Chapter 38
thirty-eight
. . .
raea
An hour later, we’ve recounted almost everything since the start of school.
It feels good to get it all out, even if the looks Kellan keeps shooting my way are filled with betrayal.
I need to talk to Kellan again. I hate this valley between us.
He needs to hear from me about my heart and what I’ve decided.
But if I’ve learned anything this past hour, it’s that I need my friends in this with me, him included.
We can’t keep doing this alone. I think Ryker agrees—if the looks of approval and pride he keeps casting my way are any indication.
“I keep having visions,” I start. “You were there in one of them.” I glance up at Ryker, who’s still hovering at my side.
“I mean, we both were. In Mori, at the palace. There was a party or something, but you and I were out on the veranda, and everything was cloaked in shadows. There was screaming, but you said something.”
I close my eyes, allowing the vision to replay in my head as tears well up in my eyes. My heart sings, not in fear, but with an overwhelming sense of safety. Ryker has been with me every step of the way, even if unknowingly.
I glance at Ryker, letting a tear splash down on my cheek with a smile. His brows furrow in confusion. “You told me to wake up, and I did. I don’t think my mind just conjured it,” I continue. He’s studying me when Kellan clears his throat.
“What other visions are you having?” Ciara asks.
I tell them about all the strange dreams and visions of another girl—the one who I think is the same one Aolyn keeps talking about.
“The voices, though,” I finish. “That’s the mist. On Sgya, they were trying to penetrate my mind, but it was like an iron dome around my thoughts. They kept claiming things like ‘Light-Bringer’ and ‘The New Dawn.’ I keep hearing them.”
“The prophecy,” Kellan says, looking at Ryker. “What does it say?”
Ryker moves to the other side of me, leaning down on the console and typing it out. His hand brushes over mine as he does. Instantly, all my frayed nerves calm. As if he feels the same, I watch his body relax.
Ryker spends the next minute typing it all up before projecting it on the board behind us.
The days are numbered before the skies fall to night when Myrkr rises.
When the souls collide and the land trembles, will the new dawn begin.
The crowns of the seven will turn to ash. The empire reborn after the life gift restored.
The fate of the two crowns will destiny unite.
Long-forgotten answers will be revealed, an awakening bestowed.
The birth of the firstborn will the veil be complete.
Light and dark was balance made, but one will fall, one remain.
We all sit in silence for a long minute, reading through it. The entire time, Ryker stays at my side, his fingers toying with mine below the console, as if he needs my touch as much as I need his.
“I’m going out on a limb here to say that skies falling to night has something to do with the shadows,” Tate muses, breaking the silence.
“Wow, great observation,” Ciara teases, pulling her braids over her shoulder. “Souls colliding, maybe your Bond?”
I look up at Ryker, but he’s shaking his head.
“I don’t know. Everything I know about the Lumos Bond has more to do with the gods pre-ordaining specific Bonds between people; that’s why there’s The Ceremony.
You have to find the strongest one. The Bond has nothing to do with souls, but it could just be wording.
” He shrugs, dropping a hip to lean against the console.
I nearly stumble as I’m tugged along until I’m standing so close my arm brushes his stomach with every breath.
“Well, it mentions the new dawn, and if the mist was calling you that,” Kellan says, “I’m going to assume that line has to do with you. If you’re the new dawn, maybe you’ll complete a mission or something?”
Shrugging, I look to Ryker. “The next line is pretty obvious. The kingdoms won’t exist if an empire is restored,” he says. My mind tries to make sense of all of it, but it feels like a dream I can't quite grasp, like looking at a broken image in a shattered mirror, all jagged and wrong.
“Einvald,” I mutter to myself. If the empire is restored, Einvald would be opened again. There would be ancient texts there that could help.
“Two crowns,” Tate exclaims, gesturing to the two of us.
“So obvious. Destiny has united you both.” He grins, and it’s almost enough to make me chuckle.
I love his enthusiasm. I know I’ll need to tell them soon that Ryker and I might be a thing.
But that’s a conversation that needs to happen with the man whose arm is wrapped around my waist.
“The rest of it is still cryptic,” Ciara sighs with a frown.
“Back to the mist,” Ryker says, looking at me. “The old man in Seamark Shallows.” A full grin spreads across my face, making him chuckle. “What? I do know the actual name,” he teases.
I roll my eyes and look at our friends. Ciara is grinning, Tate looks amused, Trysten looks relieved, Aolyn has seen it all, Kamden doesn’t seem to notice, but Kellan—Kellan is furious.
Honestly, he’s going to have to accept this sooner or later.
