“It’s not here. They must have changed the entrance.” She paced from left to right, her hands smearing dirt through her hair.
“No.” Eldric’s look of instant panic frightened her before his words did. “I think they sealed it, Alissa.”
They hadn’t known it, but one of Ranier’s first orders after leaving Bryniard had been to seal the tunnels. He couldn’t risk the people discovering there were secret passages leading outside.
“Tell me there’s another way in, Eldric!” Alissa stuttered desperately.
He shook his head, his gaze falling on the ropes the guards had used to climb up and down, now cut in half.
There was no way in.
1 HOUR UNTIL TIME OF DEATH
The girl’s body was fully aged. Starting the day as a child and ending it as an elder was wicked and vicious. Her consciousness and memory slipped away from time to time, and it was hard to stay awake as she carried in her body the heaviness of more than ninety years of living, years she never lived, years that were taken from her. She cried in silence because she didn’t have the strength to scream. She still held tight to the hope of being in her mother’s arms again before she ran out of time, even if only to say goodbye.
Alissa’s journey through Heldraine had been anything but easy. Each day outside Bryniard brought its own trial. From almost dying at the canyons to being attacked and wounded, to Freyah’s death and Eldric’s captivity. Challenge after challenge tested her will to keep going. It never occurred to her that failing to cross the wall back into her hometown could be the obstacle that would cost her everything. Life, it seemed, had a cruel sense of humor.
Was it too much to ask for a safe and simple passage after all she’d endured?
How many times could a person rise after being knocked down so many times?
Feeling the weight of those thoughts, Alissa collapsed to her knees. She screamed until her lungs emptied of air, until her vocal cords gave out. She roared, pounding the earth where the tunnel should have been. Her power reacted to her rage, feeding on her agony and awakening feelings she had never felt before. Alissa sobbed, and this time the screams originated from her soul and reverberated through their surroundings. At the same instant, thunder roared in the sky above. Rain poured incessantly as if the heavens had been holding back for months. For every scream, a new thunder, and for every punch of her knuckles against the ground, lightning struck.
Eldric’s head tilted back, his gaze fixed on the sky. He blinked the raindrops away, staring at the heavy, rain-filled clouds that hadn’t been there moments before. Water struck his hands, and he watched his skin soak under the downpour. His eyes drifted to the woman he loved as she melted in her own despair, but even consumed by her suffering, Eldric saw a pattern. Something subtle, something only he, who loved her deeply, would notice. Her screams and the roaring thunder came in unison. It was almost as if they were the same, as if the storm itself was coming from her.
And then it hit him.
He let out a dry laugh. Even in its irony, laughing in itself seemed so foreign to him after everything that happened in the last few months.
The sound caught her attention, and she glanced up at him, drenched in rain and blood. “Is this funny to you?” she shouted right when another thunder roared.
He shook his head. “Didn’t you find it odd that there was no bad weather for the entirety of our trip?” he asked, increasing her annoyance. “I mean, we have traveled for six months, andnot for a single moment have we found rain or cold in our way. I have traveled all over Heldraine several times, and never have I gotten such amazing, favorable weather.”
“Eldric, do you really think I’m interested in discussing the weather right now?”
He knelt down beside her, cupping her face. “What I’m trying to say, darling, is that it is no coincidence. The rain is coming from you, the same way your magic unconsciously controlled the weather every step of the way.”
“That has nothing to do with me, Eldric. I’m aZeity—my magic is of time and flesh,” she corrected him, unaffected by his nonsense.
He smiled. “No, Alissa. You are aHozter.You have both the power ofKsarensandZeitysin you.”
“That can’t be true. Desi said the existence ofHozterswas never proven.”
“I guess you will be the one to prove her wrong then.”
She frowned. “I tried using the magic of the elements before when you were held in captivity, Eldric. It didn’t work.”
“I know… You must have been so fixated on theZeitypower that you may have unintentionally refused to let theKsarenmagic out when you were training. I guess now that you know how to use it and that your emotions are so intense, the power is coming out naturally.”
“What does it even matter now if I’m aZeityor aHozter?”
“It matters that if you have the power of the elements, you can bring this damned wall down!” he cried out, barely containing his excitement.
Alissa’s eyes immediately lit up. She remembered the time she was trapped in the canyons, how the stone door instantly moved at the touch of her bloody hand. Could it have been a coincidence?
She didn’t need to consult her books on magic to learn how to conjure the power of elements because she felt the electricity inside begging to be brought to life the moment her fingers touched the cold walls. She cut her palm and closed her eyes, releasing all of her restraints.
As she let out her last sorrowful scream, the rain ceased pouring. When she placed her bloodied palms on the stone, the walls that stood strong and immaculate through centuries began to waver. With her hands still pressed against the surface, she channeled her magic through her touch. Her eyes were still closed, but she could see the damage unfolding within the walls through her magic, as though her vision traveled with the cracks she summoned. Wisps of light spread through the fortified structure, branching out like the lightning that had torn through the sky moments before.