Maybe it’s because my fever’s spiking, but the world around me is ridiculously bright, like it’s being refracted back at me by a thousand diamonds. I stare at it in wonder as Leonidas takes a slow step toward me, looking almost worried.
“Morgana, what’s wrong?”
I don’t know how to answer that question or where to begin. Everything’s wrong, right down to the intense burning in my veins, churning like molten lava, a heat I can’t contain, even if I wanted to. I let the panic take me at last, searing through me.
And I explode.
It’s just like before—the shining golden light surrounding me—only this time I can see the way it erupts from my chest, forming into a dozen blazing beams that hurl out from me, plowing into the trees directly opposite. My magic cuts through the trunks like a hot poker through a block of butter.
There is no slow timber as they fall. The light’s power has turned the bases of the trees to ash, and the lengths of their trunks plummet to the ground, taking branches from their neighbors with them. The sound is like a giant being felled, the forest shaking around me as they hit the ground, throwing up a scent of charred bark.
And still that heat burns through my veins. I gasp as I see another nimbus of golden light haloing me, and I realize I can’t control it any more than I can my panic. My heart is pushing the magic around my body with every frantic thud, and I can feel it building stronger and stronger, like pressure screaming to be released.
Why can’t I stop it? This ismymagic, but it won’t listen to me. Visions of acres of blackened stumps fill my mind. Will I burn this whole forest to the ground?
“Morgana, calm down.”
I register Leonidas’s voice, which sounds like it’s reaching me from miles away.
“I can’t,” I choke.
“Yes you can, Ana. I know you can. You’re strong enough.”
Ana. The name my friends call me. But he doesn’t know me. If he did, he’d know how wrong he is. I’mnotstrong—that’s always been the problem.
Large hands wrap around my shoulders, and for once I don’t flinch away, welcoming the leashed power like an anchor in the storm. I look up into his eyes and find the calm in them, the stillness I noticed the first time I saw him. With all my will, I cling to it.
“Breathe with me,” he says.
I gulp in some air.
“That’s it. Again, Ana. You can do this.”
I nod, inhaling once more, letting the cool air permeate my body—feeling it gradually, so very gradually, extinguishing the heat. That searing sensation ebbs, and out of the corner of my eye, I see the golden light around me begin to fade.
Look at that. Leonidas…Leon was right. Icando this.
The idea seems so shocking it pulls me out of the last bit of panic. I can sense the rest of the world around me again, and I take it in as I breathe in time with my heartbeat, which has finally slowed to normal.
Leon drops his hands from my shoulders but remains standing in front of me, so close I can see every detail on his sculpted, perfect face. I get the nonsensical idea that artists who try to represent the gods’ likenesses should use him as a model.
I laugh at the ridiculous thought and then laugh again when he looks at me with even more concern. My wayward thoughts must be brought on by my headache, which is still throbbing. As I push the thought away, I focus instead on how dangerous it was for Leon to come so close to me like that. If I hadn’t calmed down, he’d be ashes just like those trees.
You’re strong enough. You can do this.
He wasn’t just saying it. Hemeantit—enough to put his own life on the line.
I don’t think anyone’s ever believed in me like that before. Not even me.
* * *
LEON
I scan her face carefully, taking in the flush of her skin, observing the slow rise and fall of her breath. Her magic has settled—for now, anyway.
Who knewthatwas hiding inside her this whole time?
I remember thinking her eyes reminded me of the stars. I should’ve guessed.
