Page 193 of Of Nine So Bold

But the effect on the pool was immediate. The sparkling flecks of light stirred by our presences grew in number, spreading out like threads of glitter radiating from us through the strange water.

My lips parted. I… I knew this. What this looked like. It…

“Ley lines,” I whispered.

I looked up, realizing I’d spoken aloud. Byron and Casimir continued chanting, and the others were still watching the water. But Ozias heard me. Meeting my eyes, he nodded.

I kept my voice low. “We’re like the nexuses.”

“The world,” he murmured back.

The glittering threads radiating from us came in contact with each other. Prickling feelings suddenly spread across my skin, bringing with them a tingling in my veins.

My eyes darted to the others, landing last on Niko straight ahead of me. We all appeared unchanged, except somehow they seemed… morerealto me in a way that had nothing to do with sight. As if, when I looked at them, their gifts and their strength and their doubts and fears andeverythingwere in my mind too. It wasn’t exactly like my link to Ozias, where he and I shared an awareness of each other’s emotions. It was like I stood atthe center of an eight-pointed star, and each of them were those points. Like we were distinct and yet united, and when I looked at Niko, I had only to reach out in my mind for?—

Awareness of the moss and bioluminescent plants suddenly flared to life like a tapestry of life and color. Their essence whispered without words, and somehow I knew that all I had to do was ask and they’d respond.

Gasping, I looked away, retreating from the sensation. It faded.

My eyes landed on Lars. Tentatively, I stretched out in my mind.

Heat coursed through me, and when I lifted my arm from the water, the air wavered above my skin.

I pulled back, but it was harder this time. Like even when I retreated, his power was still there, ready and waiting for me to draw upon it. Niko’s too, now.

All of my men’s gifts were.

My lips parted. Did they feel this from me? From each other? Casimir and Byron were still chanting, their arms raised, while the threads of glittering light emanating from all of us merged completely together.

Like we were all one.

Byron and Casimir’s words came to an end. Slowly, they lowered their arms. The glittering threads in the water faded away, but the sense of them in my mind remained, linking me to my men and their power.

“A-are you all feeling this?” Niko asked. “The…”

“Starlight,” Lars whispered.

Byron nodded. “The princess’s magic. We’re tied to her power now.”

Their eyes landed on me.

“But…” I looked around the circle again. “I feel all of you. Fire and nature and…allof you.”

Questioning looks passed between my men, but there was no worry or fear in their gazes. Just intrigue.

“So this is like the connection between her and Byron, then?” Lars asked. “But for all of us?”

Casimir shook his head. “That was accidental. Half-formed, I think. This is…” He seemed to search for words, finally settling on, “something else.”

Dex cleared his throat. “Okay.” He looked like he was trying to keep himself focused on the task at hand and not the question of what the hell this really was. “What about Niko’s protection? Can you…” He looked between me, Byron, and Casimir, and he gestured in lieu of continuing.

Consternation passed over the vampire’s face. “If it was going to work, I would have anticipated the spell to cover that as well.”

“Maybe,” Byron countered.

Worry bubbled up in me. Desperate, I stretched out in my mind, feeling for… something. Whatever the power of the wall might be like, in this form.

Gods, don’t let it kill me… or any of us.

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