Page 62 of The Blade in the Ashes
Rankor huffed. “Okay, and what’s your excuse?”
I didn’t have one. Not really.
There was just far too much on my mind lately to consider meaningless frivolity.
“You desperately need some fun,” Rankor criticized, leaning side to side to stretch out his back. “I swear, you’re too serious for your own good.”
I sighed, feeling a sense of heaviness fall over me. “The time for fun has passed.”
We were fighting one of the most powerful Gods in all of existence. There was nothingfunabout that.
A gust of icy wind slapped us, sending prickles of pain against my cheeks. Rankor looked away, jaw twitching, and I fought against the way my magic instinctively lurched towards him, sensing the sudden change of emotion in him.
“Reality is going to find us whether we like it or not, Kent.”
My magic recoiled urgently, snapping away from Rankor and towards someone else—someone feeling something much more intensely than he was.
Fuck.
My powers roared, latching onto a sudden heaviness that left me jutting forward, cowering over the clench in my gut. An inky darkness of emotion was spreading from the path that led to the docks.
“What’s wrong?” Rankor jerked to alertness, his eyes narrowing on the path in front of us.
No.
After so many years of managing my powers, I could block out almost any emotion. I could sever the connection to someone else’s feelings like it was second nature. The only time I struggled was when the emotions were too strong, too unbearable for me to stop myself from letting them sink into me.
Times like this, when it flooded me so completely that I drowned in it.
Desperation.
Despair.
Sadness.
Grief.
“No,” I whispered.
I didn’t say another word; I couldn’t.
With nothing more than a desperate look in Rankor's direction, I kicked my right heel into the side of my horse and leaned my weight forward. The wind sliced through me as I charged down that path.
The path that led to my family’s cottage.
Rankor heeled behind me, the heavy footfall of his horse only seconds behind mine. Dirt kicked up around us in a plume that invaded the air. When we made it to the small wooden cottage, I threw myself off the steed and burst forward without a moment of hesitation. The door kicked against the wall as I threw it open and took in the familiar sitting room and dusty kitchen.
I felt the tug of Kreyana’s emotions first, felt the burst of shock and fear when she saw me. She jumped, dropping the porcelain mixing bowl she’d had in her hands.
It shattered at her feet.
Fear.
Surprise.
Relief.
Pain.
