Page 53 of The Songs of Fate (War of Fate)

The words were Charlie’s, but it was the light wanting to say the words as well. The power inside me needed to save Logan as much as I did.

I wasn’t sure if Logan understood anything I was saying. The glassy look in his eyes said that he was waning out of consciousness.

I withdrew my hand from his cheek, leaving a crimson stain, before I placed my hands on his chest. My fingertips began moving over his skin, drawing a circle and lines, marking a symbol in blood over his heart.

I pulled at the light inside me. I needed to recreate the runes that were so powerful at the stream. They were the key. They had to save him. My fingers slid over his chest quickly, carefully, without indecision. Eight lines, radiating from a center point. Each line attached to a symbol, a shield, a force of power. As my fingertip closed the loop, the blood-red marking glowed with light, pulsing with energy.

The symbol was ancient, primordial, devastating. It was mine.

I was terrified of what I was becoming. What was inside me was so strong. It craved supremacy. If the light consumed me until I wasn’t me anymore, then that was the price worth paying. I was willing to lose myself, to lose what was left of Charlie, to save Logan.

Tendrils of a soft wind began to course through the canyon, clearing the grim air. The cool breeze cleansed the air and surrounded us. It encircled Logan with stillness. A sense of calm bathed the gorge and rested its serenity on Logan’s marred chest.

The wind sheltered his body and sang a song. The notes flowed around the burnt cliff walls. The whispers became a lullaby of secrets, promises erased from our languages long ago. The light inside me knew the language that felt so foreign to me. But they sang and danced, rejoicing in a melody of courage. The song was not in my tongue, but in another. The words flowed from my mouth over the air, blanketing Logan in a chorus of power.

You are the warrior we seek—

Shielding you from death

To fight for the living.

A promise,

A light,

Fate.

The words enveloped us, flowing from me, into the marking on Logan’s chest. With every breath I drew, the light within me became stronger. The light didn’t glow visibly like it had before. This time it was inside me, an energy I didn’t deny any longer. It enveloped my every pore, and grew stronger. When the last pieces of Charlie began to fade away, I gave the light to Logan. I filled my mind with the songs and words, and flowed it into him. I poured it all, everything I had, into his breath.

Logan didn’t move. The only warmth of his body came from the mark on his chest.

How could it not work? I had done what the light wanted. I had given myself to it, and then to Logan.

After the winds kissed my lips, they danced away, flowing into the sky, lifting up to the luminous moon. Time had slipped away as the light had taken hold. The sun had set and now only the partial moon and a few stars were visible.

I placed my palm on Logan’s chest. I sealed it over the bloodstained symbol, and it beat with an energy so strong, the ground rolled under my knees. The earth bowed under the presence of the energy, but Logan still didn’t move.

I blinked and then turned my palms to my eyes. They remained stained red with his blood. My raw nail beds were encrusted with dirt; scrapes of flesh were gone from my forearms.

The remaining sparks inside me faded. The light was gone.

I sagged against his body.

“Logan. Wake up. Wake the fuck up.” I shook his body and then laid my head on his chest.

Suddenly, the exhaustion hit me like a boulder, and my eyelashes fluttered closed. I could sleep, for hours, for days. I just needed to rest with Logan.

My eyes jerked open at the sound of bodies thundering over the ground. I turned my head—

Something gripped the back of my head and smashed my face into the gravel before I could see the figure.

The skin on my forehead pricked with pain.

No… this isn’t right. The creature is gone. I can’t feel the connection anymore.

Bits of dust and sand fell on my tongue. The grit mixed with dried saliva, creating a thick paste in my mouth. I coughed and then spit onto the ground. My eyes became coated with a layer of film and dirt.

“What the—”

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