Page 74 of Of Blood and Banes
“Mostly dragonblood. But humans and anything else he can get his hands on, too. As for the rituals…nobody is quite certain what he’s trying to accomplish. That’s why it’s so important you don’t take the ring off under any circumstance, Katerina. He needs it. And if it falls into the wrong hands…if he gets hold ofit…” She shakes her head. “There’s no telling what he’ll do. But in the meantime, if we are to stand any chance, you need to learn how to power it. How to use that magic for good.”
“Even if it’ll bind me to it?”
She sighs. Already knowing what I’m implying. Because if I bind to it, then the only way to kill the King is to kill myself.
“Yes. Even if it binds you to it,” she answers. “But that is exactly why we need to get to Vitalis. We need to find answers because the prophecy speaks of you and Daeja. You’re destined to restore the balance, so there must be a way to end him without killing you both.”
“And if there’s not?”
She stops walking, and I mirror her.
Finally, she swings her gaze to me. “We don’t have room for ‘not.’ So, let’s not even entertain that reality.”
She continues, and I watch her go. Then, realizing she won’t wait for me, I catch up to her. We come to the southern part of Driftmond where a patch of trees encircle a small clearing. She crouches with a grunt, her body creaking as she lowers to the ground. One hand braces herself against her staff, while the other stretches out before her, grazing the tips of grass on the ground. “Can you sense it now?”
I close my eyes, settling into myself as I listen to the sounds around me. Second by second, the humming rises from the chatter of the forest sounds, lifting like an audible fog. “Yes.”
“Good. Now…feel it.”
Crouching down beside her, I remove my gloves and take a deep breath before I let my fingertips skim the ground. Something underneath the surface jolts to my touch like a shot of electricity. I push my palm down flat against the surface. The euphoria of it steals a gasp from my lips, and I rip my hand off the ground, my eyes flying open as I stare at Marge.
I swallow hard, a lurking danger prickling my skin. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. It’s a little stronger tonight, but channel it like you did last time. Don’t let it override you. You are in control—remember that.”
But how much is a little stronger?A new spike of fear rises within me.
“Go on,” she encourages, nodding to the ground.
Slowly, inch by inch, I press my fingers down into the ground again and close my eyes. The energy beneath the earth rushes toward me, and this time I don’t pull away. An agonizing pain spiders up my fingertips, webbing out through my hands and slinking up my arms. Despite my every effort to control my panic, my pulse quickens, and my breath rattles in my lungs as I curl forward to tuck my chin into my chest. The pain—the power—it floods me. And I can’t contain it.
“Slow down,” Marge warns. “You’re pulling too fast!”
“I can’t!” I scream, beginning to writhe against the growing agony slipping up past my elbows as if I were dipped in hot oil.
“You can! Focus! Channel it!”
Squeezing my eyes tighter, tears leak from my eyes and jet down my cheeks, and yet I still can’t escape the pain. A liquid fire fills every crevice, every vein and drop of blood. With every inch it gains, I fall closer and closer to the ground, succumbing to the raw power, subject to its endless torrent of anguish.
“Help…please!” I gasp out, opening my eyes only to discover my field of vision is clouding in white.
“Katerina, lower it!” Marge calls again somewhere, buried deep within the earth. “Lower it back down!”
But I fucking can’t.
I can’t pull any last bits of strength out. Not when every nerve in my body screams against the drowning power. Pulling me into the earth, as if I belonged there amongst the dirt. Calling me to return to what I once was before this life.
I slip.
And everything fades to white.
I’m lost in an endless abyss of white. Emptiness. It overrides all my other senses. I can’t feel my fingertips or the beat of my heart. All is silent. The chaos and overwhelming sensation of life is gone.
Even as I blink, the white is blinding, leached of all color and texture. A thick, creeping tingle races up my spine, raising every hair on the nape of my neck. An invisible tug pulls my attention to my right, and I turn to follow.
Out of the deafening white, a shadow shifts, so subtly as if to convince me nothing is actually there. I can’t tell if it’s seconds, minutes, or hours, but as I watch, the shadow darkens. Growing closer and firmer until it finally takes on the silhouette of a person. I realize then that the shadow isn’t getting closer. I am. My feet appear in the haze of white beneath me, carrying me to the figure. By the time I look back up, I’m a few feet away from the silhouette, and I stop, unable to urge myself further. A swallow rolls down my throat, thick and tight, as recognition overwhelms me.
My brother.
