Page 111 of The Moon's Fury
Her heart beat in her ears, and she searched for the other two winding cords of power, the bold and fast light and the writhing inferno of rage.
But those, too, had vanished.
Her eyes shot open, wide and panicked, and met Zarian’s worried gaze. With growing horror, she realized it had beensilentall day—no buzzing in her ears.
Her breath escaped in fast pants. “My light. It’s gone.”
45
Thud!Thud!Thud!
Layna brought down her sword—well, Zarian’s smaller sword—on either side of today’s unlucky tree, yanking it out of the bark each time with a grunt. It had been a week since she woke on this moonsdamned mountain.
She drew her cloak tighter around herself, staving off the brisk wind that blew through the trees.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
In the space between her strikes, there was nothing but silence. She could feel Zarian’s eyes boring a hole into her back—he’d been watching her for the past thirty minutes now, likely growing more concerned with eachthud.
But he was smart enough today to keep his mouth closed. Unlike yesterday, when he’d tried to coax her into taking a break and found himself on the receiving end of her sword.
“You’re going to fell that tree,” he called. “That family ofchiryyobinswill be without a home. How will you live with yourself, then?”
She rolled her eyes. Clearly, he hadn’t learned his lesson.
Ignoring him, she resumed her one-sided battle with the tree. Wood chips flew in the air as she hacked and hacked and hacked. One flew in the air and struck Najoom’s side, and the black stallion snorted in displeasure.
With each strike, her anger receded slightly, though it never left completely.
Thud!
Her parents were dead.
Thud!
Her sister was missing.
Thud!
Her kingdom was no longer hers.
Thud!
Her light had vanished.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
With all her might, she struck the tree one final time.
The first two days after she awoke, she tried to call her light during every waking moment. She tried to heal, to light a fire, to summon fierce blasts from her palms. She tried to conjure thin streams from her fingertips. She even searched for the seething, coiling cable that had always frightened her.
But she always came up empty.
Her powers had simply vanished. Her mind was blissfully free of the incessant buzzing she’d grown accustomed to.
