Page 217 of The Iron Flower

“I was raised to believe the same thing about you.”

An involuntary laugh escapes me. “At least we have that in common.” I pause, growing serious and remembering Uncle Edwin’s final words to me. “My uncle knew. I think he was hoping I’d live my entire life not knowing. And I probably would have, if I’d never come here.”

“He wanted to protect you.”

“Like your mother wants to protectyou.”

“Another thing we have in common.” He flashes me a small, kind smile, but his eyes remain grave.

“So, we’re potentially the two most powerful beings on Erthia.”

“Who have no clear idea of how to use our powers,” he adds.

My head is throbbing mercilessly now. I let it fall into my hands and close my eyes tight.

“Are you all right?” he asks, concerned.

Of course I’m not. This is an unparalleled disaster.

“I get stress headaches,” I tell him, pressing my forehead against my balled fists.

Yvan shifts around until he’s in front of me and places his warm hands on either side of my aching head. I open my eyes to find him deep in concentration, focused on a point just above my eyes. Heat radiates from his hands, vibrating outward, and the ache in my head begins to diminish little by little as he holds me, until it’s completely gone.

He drops his hands down from my head, keeping one on my shoulder.

“Thank you,” I say, amazed.

He nods, his lip lifting.

“That’s quite the skill you have there.”

He reaches up to gently push a stray piece of my hair back behind my ear. It’s such a tender gesture, it brings tears to my eyes.

“Before my uncle died,” I tell him, my voice breaking, “he told me I should fight the Gardnerians. That he was wrong to think otherwise. He tried to tell me everything. And then he was gone, before he could finish what he was trying to say.”

I stop for a moment, afraid I’ll come undone. “Do you think they were right?” I finally ask him. “To shelter us like they did?”

Yvan looks briefly at the bonfire before us. When he turns back to me his expression is as hard as forged steel. “No.”

My head spins from the sheer vertigo of it all. Everything has been turned upside down and inside out.

“This can’t be happening,” I protest, suddenly overcome. “It shouldn’t be me. I don’t know how to wield this kind of power.”

He glances over at the fire again, looking impressed. “You can learn.”

I remember Marina’s words the day we found her skin.

Power changes everything.

“This is bigger than just us,” Yvan says. “If no one steps forward to fight, they’ll win.”

But could we actually do it? Could we harness our power and help take down the Gardnerians and the Alfsigr and any and all of their allies?

Yvan holds on to me for a long moment, the fire crackling in the distance as I wrestle with this new fate.

“Maybe we’ll win,” he finally says.

“It’s areallylong shot, Yvan.”

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