I’m not ruling out the off-chance that Ryker and I aren’t destined, but I’m not going to pretend to hate Ryker either.
Ignoring Kellan’s glare, I say, “An old man approached me in the village on Kliax. He said, ‘The birth of the new dawn is coming, Light-bringer.’”
“So many titles,” Ryker teases, poking my side. “So special.”
The second poke sends me into a fit of giggles as he continues poking my sides below the corset.
“Anyway,” Kellan states sternly, sucking all the joy out of the room. “Great, you have all the titles about being the light or whatever. Will that be your Bonding magic?”
I stop laughing, feeling a little lightheaded as I try to compose myself. “I mean, maybe,” I respond a little breathlessly. “The mist said it wanted me to give it to them. If I don’t have my magic yet, then why would they say that? Maybe it’s something else?”
“It might not even be light,” Trysten says. “Light can be a whole lot of things.”
“Great, so we’re back to nothing,” Ciara says dramatically.
The room has a weird tension again as Ryker glances at me and then at the projection. “Raea, did you feel the energy on the planet before you went into the clearing?”
I nod, tilting my head. “It was stronger than here.” My memories of that pulsing power surface. “On Sgya, I felt like it consumed everything.”
Ryker’s gaze goes distant as if he’s thinking.
Kamden puts his Prism down. “Wait, hold up. What energy?” he asks.
“It’s like a heartbeat,” I say, studying Ryker. “The air, the ground, everything—there’s so much energy there.” Something passes over Ryker’s features as if another piece of the puzzle has slipped into place.
There’s a memory that is on the edge of my mind, just out of reach, but the emotions surrounding it are there. A fondness and friendship with Ryker as kids. The image is surrounded by a haze I can’t penetrate. Ryker tilts his head as if he too can see it. “Did you—”
“Yes,” I say, feeling perplexed. “I can’t remember or access them, but I feel them sometimes.”
“You two are super weird,” Ciara mutters, earning a “You have no idea,” from Trysten that’s seconded by Aolyn.
“She’s right. It’s like a heartbeat,” Ryker says, finally breaking our gaze and looking at our friends gathered around the table. “It’s a distinct pulse, and it’s in the plants, the ground, everywhere. It’s here too, but Sgya was the strongest I’ve ever felt.”
“Well, okay then. The two freakshows over here can feel the planet’s heartbeat,” Tate mutters.
“You guys do realize that you both feel the energy or whatever, and you’re able to channel that energy from the planet and back into it?” Ciara looks between us. “Or were you stealing energy from those shadow things?”
“I think it was from the planet. I think—” I pause and turn away from them.
My mind is reeling from all of the possibilities.
The thing is, I already know the answer.
“It’s the same energy that powers the veil.
” I release my hands, noticing that I have been clenching them too tightly.
“I think Sgya is the energy source or stores it.” It’s insane, but the moment I say it, I know it’s true.
“That’s why the mist and shadows were there.
” I’m talking more out loud than to them as I think through everything.
“They can’t access the energy. They knew I could, which is why they were trying to take me. I can unlock the power of the veil.”
I turn around, and everyone is lost in their own thoughts. This sounds crazy, but it’s starting to make sense.
“If,” I look at Ryker, conveying my apology, “the prophecy is about Ryker and me, we would need to have access to that power source. That’s why he was able to touch me, and Kellan wasn’t.
If the mist is alive—” I gulp back down the bile in my throat.
“It wants to consume the energy. Which means, technically, we are all in danger. Not just Ryker and me. All of the Bonds are energy sources.” My hands find their way to my hair, where I fidget with the tied ribbon.
Oh, gods.
“The strongest ones are said to burst out and can sometimes be felt for miles. I don’t know if they’ll wait for the Bonding Ceremonies, but anyone who has a Bond is tapped into Sgya, just in smaller amounts.
That’s why the gods required it of royalty.
We have bloodlines to uphold, to keep pure, and a duty to our kingdoms. If they knew the empire would eventually fall, they created a failsafe—us,” Ryker finishes for me, putting it together.
I sit down in the chair and pull back Sgya’s size so that I can see the whole thing. “Bloodlines…” I mutter as my mind spins.
“Every time we Bond, we give energy to the veil. The energy is at its highest on the woman’s twenty-third birthday. It’s why we have to wait,” Aolyn says, but her voice is distant as I’m gripped with another image, this time recalling the same strange people I saw on Sgya.
Immortals.
“So if the Bonds are a failsafe, why is the veil losing energy?” Tate asks.
I suck in a sharp breath, gaining Ryker’s attention. “We need to go to the Isles and use that pass. The bloodlines and immortals,” my head spins. “What if…what if they never surrendered to the veil?”