Page 36 of Polestar
“The sigil,” Kane repeated.
Ana set the phone on a level spot on the mattress and extracted her Gran’s garnet rosary from her pocket.She wrapped the beads around her left wrist and gripped the crucifix between her thumb and forefinger.
Ana held her right hand over Aksel’s bare forearm and planted her feet.
Balance.Focus.Feel.
Her fingers hovered over the fine red hairs of his freckled arm a moment before descending the last few inches to rest on his cool flesh.
A wave of frigid water washed over her, stealing her breath away, followed by flashes of a white barren landscape, the face of a beautiful blond woman, and then the sensation of fists connecting with flesh and bone before the pain of impact on her face, and gut.
It all hit her in a matter of seconds, leaving her gasping and doubled over.
“Ana!”Magnus’ voice pulled her from the haze of pain and suffocation.
Her hand snapped open, releasing Aksel’s arm.
She dragged a hard, gasping breath into her lungs.“I’m okay,” she croaked, struggling for more air before describing what she saw.
Her gaze flicked over Aksel’s still inert form, curling her right hand into a tight fist.“It doesn’t mean anything.You can guess all of that just by looking at him.”
“Try again.”
“Kane, just give her a minute.She’s already exhausted from the last few days,” Magnus growled.
Kane turned to him, brow raised.“I am well aware, Agent Bjornson.”To Ana, she said, “Agent Ortega, when you’re ready to resume your work, place your palm over the sigil.”
Ana warily looked from Magnus to Kane to Aksel’s pale, bruised face.
Maeda had warned her against direct contact with such things during their training sessions.
After that first reading, she wasn’t sure she was ready to touch the sigil.It could do anything to her.
Lifting her left hand, she pressed her lips to Gran’s silver crucifix, whispering a prayer as she repositioned her stance next to the bed.
She ignored Magnus and Kane, focusing all her attention on Aksel’s face.
This was abouthim.A victim, like all the others, she hoped to God would be a survivor, unlike so many of those they couldn’t reach.
Flexing the fingers of her right hand, she pressed her palm to the black ink sigil at the base of Aksel’s throat and closed her fingers in a firm grasp.
This time, it was a wave of suffocating black ink that washed over her, rather than frigid water, forcing her to her knees.
Still, she didn’t let go.
Her grip on Aksel was her lifeline to reality.
She couldn’t let go.
ELEVEN
Magnuslungedforward,desperateto separate Ana from his kinsman.
“No!”Kane slipped between Ana and him and shoved him back with such unexpected force that his back hit the wall several feet behind him.“Let her do her job.”
Magnus was startled by a glow in Kane’s eyes he’d never seen before as her voice pinned him in place.
Then he realized she hadn’t physically touched him.
