Chapter 41
Nova
The second we’re outside, the light hurts.
And then I double over.
“Nova—” Kyron’s hands are on me immediately, one on my back, one gripping my arm. The cold of his touch cuts through the heat for half a second before it’s swallowed up again.
“I’m fine,” I gasp. “I’m fine, just—give me a minute.”
I am not fine.
The heat that was building in that room hasn’t stopped. It’s getting worse. My skin feels too tight, like something underneath is trying to claw its way out. Every breath burns going down.
“Keep moving,” Locke says, low and urgent. “We need distance.”
They form up around me without discussion. Kyron on one side, Locke on the other, the rest falling in behind. We’re walking fast—too fast for how my legs feel, like they’re made of something that’s melting from the inside.
The grass beneath my feet is turning brown. Dying. I watch it happen and can’t make sense of it.
“Uh, guys?” Rane’s voice behind me. “The ground is—”
“I see it,” Kyron says tightly.
We’re far enough from the building that my body stops pretending. My knees buckle and Kyron catches me before I hit the ground.
“Whoa—” His hands are on me immediately helping me stand, both of them now, pulling heat as fast as he can. But it’s not enough. I can feel it building again already.
“Okay, seriously.” Rane moves up beside us. “What the hell is going on with you two?”
He’s not angry. Just confused. Trying to make sense of why Kyron hasn’t stopped touching me since we left that room.
He starts to add something—probably something light, something Rane—and then he sees me shaking. His mouth closes.
“She’s burning up,” Kyron says. “I’ve been trying to cool her down but I can’t pull the heat fast enough.”
“Pull the heat?” Trey frowns. “What does that mean?”
“It means I run cold.” Kyron’s voice is tight. “Always have. When I touch her, it seems to absorb some of it. But this—” He shakes his head. “This is different. It’s too much.”
“Let me try.” Vaelor reaches for my forehead—and yanks his hand back with a hiss. “Shit.”
“What?” Locke’s there instantly.
“She’s—” Vaelor stares at his palm, then at me. “She’s actually on fire. It’s not a fever. Fire.”
“Not helping,” I manage.
“No, I mean—” He looks at Kyron. “How are you even holding her?”
“Barely.”
The air around us shimmers. I can see it now—heat waves rising off my skin like pavement in the summer. A leaf drifts down from a tree we pass and curls into ash before it touches my shoulder.
My knees buckle again.
Locke catches me before I hit the ground. The sound he makes—a sharp, pained hiss—tells me his hands are burning too. But he doesn’t let go.
“We need to cool her down,” Trey says. “Ice? Cold water? Something—”
“The lake.” Beckett’s voice cuts through. Calm. Certain. “It’s close. North boundary.”
“Will that even work?” Rane asks.
“Worth a shot,” Kyron says. “It’s the only shot we’ve got.”
They start moving. I try to keep up but my legs aren’t working right anymore. Every step is agony—fire racing up my calves, my thighs, pooling in my chest like molten metal.
“I can’t—” I stumble again. “I can’t walk.”
Kyron scoops me up without hesitation. One arm under my knees, one behind my back, pulling me against his chest.
He grunts. I feel his arms trembling.
“Kyron—”
“I’ve got you.”
“You’re hurting—”
“I’ve got you.”
But he’s not fine. I can see it in the way his jaw is locked, the way the cords of his neck are standing out. I’m burning him. Every second he holds me, I’m burning him alive.
“Put me down,” I whisper. “Please. I’m hurting you.”
“Not happening.”
“Kyron—”
“Nova.” His voice cracks. “I’m not letting you go.”
We’re moving faster now. Running. The trees blur past and I can’t focus on anything except the fire under my skin and the way it’s eating me alive from the inside out.
“Kyron—” Vaelor’s voice, somewhere to our left. “Your eyes.”
“What about them?”
“They’re glowing.”
I force my head up. Force myself to look at him.
Blue. Bright, impossible blue—not his normal color but something else. Something that’s lighting up from the inside, like ice catching sunlight.
“Almost there,” Beckett calls. “Thirty more feet.”
I smell it before I see it—water and earth and something green. Then the trees open up and there it is. The lake. Glass-still and dark, reflecting the gray sky above.
Locke breaks off, scanning the treeline, the shadows between the trees. Making sure we’re alone. Protecting me even now.
Kyron doesn’t slow down.
He runs straight into the water, still holding me, until it’s up to his waist. The cold hits my legs and I gasp—relief and agony at once, the fire meeting something that might actually fight back.
“Don’t let go,” I manage. My fingers dig into his shirt. “Please. Don’t let go.”
His arms tighten around me. “I won’t. I’m right here.”
He starts to lower me into the water.
The second my body submerges, something goes wrong.
It boils.
Actually boils. Steam erupts around me, the water churning and hissing where it touches my skin. The relief I felt vanishes—replaced by something worse. Something building.
Kyron cries out. His arms jerk back—red and blistered where he was holding me. The water between us is bubbling, steaming, too hot for him to reach through.
“Kyron—”
“I’m okay.” He’s not okay. He’s backing away from me, and I can see the pain on his face, and I did that. I hurt him.
“Get out,” I gasp. “Get out of the water.”
“Nova—”
“GET OUT.”
He goes. Staggers back to the shore where the others are standing, frozen.
And I’m alone.
The water is boiling around me and I’m screaming now—I can hear the sound tearing out of my throat but it doesn’t feel like it’s coming from me. The heat isn’t stopping. It’s building. Climbing. Racing toward something I can’t see.
Pain surges in my wrist worse than anything else.
I lift my arm out of the water and there’s light there. Gold and red, pulsing under my skin, forming shapes I don’t recognize. A symbol. Something that’s never been there before, flickering in and out like it can’t decide if it’s real.
“NOVA!”
Someone’s shouting my name. All of them, maybe. I can’t tell anymore. The world is narrowing down to just the fire and the water and the thing that’s trying to tear its way out of my chest.
The light at my wrist pulses brighter. Faster.
I throw my head back and scream.