Emelyn crumpled to the ground, her neck and wrist charred from the creature’s grip. I leapt over one of the fiery streams, then a second one, and knelt at her side. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, the power zapped from her lifeless form.
Adrenaline spiked through my veins, my mind whirring with solutions I didn’t understand. They came from a place deep inside, a foreign strand tied to my Quandary magic. I yanked on it, bringing it to the front of my mind, and sorted through the web of magic before me.
Chaos echoed around me.
Two more rock creatures spurred to life with those deadly claws aiming for me and Emelyn. A spell flew from my mouth that created a defensive wall, more of Zeph’s energy surrounding us both while I tapped into the Quandary line that provided me with a strand of thought underlined in magic.
Words spilled from my mouth that didn’t belong to me but to something else.
No, someone else.
The Quandary link.
Who are you? I marveled even while I spoke, my mind fracturing beneath an assault of confusion and reality woven together as one.
Don’t think; do, a deep voice replied.
Familiar.
Warm.
Underlined in memories and dreams…
A vision of white hair flickered in my thoughts, there and gone in an instant as my mouth obeyed his command.
Yet he wasn’t so much talking to me as he was allowing me access to his mind and power and granting me the knowledge I needed to survive this insanity. It also wasn’t willing, more like my spirit demanding his compliance for my own survival.
And I felt him trying to pull back, to resurrect a barrier I’d unknowingly knocked down.
Who are you? I asked him.
But Emelyn gasping back to life distracted my focus, drawing my attention back to her and the spell I’d somehow woven through her, healing the marks on her neck and wrist.
“How did you do that?” she asked hoarsely.
I just shook my head because I didn’t know, the powers spiking through me a tangled mess of knots I couldn’t seem to unravel.
I flinched as one of the monsters shredded my defensive barrier, his fire hot against my senses. I grabbed Emelyn’s hand, ready to run, but the clouds engulfed me again and sent us spinning through time and space.
Shade, I realized, baffled and completely thrown by his interference. Only it wasn’t him at all, but me, tapping into a dark-source connection created through our bond—a connection I didn’t realize existed until now.
That was where all the magic lived.
A dark orb of power fueled by my mates, allowing me access to strands of energy I intuitively understood.
I frowned at it, confused by the four links once more.
Death.
Elite.
Warrior.
Quandary.
The last was deeply rooted, as if it’d been there for years. Because that represented me and my family line? That notion didn’t feel right.
I tried to investigate it more, only to spin out of the cyclone and into a darkened grove with a stunned Emelyn at my side. Her dark eyes flashed to mine, alarm in her expression. “You’re… you’re…”