Page 65

Traveling the isles of Airaleth at night is like dreaming. We’re floating on stars, the only thing below us my briars, lit by the light of our glowing hair. Did my mother ever do this? Travel from isle to isle, her hair glowing the same burnished bronze as mine?

Did she make this journey with Sira? Perhaps. Sira had claimed they were friends once.

I had a feeling where Dayton was leading Farron and me, and I’m not surprised at all when we step onto the isle with the grotto.

The pool bubbles bright teal, lit with its own light from shining white pebbles at the bottom. The hot spring branches off into tiny rivers, flowing in small waterfalls off the edge of the isle. Steam curls off the surface in the cooling night air.

“You were in the ocean when you first connected with the sirens,” Dayton says. “Perhaps the water can help.”

I give a sigh. “Well, it can’t hurt.”

I don’t have the same sense of anxiety as I did then. Maybe it’s because I know deep down, my magic is there, waiting. My briars have woken up. Or maybe it’s because I’m here with Day and Fare. If I try and nothing happens, they won’t judge me; they’ll keep me together.

I turn to them, their hair glowing bronze and gold. “Have I told you how cute you two look?”

Dayton throws an arm over Farron. “Of course, but no distracting us until you do your work.”

“Distract you?” I hum. “No, we wouldn’t want that.”

I strip off my tunic and pants until I’m in my bra and underwear, my glowing hair lighting the curves of my body.

Dayton throws his head back with a groan, and Farron claps a hand over Dayton’s eyes. “Better jump in the water quick, Rosie, or no work will get done.”

I give them a wink, because how much easier would it be to get distracted than this?

As I step into the pool, the water is warm and soothes the stress in my muscles. It bubbles up in tiny geysers throughout the grotto. I take a deep breath and lie on my back, floating, hair cascading around me.

I can’t fault the view. Thousands and thousands of stars spiral above, more than I’ve ever seen in the Vale. Some seem so close I could touch them.

I let my consciousness spread out, searching for that place inside me that can reach outside me. My eyes drift closed. Breathing out, I allow the edges of my mind to extend. Something tiny flits across my awareness, glowing with a golden light. A firefly, then another. I feel them buzzing around, flying. A part of the Vale…

No, a part of the Above.

I extend a little farther. On the tree that grows on the other side of this isle, I sense a bird snug in her nest, her breath steady in sleep.

A blade of grass, a mouse, a falcon, the fae…

My mother was all of it at once. I hold on to my connection to the fireflies and birds and find two more forms of life. Fae. Dayton and Farron. Our mate bond is stronger than mythkarite, a living bridge connecting us three. Even without their magic, the mate bond thrums with power. I make space for them too, feeling a rush of Summer’s heat and Autumn’s decay but also their worry and love for me as they watch this. And I see myself through their eyes, floating in the water, hair glowing. But my eyes aren’t closed like I thought; they’re pure white.

I can’t stop here. I need to carry all of it all at once. The fireflies, the bird, the fae. Wind rushes through me, and I’m also the blades of grass poking up through the ruined stone, straining for the sun.

My heart beats hard, but I can’t let anything go. This is only one small isle; it isn’t enough.

A blade of grass, a mouse, a falcon, the fae…

All the Enchanted Vale.

I spread myself outward, my mind grasping to link with anything, but it snatches everything.

A roaring sounds in my ears. I’m a million ants crawling over the moon-baked stone, the cricket taking a dying gasp in a hawk’s mouth, and the hawk who dives through a waterfall tumbling off a ledge as it transforms into mist, and then I’m spiraling over and over in the wind, blowing and blowing through trees, rows and rows of white trees that scream an agonizing, twisted sound that never ends.

I cry out, water pouring down my throat, and feel myself sinking. But I can’t move. I’m half me, half everything else, so I’m nothing.

There’s a splash, and someone grabs me around the waist, and we break through the surface. “Come on, Rosie.”

I cough, spitting out water, coming back to myself. Blinking up, I see Dayton has dragged me to the shallow part of the pool. He’s still fully clothed.

“I might have taken it a little far,” I rasp.