Page 122 of This Shattered Star

I embraced it. Let it claim me.

Because this is what I’d asked for. What I’d fought for.

Air.I needed air. But I couldn’t possibly make it up all those stairs. Not like this.

Gideon’s voice clanged throughout my mind as though he stood right behind me.

Move, or you die here.

“Damn it all,” I growled. And then I began the ascent.

The walls would sing the echoes of my screams for years to come.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

I collapsed on all fours, moist grass tickling my fingertips. Crisp air filled my lungs in a welcome reprieve from all the layers of dust. And the canopy of stars above winked at me as I heaved.

And vomited. Over and over.

I retched until cramps racketed my stomach, its contents more than empty.

Only when my body ceased its trembling did I push into a sitting position while wiping a palm across my mouth. My muscles were strained. Weak. Perhaps a sign that shimmering liquid hadworked.

A steady flow of water, still trickling from one of the large oaks, beckoned.

Hastily, I crawled through the grass. Eyeing the roof of the temple.

Deserted. The dragon was nowhere to be found.

My knees stopped outside the lip of the growing puddle. I reached up, hands cupped to allow the trickling water to fill them. Careful not to upset my stomach yet again, I drank slowly. Just enough to rid myself of the bitter tang coating my tongue.

Ripples danced across the water’s surface, calmer now that I’d cut off their source. On my next sip, I glanced down at them.

And choked.

The ripples distorted shapes and features, but I was no fool. Where my face should have peered up at me, a dragon’s snout leered instead, the curve of black horns wavering above it unmistakable.

Water dripped down my chin and neck as I scrambled sideways, neck cranking to check over my shoulder with a speed that had my vision swimming.

But I faltered. Not a single dragon stood behind me. Branches and leaves waved in a salute of solitude.

I had no clue what the first signs of magic manifested as. But magic was supposed tocureme from the hallucinations, not induce more of them.

Something hard dug into my thigh—the bell.Not yet. Not until I got what I came for.

Earth was the easiest element to control. At least, that’s what everyone always claimed.

I laid my hand flat against the dirt, fingers entwining with blades of grass. Allowed my breathing to even as I concentrated.

A tiny sprout. A tremor in the earth. A crack in the dirt. Anything to prove that I’d succeeded. That my curse was lifted.

Time slowly ticked by. Until frustration gave way to panic.

Nothing happened.

Desperation gnawed at my ribs like a rabid animal. The blades of grass did not so much as lengthen an inch. They did not sway on a gust of wind, nor did they dampen further with water. Not even a spark lit the ground at my knees.

“No,” I whispered frantically, lifting my hands to study them. “No,no.”