“Alabath!” Tolek called, nodding down the way.
A mass of sand was gathering at the end of the alley, roaring toward us. We raced forward, and Tol scooped up the girl while the boy locked his arms around my neck, his face tucking into my shoulder. I cradled the back of his head and raced for the shop.
The dense cloud tickled my legs as I ran, whipped my hair around me, and I clutched the child tighter, willing the Angels on our side for one damn time.
I sped inside as the force of the cloud hit. We slammed the door on the winds, the walls rattling as it passed, but the sand that had managed to be swept inside with us fell quiet.
I leaned back against the door, panting. The boy shook, but I looked down and steadied my own breath. “What’s your name?”
“Dennon,” he answered in such a trembling voice.
I set him on his feet and crouched to his level. “Do you go to the nearby school, Dennon?”
He shook his head, long bangs drooping into his eyes. “We were going to Father’s stall to bring him home for dinner.”
Bywe, I assumed he meant his sister and himself. Tolek stood over his shoulder, the girl clutching his leg.
“Once the storm passes, we’ll help you find him.” I looked around the small shop, vacant shelves lining the perimeter. In the center, Jezebel and Erista were gathering the children. “Do you see that girl?” I asked, pointing to Jez, and both Dennon and his sister nodded. “She tells the best stories. Go ask her for one, and I bet by the time she’s done, this little storm will be over.”
They brightened, locking hands as they flew toward Jezebel. I pushed to my feet, blowing out a breath.
“Littlestorm?” Tolek asked as sand battered the windows.
“This is because of the emblems,” I whispered, guilt thickening my throat.
Tol shook his head, gaze drifting toward the door. “No,apeagna. The timing lines up, but I have a feeling this is because of something much bigger than your blood on some shards of metal.”
“But during the war, the Rites always coincided with the emblems being used.”
“Yes, but nothing as tainted as this,” he reminded me.
I chewed over that for a moment, watching the children now gathered in the center of the room. Their scared, innocent red eyes and the scratches against soft skin.
And my resolve hardened. “I’m going back out there.”
“You can barely see!”
“Right now, yes.” And I dismissed every misgiving about this decision—every uncertainty about the lengths the magic within me could go, mustering up the courage to flash Tol a smirk. “But if I caused this, I have to have something that can counteract it, too.”
I held up Damien’s emblem, shining around my neck.
Tol’s eyes flicked between the shard and my own, reading the idea from my wicked grin. And though he clung to the verge ofasking me not to do this, though he hated every time I was lost to the power of my light, the amber specks in his eyes ignited.
A slow smile spread across his face. “Make it fucking scorch, Revered.”
With his confidence turning my body molten, I tore back into the alley, Tolek guarding my back.
And as we ran, I gathered up all that power ebbing within me from the reading, all the magic I’d been suppressing for weeks, forming six unique strands, and I wove them together.
We sped down the cobblestones, toward the center of that swirling mass of clouds above Lendelli, and charged right into the dense, dark-purple heart.
Then, without a slice to my skin or any form of blood splashing across the emblems, I wrenched up every drop of power and blasted Angellight into the sky.
Golden beams parted the swirling clouds like beacons in the night, melting together into one unstoppable force. The sands warred against the warmth of my magic, sizzling as it burned at their depths.
I dug into my spirit and thought of all those bracing against the repercussions of the unspooling magic across Gallantia. Of those sheltering in this very town, of those ravaged by the fires of Bodymelder Territory or whose food sources were depleted by untethered creatures.
I thought of those forced into smaller, weak positions and those who didn’t deserve the wrath of whatever curse this was.
