Zetas nipped at my shoulder, whimpering, sensing I was trapped by something she couldn’t see. She stalked around me, seeking its weaknesses, all while Solin grabbed Runa by the elbows and hauled her to her feet.
“Don’t—!”
I howled the word through the heartlink.
I tried to use my mortal lips.
But both were gagged and silenced as I fought an unseen enemy, all while Runa swayed sadly on her feet.
She searched for me.
Tears rolled for me.
I waited for her to speak directly into my mind—
But nothing.
She looked at Solin as he rubbed her now extinguished arms and grabbed a handful of her white hair before letting it spill through his fingers as if searching for remnants of her flames.
He lowered his head to hers, speaking too softly for anyone else to hear.
I fought harder against the pressure lashing me to the ground.
But whatever entity or magic had captured me only tightened more, yanking my throat closer to my knees, making it harder and harder to keep my eyes on the girl I’d do anything to protect.
The girl I’d known for an ancient age.
The girl who wasn’t just a girl but was so, so much more.
With a soft smile, Solin cupped her cheek, spoke again, then turned to the chief who stood warily behind him.
Taking the bowl that Tral had been holding, Solin stepped back a little, looking past Tral to the hunter who would one day feel my wrath.
Aktor puffed up his ash-symbol covered chest before holding his head high and shifting reluctantly to Runa’s side.
Darkness billowed in my stomach.
I fought harder, sweat beading on my brow as the unseen, unknown force locking me over my knees pulsed with power.
No matter how hard I struggled, no one came to help.
The thick crowd all stood with their attention affixed on Solin, their backs to me. Even the younglings who looked around the camp, bored and restless, didn’t focus on me. A young male with his toddler arms wrapped around a carved bison toy glanced in my direction, but his eyes didn’t linger, didn’t study.
He looked right through me to the outskirts of the grasslands, focusing on a cloud of flickering fireflies as they swarmed with pinpricks of light.
He shouldn’t be able to see the dancing insects. I was in his way. My bulk would block him from seeing...
Unless.
I went cold.
Zetas huffed and shook her head.
Her yellow eyes glowed with nightshine, but they didn’t focus on mine like usual. They skittered around, panicking and searching, her nose wrinkling as she sniffed the sky.
I stopped fighting the invisible binds, my skin frosting in horror.
“Zetas, can...can you see me?”
The wolf spun around, her tail whipping. She sniffed again, following my scent away from where I crouched, following the trail I’d walked before, her pace growing jerky the longer she couldn’t find me.
How?
How could I vanish when I was still exactly where I’d been?
I snarled and fought again as my eyes returned to Runa, my heart thundering.
I had to get to her.
Now!
Dipping his thumb into the bowl, Solin held his hand aloft, revealing an oily silvery mixture. The clan all fell into hushed reverence, their gazes enthralled.
I fought harder, grunting under my breath. Sweat poured, and panic choked.
Zetas howled and broke into a run around the camp, her paws crushing the small grass seedlings that dared sprout in the Nhil courtyard. A few Nhil watched her running in crazed circles trying to find me, but no one looked to where I crouched.
“I’m right here!” I shouted.
I waited for the crowd to jump, for Runa to dash from the Spirit Master and race to my side.
