CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The path wound ahead through endless trees. Sunlight slipped through the canopy, scattering across the world in fragments of gold. I tried to hold on to it, the branches, the smell of damp wood, but nothing could pull me out of my own head.
We were moving again. Somewhere in South Vestance, and every step I took lead me further from who I used to be. And yet, somehow… more into who I was becoming.
A roar split the quiet.
It wasn’t a scream, and it wasn’t an animal. It was heavier than that, deeper. A sound that seemed to crawl up from the belly of the earth, low and relentless, vibrating through the soles of our boots.
“What’s that?” Aran slowed his steps, head turning toward the sound.
Will kept walking, but his eyes tracked the trees. “I think it’s… water.” He adjusted the strap of his pack. “It’s close.”
The sound filled everything. We walked faster, the roar swelling with each step. The wind rose, sharp against my skin, and the forest began to open.
A waterfall spilled over the edge of a jagged cliff, a column of white and silver crashing into a dark pool below. The last of the light caught on the water and broke apart.
“We should stop here,” Aran said behind me.
Will nodded and dropped his pack.
I stayed where I was, arms tucked around myself, eyes on the water. The crash of it. The brutality of it. How something could be that wild and beautiful at the same time.
Aran groaned and dropped onto a flat rock, tipping his face to the sky. I followed slowly and sank into the grass beside him. He glanced at Will, and I saw the look pass between them.
“What now?” Will asked, exhaling like he already regretted asking. Aran was staring at the cliff’s edge.
“Nothing. You probably wouldn’t dare anyway.”
Will rolled his eyes. “Dare what?”
“Jump.” Aran tilted his head toward the drop. “From there.”
“Seriously? Are we ten again?”
“No. Ten-year-old you was way less boring,” Aran said with a grin. “At least he knew how to have fun.”
Will scoffed. “Yeah, and ten-year-old me also almost drowned. Remember? You were there. And it was your fault.”
Aran didn’t blink. Didn’t even flinch. Just kept going like Will hadn’t spoken at all.
“You know what? I think she’d do it.” He cocked his head toward me, that familiar smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “She probably has more balls than you.”
“We can’t just go swimming,” Will said, exasperated. “What if someone shows up?”
Aran spread his arms wide, gesturing to the vast, silent world around us.
“There’s no one out here.” His voice was all mock-soothing now.
“Just grass, sky, and us. And even if someone did show up…” He pointed at me again, smug.
“We’ve got her. She incinerated a man. A man who was about to kill you, by the way.
” He leaned back on his elbows, completely unbothered. “I think we’re good.”
“Fine,” Will said, nudging a small rock with his boot until it tumbled into the pool of water. “I’ll do it. If she does.”
“Wait, what?” I blinked at him. “Are you serious? Cliff diving? Now?”
The roar of the waterfall filled the air, mist curling around us like breath. I tilted my head back, eyes tracing the cliff above. The ledge jutted out high over the water, sharp and jagged.
“Come on. It’ll be fun. I need fun.” Aran pleaded.
Maybe he was right.
Maybe something stupid and reckless was exactly what we needed.
“Fine,” I said.
Aran whooped, throwing his arms in the air like he’d just won. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he crowed. Then he turned toward Will, grinning like a menace. “See, Will? Way more balls than you.”
“It’s crazy,” I said under my breath.
“Exactly,” Aran called over his shoulder, already tugging off his shirt as he started up the slope toward the cliff. “It’s perfect.”
I regretted my decision the moment my feet reached the cliff’s edge. My stomach dropped and I stepped back, heart pounding, staring down at the dark pool below.
It didn’t look like fun.
It looked like a grave.
And all I could think about was falling.
Will stepped beside me, his hand brushed mine. The panic was still there, rising in my throat, but his smile cut through it. He lifted his hand and held it out. Palm open.
“Together?”
I stared at it. At him. At those impossibly blue eyes. Before I could overthink it, I reached out and closed my fingers around his.
“Together.” I said.
Behind us, Aran gagged. “Ew. I’m out of here.
” He took off at a run and leapt, disappearing into the mist with a wild scream of joy.
Laughter slipped out of me before I could stop it.
It didn’t feel forced. It didn’t hurt. Something soft stirred inside me, something I hadn’t felt in a long time.
I held Will’s hand a little tighter, he met my eyes and nodded, like he felt it too.
We ran.
Our feet pounded against the rock, wind roared past us. And then the ground was gone.
