Page 86 of Born of Blood and Ash

But again, it was more than that. Life needed to return tothe Shadowlands. “I…I don’t know how to explain it, but I just have thisfeeling. Here.” I pressed my hand to my upper abdomen. “Like I have to do this.It’s an urge, and…” I glanced at him. “I don’t know if I can’t nottry. I need to.”

Ash frowned. “Like you’re unable to stop yourself?”

I thought that over. “Not in the same sense as the lyrue being unable to stop themselves from eatingpeople.”

“Well, that’s a relief to hear,” he said dryly.

I smiled. “But I don’t think I would be able to rest if Ididn’t try. Like, I already feel a restlessness and an inexplicable sense ofurgency.”

“Nektas mentioned something likethis to you, didn’t he? When you asked him about my father’s abilities.”

I nodded. “I think this is like that.”

The draken dipped low then,blotting out the remaining rays of sun and starlight. The wind whipped,catching strands of my hair and tossing them across my face. Extending theirwings, the draken slowed, landing on their forelegsfirst.

Odin snorted, shaking his mane and stomping his front hoofas he eyed the black-and-brown-scaled Crolee.

“You’re fine, Odin.” Ash sighed. “They’re nowhere near you.”

I grinned as Crolee turned hislarge head toward the warhorse and let out a huffing laugh as Odin slammed hishoof down again.

“What’s his problem?” I asked.

Ash looked over at me, his hair more of a deep brown in thestarlight. “He feels upstaged.”

I laughed as I glanced at the other onyx-hued draken. Ehthawn was slightlylarger than his cousin, and his horns were thicker but not as numerous as thoseon Nektas. He watched me curiously as if wonderingwhat in the world I was doing.

Poking at my other fang, I refocused. The feeling I hadprobably wasn’t delusions of grandeur. It was foresight. The heightenedintuition that told me life didn’t just exist in mortals and gods. Life was allaround us, in the trees and the ground. I studied my hands, thinking about howI’d healed the wounded hawk in the Red Woods—the chora,an extension of a Primal that takes the form of their Primal notam.Unbeknownst to me, the hawk had belonged to Attes.

There had also been Gemma.

The embers had healed the wounded. Was the land here notwounded? While I’d tried to use my touch before against the Rot and failed, itwas different now. The Rot was gone, and I was no longer a vessel for theembers. I was the embers.

“It might work the same way as it does when I heal someone,” I said, lifting my gaze from my hands asthat tingling sensation returned. “It’s worth a try.”

A moment passed. “You really feel like you have to do this?”

“I do.”

Ash opened his mouth but then closed it. He nodded, and Ihad a feeling he wanted to talk me out of this.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him.

Ash inclined his chin, but the tic in the muscles of his jawsaid he saw right through that assurance.

Hopefully, I would be okay. Healing hadn’t really taken thatmuch of a toll on me before, but this was obviously different. And it was arisk, and possibly a foolish one.

But it was also a gift.

Lowering myself to my knees, I placed my palms against thedry earth of the bank. Soil crumbled at my touch, slipping between my fingers.Feeling Ash getting closer, I closed my eyes and did what I’d done before.

The essence throbbed within me, heating my skin. I openedone eye just as an aura of gold-streaked silver eatherpulsed from my palms, spilling onto the dirt.

I waited.

And waited a few more moments.

“Nothing’s happening, is it?” I said.

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