Page 88 of Born of Blood and Ash

“I’m looking.” Panic and frustration crashed together.“Where?”

Ash curved his fingers around my chin and guided my gazedown to the center of the channel, where he pointed with his other hand. “There.”

I didn’t see what he was talking about at first. It was justthe ground vibrating hard enough to cause the pebbles to bounce. But that…

“That’s not pebbles,” I gasped.

A short laugh burst from him. “No, liessa,it is not.”

Slipping free of his grasp, I went to the edge and bentslightly to get a better look. What I thought had been pebbles dancing in thevibrations were thousands of waterdrops. I looked down the riverbed a ways,stunned to see small puddles forming.

“It’s like it’s raining from the ground.” I laughed. “Gods,that sounds silly.”

Ash was right behind me. “But that’s what it looks like.”

Clasping my hands together, I tried to fight a smile butlost as I looked back at the palace. “This is…wow.” I glanced up at Ash. “It’sgoing to take forever this way, but this—”

I jumped back as a geyser of water erupted from the centerof the riverbed, spraying the air with dirt and cold liquid. Ash caught me withan arm around my waist as the water expanded and grew, forming wings.

He all but picked me up and dragged me back to where Odinand the draken waited as another funnel of waterbroke through the ground, stretching high into the sky and sprouting waterwings. Then another and another—

“I feel like the eather heard yourcomplaint,” Ash stated dryly.

“I didn’t mean to complain.” Wide-eyed, my focus remained onthe riverbed. The winged geysers curved forward, crashing back into the bed. “Iwas just pointing out how long it would take.”

He brushed dirt from my cheeks. “But not any longer.”

“No,” I whispered. “Not any longer.”

Fresh, white-tipped water covered the ground now, flowingdown the deeper grooves in the earth as it rushed toward the riverbank, lappingagainst the sides.

Crolee shifted closer, his headtracking the spouts. Ehthawn reared, lifting his headto the sky. The low trilling sound came once more.

“Am I seeing things, or does the water look like it—?”

The air all around us charged. The essence in me pulsed asthe draken lowered themselves until they were almoston their bellies. Energy built and built, constricting—

Ash spun toward his horse and ran his fingers along thesilver cuff on his upper arm. “Odin, return to me.”

The horse’s form rippled as I stepped back. Odin turned tosmoke, crossing the distance between us and returning to the cuff.

Ash’s hand found mine as a jet of water erupted again, thistime behind us. All of us looked at the other side of the road. Fountains ofwater gushed into the air like moving, winged pillars. They arced, slamminginto the riverbed.

“What the…?” Ash hauled me against his chest.

Tiny silvery lights appeared in the empty air before us,then over the riverbanks, the road, and then everywhere. I sucked in astartled breath. It looked like the stars had descended to the land, and in away, they had.

“It’s the essence,” Ash rasped, shuddering. “It’s the eather of the realms—of the air and the land.”

The lights flickered, becoming gold. Pure, Primal energyflashed from all the stars above and around us, casting the entire Court—theentire realm of Iliseeum—in bright, golden lightstreaked with silver.

The eather hummed inside me as thevery realm itself seemed to hold its breath.

Then it exhaled. Energy rolled out in every direction, theforce of it more powerful than any wind I’d felt. Ash dug in, his armstightening around me as he slid back a foot or so. The pressure even moved the draken as the ground began to tremble once more.

As the eather rippled out, kissingthe land in its golden-silver glow, the dull grayness of what was left of theRot vanished.

“Oh my gods,” I whispered. “Ash.”

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