Page 166 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

Snow slowly closed her eyes, and I pulled her face to my chest before magic emanated from me. Darkness splintered and fed on light, withering and spreading all its horrors. And soon, the sky turned dark, the air thickly cold and a piercing scream rang in time as tendrils of my magic filled every nook of the forest. Just when I felt the last flutter of life leave the forest, I pulled back all of my magic. Night turned to day. But what was once dark could no longer bear light.

My vision had dizzied from the use of magic, my limbs quivered as if I’d gone months without food or water. I dropped a kiss to her forehead and gathered her tighter against me. “I don’t want you to open them.”

“I am not afraid.” Snow’s markings had reduced, her tremors too. She spun round and a light gasp slipped past her gaping lips when she faced the remnants of my magic.

“Liar,” I murmured, swaying on my feet, my vision already dusting with black specks.

She didn’t deny it, only stepped toward the mess of death.

The ground and trees had turned to charcoal still figures and grey ash floated around us, frosting the ground silver. Even the blue sky had dulled to a grey. There was no more life of any sort. The air, too, was polluted with the ghostly touch of lifelessness.

We both stared at the girl's lifeless body as it slowly dispersed to dust leaving behind a short metal bar carved around in silver vines and flowers—the sceptre piece.

Snow reached forward but pulled away right before grabbing it. “You take it. Visha said no one unworthy of gods should leave a trace on it. The sceptre apparently manifests in the energy around the ones that hold it.”

I turned to her with mild amusement and confusion at the same time. “And I am worthy? Interesting judgement coming from you at that.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just grab the damn thing—” Her words were cut in half when the silver rod began humming. Three runes in the old language of gods flickered alive in the metal and glowed white.

“Hur ma’hazur kahaz,” Snow recited the language of gods in a trance, her eyes flashing white. The sceptre piece glowed and warmed up till it burned my hand.

Kneel to the power, the wind whispered, gyrating around us furiously, lifting rock and ash in the air. Hur ma’hazur kahaz.

Electricity began skittering in the air, gathering around Snow, encircling her body like a vortex and her face twisted with pain. She dropped to the ground, heaving and wincing from pain. “Stay back! I don’t know what is happening.” She reached a hand over her shoulder, digging her nails on her back and let another soul shattering scream as bolts of electricity gathered atop, forming what looked like a pair of wings.

I kneeled before her, my heart stammering out of my chest from fear. “Open your eyes, my love. Look at me.”

Slowly she peeled her eyes open and looked up at me. “I don’t know what is happening.”

“Concentrate, Snow. Feel where it pours out. Point it to me.”

She lifted a trembling hand and put it on her chest. “Here.”

“Good.” I inched a bit closer to her and she panicked, crawling backward. “You won’t hurt me.”

She shook her head.

“Feel it, my heart, concentrate solely where it pours from.” I inched closer again and this time she didn't back away. “Concentrate.”

She shut her eyes and attempted to control her breath.

“Open your eyes. You can’t concentrate on the nothingness, it is too vast. Concentrate on something around you.”

She opened her eyes and fixed them on me. She concentrated on me as she breathed in and out. Though her look was distant, she was still looking at me. Slowly, afraid that I’d send her panicking again, I unravelled a tendon of shadows and let it crawl over her skin. She gasped, the more touches of my magic slithered around her, the more her breathing evened. It took her a few minutes to quiet the stormy rage of her magic, but she did it. Her body went slack, and before she dropped to the ground, I gathered her tired form in my arms.

Unable to help it, I embrace her tight, nuzzling my face in her neck, breathing her in.

“How…how did you do that?” she murmured.

It was beating. It was still beating.

“It has never happened before. Not like that,” she said, taking a deep breath. “You’re squeezing me.” Her gentle hand tapped my back. “Kilian?”

Kilian. I breathed out a deep sigh, still not letting her go.

Her hand settled on my back, and she held me too. She held me for the first time since that last night in Isjord. Before I ruined everything. “This is how I die, huh? Squeezed by a giant piece of Adriatian flesh. And he is my sworn enemy at that. Not a bad way to go, you smell like heaven.”

“Did you hurt a lot?” I asked, running my fingers through her hair, unable to keep my hands off her. “Did it hurt you hurt a lot, my love?”