Page 83 of Claim the Light
My name is whispered and it freezes me to the spot.
It wasn’t Callan, or Beatrix, or Micah who spoke it.
I spin to the bed. “Lana?”
Her eyes slowly open, but only a short distance.
Callan immediately leans over her.
Her hand rises toward him, the blanket slipping off. Her cheeks are pale and her voice is weak. “Callan… I need to speak with Sophia…”
He takes a long moment, pressing his forehead to hers, heat waves radiating between them, before he replies. “Anything you need, I’ll do it.”
She meets his eyes and the silent communication, the deep bond between them nearly kills me.
Callan rises up again, but he doesn’t have to tell the others. They’re already moving, Beatrix first with Isaac close behind her, both of them casting relieved looks back at Lana and wiping their cheeks.
Micah stops beside me. “We’ll be on the staircase if you need us.”
“Thank you.”
When the door closes behind him and Callan, Lana holds out her hand to me.
I take it, slipping into the seat Callan was occupying. There’s so much I want to say, so much relief I’m feeling at the fact that she’s awake, but also too much dread because I don’t have a cure for this darkness.
Her blue eyes are only half-open, but her gaze is piercing in its intensity. “You sensed it, didn’t you?”
My forehead creases. “Sensed what?” I ask, since there’s been a whole lot of fuckery I’ve sensed lately: death, life, beauty, rage, and dark magic.
“That I’m pregnant.”
My eyes widen a little. “You knew?”
She gives me a crooked smile. “Only since last night. My period is like clockwork, one week on and four weeks off. I’ve been late for two days, but I wanted to be sure before I told Callan.”
I want to tell her everything will be okay, but I can’t.
She’s already continuing. “It’s why I convinced Zahra to relocate to Grudge territory. I needed to make sure that Emika and the other Dread dragons were safe so I could come back here to the safety of the veil and figure out what to do.”
“You ended up getting hurt.”
She sighs. “The irony hasn’t escaped me. By trying to seek shelter here, I brought about the harm I was trying to avoid.”
Her eyelids droop and she takes deep breaths.
“Why did you want to speak with me?” I ask quietly.
She slowly opens her eyes again. This time, they’re full of shadows. “There’s a darkness out there and it’s growing rapidly.”
I nod. The elemental keeper mentioned it too.
“I thought I could handle it,” Lana says. “Putting my life on the line has never stopped me. It’s in my nature to throw myself into the path of danger.” Her gaze suddenly burns into me. “But I can’t do that now. I’m vulnerable. And even if I weren’t, I have to acknowledge the fact that I’m not the one with the power to fight this darkness.”
I ease back from her. “If you mean me—”
“I do.”
I’m already shaking my head. “I don’t understand my power any more than I did a week ago.”