We were flying.
Time stretched, and the world narrowed to air and light and the sound of the water crashing.
For a moment, I forgot everything.
The fire. The guilt. The grief.
And then the water hit.
It slammed into me, cold, wild, unforgiving, and the shock of it lit up every nerve in my body. I broke the surface with a gasp, lungs burning, heart pounding, blinking hard against the spray.
The waterfall didn’t sound like a monster anymore. It didn’t roar like it was trying to tear the world apart. It sounded like music. Mist curled around me in silver ribbons as I spun in the current, the cliffs towering above, green and stone and sky.
Will surfaced nearby, sputtering, laughing, shaking the water from his hair. He looked over at me, grinning like a complete idiot.
“Hey! There’s a cave!” Aran’s voice echoed ahead, bouncing off the rocks and water.
I followed Will’s gaze as he tilted his head toward the shadowy arch carved into the cliffside. It was rough, uneven, barely visible in the fading light, but something about it tugged at me.
Will turned, eyes lit up with mischief. “Bet I get there before you.”
Before I could respond, he surged forward, slicing through the water like it was nothing.
That show-off.
“Wait!” I shouted, kicking after him. My voice bounced off the stone, swallowed by the roar of the falls. The cold gripped my legs, sharp as knives and my arms burned with every stroke, but I didn’t slow down.
The mouth of the cave opened around me like a spell breaking. Darkness took over first. The walls pressed close, damp and glistening. I held my breath, heart thudding as I swam deeper into the black.
Then there was light. Soft at first. Faint glimmers, like stars blinking into life.
Color shimmered across the stone, blue, white, violet.
Crystals bloomed from the walls in uneven clusters, their edges catching the glow.
A slow trickle of water dripped from above, catching thin shafts of sunlight that slipped through the cracks in the roof.
The light fractured, scattering into a hundred shifting reflections that danced across the cave walls and rippled over the surface of the pool.
It felt like stepping into a secret the world had forgotten.
Will pulled himself out of the water onto a smooth stone ledge, hair plastered to his forehead.
“Looks like I won,” he said, voice smug but softened by the awe in his face.
“Barely,” I said, breathless. “You cheated.” I tried to scowl, but the smile tugging at my mouth betrayed me.
“I call it strategy,” he said, lifting a brow in mock defense.
I reached for the ledge and tried to pull myself up beside him, but my hands slipped on the smooth surface. Will extended his arm without a word, offering me something to grip onto.
“This place is unreal,” I whispered as I finally hauled myself onto the ledge, breath catching as my eyes lifted to the crystals glowing high above.
Will followed my gaze. “Think they’re worth anything?”
“Probably,” I said. “Why? Planning to get into the crystal business now?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. I don’t even know how we’re going to survive, let alone make a living.” He let out a soft breath.
“We could just let Kera kill some rich guy and take all his land,” Aran’s voice rang out, bouncing off the stone. “And his gold.”
“I’m not your personal assassin,” I shot back, hoping my voice would reach him.
“So, crystals it is,” Will said. “You know, it could be fun.”
Before I could respond, he jumped to his feet and reached for the nearest wall of crystal, climbing like he’d done it a hundred times before.
“Wait. Be careful! Don’t—”
A sharp crack split the air.
The crystal shifted beneath his grip, and his body dropped like a stone, hitting the water with a splash.
He surfaced a second later, sputtering, water dripping from his hair, streaming down his shoulders.
It traced the curve of his collarbone, caught the crystal light, and vanished beneath the surface.
“You’re hopeless.” I clapped a hand over my mouth as laughter burst out of me.
“Oh, that’s it,” he said, brushing his hair back with one hand, eyes glinting as he looked at me like I’d just declared war. ”You’re asking for it now.”
Before I could react, a wave slammed into the ledge, drenching me again from head to toe.
“No!” I shrieked, diving back in and flinging water at him with both hands.
He laughed, low and real, and I laughed too. Our voices filled the cave until the sound felt bigger than us.
Then he stopped moving. The laughter faded. His body stilled, and his eyes locked on me.
“What?” I asked, still treading water. “Will?”
My smile slipped as I looked down.
A shimmer stirred beneath my skin, soft and gold, spreading through me like light had woken up inside my bones. It tingled across every inch of me, warm and alive, until my whole body was glowing from within.
It wasn’t the crystals.
It was me.
The glow deepened with every breath, curling across my skin, wrapping my chest in light.