I’m that strong. For my friends. For my family and their history. For Roark. For all of them, I’ll always be that strong.
“Please,” I whisper. “He needs us.”
The ley line shivers and slips toward me. I have to trust it this time. No more fighting. No more denying what I am, who I am. I’ve always ignored my potential. I’ve always thought that because I couldn’t control it, I was useless. But the ley line isn’t about control. Mab told me that ages ago. The ley line is about acceptance. I think I’m ready for that now.
The ley line brushes against my fingertips and I bite my lip until I taste copper because it’s an exquisite pain, and even if it kills me, I need this. I want it to hurt a little bit. I need to pay penance so I never again dismiss this part of me so easily.
The ley line rushes back in, sorting through all those emotions I’ve been ignoring, trying to determine how to adapt its power to fit my mood. I don’t let it sweep me away like it has in the past. Instead, I ride it out and try to process how I’ve changed. Those empty places inside fill to bursting. When they overflow and the backwash of energy floods through me, I let it devour me, destroy me, reforge me.
I blaze and the world glows from my light. A web of power stretches endlessly around me, thousands of ley lines connecting in an intricate design. There are so many paths I could take, so many millions of lives I could go on to lead...
Focus. Come back. Find him. Never leave him again.
Roark. I came here so I could find a way to help Roark.
I look up, forcing my eyes away from the temptation of the eternal map lying beyond me. Hope fuels my urge to return now, unimpeded by time and speed and distance. The ley line urges me to slow down. It worries it will ruin me like it did my predecessors, that it will reduce me to ash.
Never ash. Diamond. Hard and strong and indestructible. Stronger, so he doesn’t have to be.
Surfacing hurts in the best way possible. I open my eyes, my lids strangely heavy. Herman sits in my desk chair, fire extinguisher at the ready. He gives me a weary grin. “Took you long enough.”
I shake out my arms and test my legs. No more soreness. No exhaustion. Only the ley line humming sweetly under my skin, glowing inside me to the point that it casts shadows over the walls of my room. It’s dark outside.
“How long?” I ask him.
“Ten hours.”
Ten hours. Longer than I thought. Longer than it felt. The ley line nudges me, keeps me from getting distracted. I lift my chin. “What did you find out?”
He shakes his head and sets down the extinguisher. “Nothing good. Word’s out, but no one can contact Queen Mab, which makes sense because of the sealing. No one has seen Roark. The Seelie deny their involvement. But—” Herman swallows and shifts in his seat “—they warned that if the chains were iron, he may not make it very long.”
“The more powerful the fae, the more violent the allergy,” I say.
He nods. “You and the ley line—?”
“It’s back. Stronger than before.” I turn for the door.
Herman stands and wipes his hands on his thighs. “Where are we going?”
“To the place they took him.”
He tilts his head. “And then what?”
“I’ll find him.” The ley line arches against me like a cat, and I smile. “I’ll make sure they never come after him again.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Roark
Pain is relative.
When I was young, the sting of my elder brother’s sword nicking my skin in practice seemed a mortal wound. As I grew older, physical pain grew easier to manage. I learned strength and stubbornness. Wounds heal. It takes time, medicine, sometimes even magick, but eventually rent flesh reknits, and wounds fade to scars and then to nothing once more.
The iron binds me to the chair, poisoning and burning me by slow degrees. Yet the pain is nothing compared to the knowledge gnawing at me since I was taken from the car and placed in this room.
I stare down at my palm. It’s a smooth expanse of pale flesh, callused from years of weapons practice. There should be a single, clean scar bisecting it. Except, all trace of my spell’s bond has vanished.
My scar is gone. The spell is broken. The impossible has happened and my deepest, darkest dreams have come true. Phineas Smith is in love with me.