Page 124 of Claim the Light
She purses her lips. “I’m speaking of the old soul.” She peers at me, as if she believes I should know exactly what she’s talking about.
And I do.
Fuck it, but I do.
I turn back to the garden and my line of sight falls lower than Callan, to the little girl clinging to his hand.
“Emika,” I whisper.
I saw her in theBook of Light Magic. It was before the pages were erased and the book reset itself. I was confused at the time because it seemed like I was looking into the future at something that had not yet come to pass.
In the images, Emika was at least twenty years old, her straight, black hair much longer and billowing around her face in a wind I couldn’t feel. Golden armor rested across her chest, just like Atrox’s but with different runes carved into it. The ruby-red wings of a dragon had risen up behind her, a larger-than-life silhouette, its scales glimmering in the light of a fire that seemed to consume her.
She looked right at me, as if she were gazing through time, and she greeted me in the same way that she would acknowledge an opponent.“Hello, angel,”she said.
I constrain the shiver threatening to reveal my quiet dread.
“She carries a heavy burden,” Ana says, her voice hushed. “The weight of her choices could shift the balance between light and dark.”
I spin to Ana, my vow determined. “Then I’ll make sure the burden never breaks her.”
Ana returns my vehement glare for a long moment. “That’s all I can ask of you.” She steps back from me, as if, having delivered her message, she has nothing more to say.
But she pauses at the door, adding, “There’s a war on the horizon, Asper Ashen-Varr. A war between old and new gods. I pray Emika never joins it.” She takes a deep breath. “With you in her life, I have hope that she never will.”
With that, she pulls open the door and hurries to Aiden’s side. She gives him a single nod. He pulls a box of matches from his pocket, lights one, and drops it to the lawn.
He takes her hand and to my astonishment, the flames burst upward, their bodies disappear into them, and then the fire immediately extinguishes.
I’m left staring at a swirl of smoke.
I have so many questions about who Ana and Aiden are, what their purpose is, and how the fuck Aiden can manipulate fire like that, but they’re gone and right now, my only concern is my family.
I transform my glaive back to the shape of a pin, slipping it back into my hair as my feet carry me swiftly outside the atrium. I race into Callan’s arms, where I rest my head next to my sweet child’s.
“Lana?” he asks, but I can’t speak yet, can only hold on to him.
Across the way, I meet Sophia’s eyes.
Her expression strikes me hard now. She fought for peace, but she knows it won’t last forever.
Well, fuck that.
Because I will fight to keep it.Wewill fight to keep it.
I watch the determination build in her eyes. The pure fucking willpower that tells me she will defy any threat that comes our way. I recognize the fight growing in Micah’s stance as he continues to guard over all of us. The resolve in the faces of Beatrix and Isaac, the way they look at each other with a promise to love and protect, no matter what.
I see the courage in Zahra and in my mother and recognize their strength as warriors.
And in Callan, I find my calm. The kind of calm that gives me resolve, perspective, and reminds me that his fire, his heart, and his strength are precious gifts that I will never take for granted.
Above all, we have love, and we will fight any battles we have to fight to protect each other.
Now and always.
* * *
To find out who escaped from the veil prisonandwhat happened to the original keeper of dark magic, don’t missDark Magic Shifters: Book One.
