Page 157 of The Never List
Instinct barrels through me, my mind awakening before my eyes open. I roll to the side, hearing aclinkof sharp metal sinking into the marble floor right near my face.
I barely have time to take stock of my surroundings before dodging another blow from a long sword that nicks my cheek.
I roll away, popping to my feet, my head pounding and my body feeling so much lighter than it ever has before.
“Faders,” I hiss as I notice a dozen of them converging on the temple. My friends are still groaning awake near me. I reach internally for my power, prepared to send them all running screaming, but there’s nothing there.
Nothing but wisps of air where I used to have a well to draw from.
Pierce, Axl, and Kal make it to their feet, and I dodge another sword swing, gripping the Fader’s wrist and landing a kick to his middle, sending him soaring in the other direction.
I quickly scoop up Rylee’s body, my heart breaking when I realize she’s still not breathing.
She may not choose to come back.
In the end, she may not choose us at all.
I carry her around the statue of my mother, tucking her near her back against the balcony railing, making sure she’s well out of sight before I rejoin my friends.
“She’s still not breathing,” I say.
“Fuck,”Axl growls.
“We have no power.” Kal curls his hands into fists.
“What if she chooses not to come back?” Pierce asks, fear lacing his tone.
I suck in a deep breath, calculating the odds of us surviving this with no weapons save for my blades.
I pass one to each of them and roll my neck. “Then I suppose we’ll meet her on the other side.”
50
Rylee
“People either desperately want you dead or desperately want you alive,” the goddess Evaluna says.
“That’s not really a new concept to me,” I say, but I bow to show her I mean no disrespect.
“The choice is yours now,” the goddess Neph tells me, her voice ever kinder. “You can stay here, in a place of eternal peace and quiet, or you can return to the chaos and the Legends you claim to love so much.”
The choice is simple for me, as every instinct in my soul is still battling to try to get back to them.
“Know this,” she continues. “You will have full control of all their powers. Not the small dregs that you saw in Lumathyst, but the full force of their infinite possibilities. That, matched with your own powers blessed by me, can be damaging to the mind.”
Apprehension crawls up my throat.
“Will it change me?” I ask, my hand sliding over my chest, where my heart should be beating.
“Does it matter?” Evaluna asks.
I swallow hard, contemplating how to better phrase my question. “Will I hurt them? Be a danger to them?”
If my mind is at risk due to the powers…I don’t want aslip in sanity to result in harm to them.
“That will depend on you,” Neph says.
Fuck, so there’s a chance.
