Page 47 of A Cage of Crystal

But what else was there to try? She was running out of tools in her arsenal. The Forest People hadn’t taught her much beyond this, for whenever they’d come across something that required extra care in regard to clearing, it had been handled by an elder. If only she’d taken magic more seriously when she’d been with them. If only she’d accepted Salinda’s invitation—

No. She could not allow her thoughts to get tangled up inif only. The truth was, had she taken her magic more seriously and accepted Salinda’s offer to take the path of elders, she wouldn’t be where she was now. She’d have gone to the Beltane ceremony instead of the hot springs the night she met Valorre. It was impossible to say if fate would still have led her to leaving the commune, meeting Valorre, or crossing paths with Teryn. All she could do was accept thatthiswas the path she’d taken. She’d have to solve the puzzle of the crystal with the skills she had at her disposal.

With a groan, she swiped the crystal off the table and stormed back toward the basins. As she passed one of the open windows, a beam of sunlight caught the object in her palm, sending glittering light across her vision. She halted in place and faced the window.

“Sunlight,” she said under her breath, realization dawning. While heat from the fire might have been too mild and flames too strong, sunlight could be just what she needed. Taking a step closer to the open window, she lifted her hand and let the warm glow of the afternoon sun fully encompass the crystal. It glittered with light, casting the walls and floor in shards of rainbow luminescence.

Why did Morkai have to use something so beautiful for such sinister purposes?

She rotated the crystal, allowing another portion to face the sun, but when she held it still, she caught movement swirling at the stone’s center. With a frown, she watched closer as the crystal’s amber depths undulated, its movements like slow honey.

“What are you?” she whispered, tilting the crystal higher, creating more contrast between the sunlight and the stone’s core.

Her palms thrummed in warning.

Her heart echoed with a heavy beat.

She lowered the crystal, forcing her eyes away. But when she blinked into the light of the room, her vision was blanketed in white.

23

The white that surrounded her was blinding, like the forest after a heavy snow, masking every tree, every blade of glass, turning the world shapeless. Formless. Panic crawled up her throat, seared every nerve. She tried to focus on the ground beneath her, to root her energy through the soles of her feet, but…there was no ground. No sense of purchase beneath her. It felt more like she was floating.

In nothingness.

Trapped.

Without shape.

She glanced down at her body, her hands, her feet and saw…

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

“It’s all right, it’s all right,” came a soft feminine voice. The white light dimmed, muted hues bleeding into it like watercolors on a canvas, painting the scene in earth tones. Of stone and wood and sunlight. The tower library took shape around her, but there was something hazy about it. Tenuous.

“This is where you are, isn’t it?” the voice asked. Cora looked around for the source, feeling another spike of anxiety when she saw no one.

“I’m here.”

Cora faced forward again, and this time she saw a figure standing before her. She was unfamiliar to her, a woman perhaps a year or two her senior. Her skin was deep brown, her hair falling in black curls that just reached her shoulders. Shoulders Cora now realized were bare, as the woman wore a silky gown that hung from her neck and fell in sweeping folds to her ankles. The dress was unlike anything she’d seen before and certainly wasn’t suited to this climate.

This climate, her mind echoed.

But what wasthis climate? Her eyes slid from the woman to the room, and a feeling of wrongness struck her. The warmth of summer no longer touched her skin.Nothingtouched her skin. Panic threatened to seize hold of her again, but the girl’s calming voice stole her attention.

“Don’t focus on anything but where you are.”

“But why am I in this room at all?” Cora startled at the sound of her own voice. It was hollow. Flat. “I…I can’t remember why I’m in the tower library.” She took a step toward the woman, but the stranger leaped back at the same time, palms facing Cora in warning.

“Be very careful not to touch me,” she said.

Cora froze. Despite her sudden inertia, a tingling sensation hummed all around her. Through her. Like she was no longer a solid being.

“Remember what you were doing just a moment ago. Start with what you were wearing.”

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