Page 170 of Emylia

One minute… then two…

Nothing.

I turned to Mom. “Is that it?”

She took my hands in hers, eyes fluttering shut as if she could feel the current within me—or the lack of it.

Her green eyes opened, sharp with disappointment. “No magik. Try again.”

I tried again.

And again.

And again.

For what felt like an hour, I reached for something I couldn’t grasp. Still nothing.

“When we were at Xayreia, you had your eyes closed,” Maalikai said gently. “Like you were listening. Breathing with it. You looked… like you belonged there.”

His words steadied me. His faith gave me breath.

I reached for the tree once more—this time closing my eyes, quieting everything inside me.

I stilled.

I listened.

And there it was. A heartbeat. So faint, I almost missed it. The tree was alive—its roots buried in something sacred, humming with power from the core of the Earth, from the Gods themselves. And somehow, it knew me.

A tug pulled at my core. Gentle at first. Then everything erupted. Heat flared under my skin. Something wild and ancient hummed through my veins.

Magik—raw, crackling, alive—coursed through me in a blinding surge.

“Emylia, break the bond!” my mother screamed.

I tried but I couldn’t. My hand was fused to the tree. I was caught in a current that refused to let go.

“Shit,” Sebastian swore.

Pain exploded across my chest. And then— Darkness. When my eyes fluttered open, I was flat on the ground, stars spinning across my vision.

“Ow,” I groaned.

The weight pressing me into the earth shifted.

Maalikai.

The smell hit me instantly—burned flesh.

Panic jolted me upright. “Get him off—get him off me!”

He rolled away, groaning as Sebastian pulled him to his feet. My stomach dropped.

His arms… his face… blistered red. Burned wherever our skin had touched.

Mom was at his side in an instant. With a flick of her fingers, water surged from the air itself, coalescing into a shimmering sphere. She wrapped it around Maalikai’s body, guiding it along the raw patches of flesh until the water vanished into his skin, leaving only a silvery shimmer behind.

Of course.

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