Page 181 of A Soul to Guide

Raewyn had been too young, cocky, and impatient when she’d done this last. She wouldn’t make that mistake again – she refused to.

Around the stone, a clear ball of essence formed. With her mind, she drew circle runes and symbols all throughout it. Multicoloured lines formed, white, black, blue, green, red, and every colour and tone possible.

The markings all over her body began to glow, and she was able to see them, too.

Then came the difficult part, one which would take hours.

She needed to thread the tiny fibres of the spell – she’d successfully done so before, which had ended in near catastrophe for her.

There were thousands of micro-threads that needed to be woven together into patterns. The central piece was a sun, but it looked unusual – like a geometric, twenty-four-pointed star.

With sweat dripping down her back and forehead, she didn’t know how long she stood there with Merikh watching her. He moved around, since his vibrations became louder and softer at different intervals, but he didn’t disturb her.

It wouldn’t have mattered either way. She was hyper focused, concentrating so deeply on her task that if he had tried to push her, touch her, anything at all, she would have been rigid and unbending.

“Raewyn,” he called, but she gave no answer. She couldn’t, not when she was slipping a thread underneath another before coming out above, only to slip back under a different one. “Whatever you do, stay inside. Don’t leave the cave.”

She wanted to ask why, but her lips wouldn’t move. If she deviated her thoughts from her task too far, she could ruin the spell. She could destroy the stone.

Despite this, she would heed to his warning. If it was his mother again, Raewyn didn’t want to get involved. She was done eavesdropping, and she didn’t want to violate his trust again.

It’s working,she thought as she continued to fabricate the sun spell.It’s working!

The stone’s black glow began to turn red in the middle.

Okay, okay. Red is still too weak.Even the heat that was emitting from it wasn’t strong. It was the equivalent of a three-thousand-Kelvin sun, although only a tiny droplet of it.

However, it was better than what she’d done the last time. It’d started off white, and since their warmest sun was blue, she’d aimed for that. Not again, not after last time.

Starting this low did bring about its own problems. Either the stone’s low quality, even though she’d injected a large amount of mana into it, was hindering it, or she hadn’t left it in the sun for long enough.

Regardless, she pumped it with a small amount of her own magic, and it turned orange – mimicking a four-thousand-Kelvin sun. It still wasn’t enough, not to protect them both. It may just protect the wearer if it were to be turned into a necklace.

She worked on injecting it with small amounts of her own essence to strengthen the stone while also creating the spell. Both had to be in balance with each other.Otherwise, it would either be a dud and only so strong, or the lack of stone strength would cause it to shatter if its energy was overly strong.

It didn’t occur to her that Merikh had been gone a long while, not as she worked on perfecting that balance.

Then, when the stone glowed a subtle white, reflecting a droplet of a ten-thousand-Kelvin sun, even Raewyn could feel the heat in her fingertips.

She stopped injecting her own essence into it and wove the final threads, pleased that both had ended near each other.

Once she was done, the stone stopped glowing as it dropped into her hands. Rather than just racing, her heart was so swollen with fear and uncertainty that all she could do for a long while was just hold it.

Now, to test it.

Either it would work, or it wouldn’t. She feared the outcome.

Do it. All you have to do is activate it.

She willed herself, but she just bit at her lip.

Her ears twitched, checking to see if Merikh was there. She heard nothing, and she didn’t know if she was thankful for that or not. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she was also afraid of doing this alone.

She closed her eyes, her brows furrowing as she gripped the stone tight. Then she opened her eyes and activated it.

An explosion of heat and light threw her into complete brightness.

Merikh couldn’t contain his growl once he left his cave.

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