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‘Koa—’

‘Firebird! Do you hear me!’

‘Yes! But…’

I tried to reach him, and there was a strange barrier between us. Some kind of block. ‘I can’t feel Voski—why can’t we link? Can Kham reach him? Where is he?’

‘Grace… look for me,’ Koa sent, her tone agitated, and I sensed fear in her, rather than anger, which was odd. Usually when she saw danger, she sought to fight it. Kill it. She was assured.

I reached for Voski, but couldn’t find him and…

Tired. So tired. I hadn’t slept enough. We’d been running. Now we were out in the middle of the night and… I slid down the trunk of the tree, its rough bark snagging on the back of my robe, but I couldn’t have cared less.

My legs were weak. Trembling. My arms shaky.

‘Voski…?’

Why couldn’t I reach him? Why was the link so dull? But I was so tired, I couldn’t even give the effort to reaching for Koa to see what she knew.

Somewhere in the distance, I heard a dragon’s cry and would have smiled, but the wall appeared between my mind and body, as well.

My eyelids slowly dragged down and the world went black, yet I could feel my limbs moving. My head lifted—a broad palm on my forehead to tip my head back. My hair catching on the bark of a tree.

Why was there a tree behind me?

Wet, cool, something on my face, my throat… then cool air on my body and the wet cold there, as well. Hands, rough and perfunctory, leaving something cold on my skin.

I flushed, half-embarrassed. But it must be Voski… he was trying to wake me with his hands. But why were they so cold?

And why did his hand keep passing over my eyes? My brow? My jaw?

Was it hands? Or was I being touched by shadow? By this world of magik that was so strange and disturbing?

‘Voski… What’s happening?’

Why didn’t he answer?

What… was… happening to… me?

Find You

SOUNDTRACK: Relic by Awaken I Am

~ VOSKI ~

Not being able to reach Kham or Grace was the most isolating sensation I’d ever experienced. Even though I knew they were on the other side of this, that it was only temporary, I couldn’t focus. My senses scrabbled like a wild animal at the walls of a trap, searching desperately for the exit from this… silence.

I’d beaten Breckon into the trees, and the moment I was certain neither he nor those watching could see me, I slipped behind a wide trunk, and dropped to squat below the level of nearby underbrush and bushes.

I had to find my balance. Refocus. Use the tools still available to me.

The problem was, I’d never realized how often in an hour I reached for my dragon—not even to speak. Simply to assure myself of his presence.

I’d spent so many years before Kham found me, walking in a world in which it seemed any step could be my last. The earth might crumble out from under me at any moment.

His presence had become the foundation on which I walked. The bedrock of my heart. His wisdom, his guidance—the simple reminder that he remained, and his love steadied me, even when we disagreed.

Swallowing panic, I closed my eyes and tried one final time to reach him. But I was alone in my head.