36. Stellen
Chapter Thirty-Six
Stellen
The moment Nara races down the far side of the mountain range and leaps into the dark channel, I can hear Thyra again.
But her whisper fills me with dread. “Goddess of Shadow and Blood, give me strength.”
At the same moment, the source of the terror in my heart becomes clear.
An icy-blue thread extends from my heart to Thyra’s distant location. I have no idea when the thread connected with me, only that I can feel Thyra’s pain through it.
Maybe her hurt was always within this thread; I just couldn’t sense it until she gave me back my heart.
Her emotions are terrifying. Dark. Bloody. Fearful.
In the air to my right, Antony flinches, the crimson thread connecting his heart to Thyra’s pulling taut.
In the distance, I make out the glowing amber thread between Thyra and Maxim, where they stand far too near each other for Thyra to be safe from Maxim’s fire.
A second later, we hit the circle of starlight surrounding Thyra and Maxim and a woman whose identity I don’t know, but this light…
I’ve experienced its blinding glow before; on the day I seized Thyra, when I was racing along the tunnel through the mountain in the bloodlands and Thyra was bleeding out in my arms…
But now—
Antony gives a shout. He must have seen something I can’t see from this distance, but an instant later, I hear it.
Crackling flames.
Bursting fire.
Maxim’s body engulfs in fire and Thyra whispers, “Shield me from pain—”
No.
“Stellen!” Antony roars, his voice flooded with panic. “Use your frost!”
I gave everything today.
I’ve used up my power.
At my strongest, it would take all I had for my frost to reach Thyra at this distance.
Roaring with effort, I wrench myself onto my feet, balancing on Nara’s back as I stretch out my hands, digging deep.