“Rein it in!” Penn shouts over the screaming gusts. “Find your mind’s center!”
But I am lost in it—lost in the storm, lost in the chaos of wind currents that have strengthened so quickly into an uncontrollable tempest. The floodgates are open, just as I feared, and I am ill-equipped to slam them shut again. My head aches as if it is being split in two, the bones of my skull creaking like they will burst apart at any given moment.
I hear Penn shouting my name, calling out commands, but his voice seems to come from a great distance. I can no longer feel the grip of his hands on mine. I can no longer feel anything at all.
Nothing but wind.
Nothing but cold.
At my chest, the Remnant burns. Breath stealing. Blinding. It pulses painfully—once, twice. A third time. And then, just when I think I might die from the agony, just when the thrashing wind threatens to lift us both off our feet and hurl us into the falls…
My mind gives way.
Consciousness flickers out.
And I tumble blessedly into darkness.
Chapter
Twenty-two
I dream again of the great, dark sea. It swirls around me with violent rhythm. Lulling with languorous caresses designed to swallow me whole. To drag me under, to the depths, where no light or sound can permeate.
Strangely, I feel no fear. Even as I sink, disappearing into the colorless fathoms, I am not afraid. Only curious about what, if anything, might await me at the bottom.
I am not destined to find out. Not this time, in any case. For just as the world far above fades out of view, a tether coils around me in the abyss—warm and insistent, tugging me back to the surface.
Back to the air.
Back to consciousness.
A hand skims over my forehead, smoothing back the hair at my temples.Eli, I think immediately, my sluggish mind conjuring impossibilities. But no. It cannot be Eli. He is long gone, and besides, the hand that now moves with such halting gentleness over my skin is large and riddled with calluses. And hot. So hot, it sets off a fever inside me, burning low in the pit of my stomach.
The hand moves to my neck. A thumb traces the frail thud ofmy pulse as something else grazes my forehead. A pair of lips. They are whisper soft as they press against my skin in a fleeting kiss that lasts no longer than a heartbeat.
Surely, I must still be dreaming.
I am utterly immobile, taking not a single breath, even as the silence stretches into a small eternity. Even as my lungs begin to sear from lack of air. For if this is a dream, I am not yet ready to abandon it. And, if it is not…
“I know you’re awake.”
My eyes flutter open at his soft words.
Penn is there,right there, his eyes locked on mine as reality slams back into place. His hand is still at my throat, but he pulls it back when I struggle to sit up on the bed. It takes more effort than it should. Exhaustion sweeps through my body in great, unyielding waves. He reaches behind me to adjust one of the pillows as I collapse back against the headboard.
Breathing hard from the effort, I take my first look around. I am in the tower. In Penn’s bed. I have no recollection of getting here. Heat sears my cheeks at the realization he must’ve carried me.
“What happened?” My voice cracks.
“You lost control. Then you lost consciousness.”
“I remember being in the cavern…Trying to call the wind. Trying to contain it…” I shake my head. “It was too much. Too much power, too fast to rein it back in.”
His fingers flex against the dove-gray blankets that cover me from the waist down. I jerk them a little higher up my body when I realize I’m wearing nothing but a thin white nightgown.
“It’s my fault,” Penn says bluntly. “I knew you weren’t ready. Yet I let you talk me into a lesson you couldn’t handle. I let you push yourself past your limits.”
“It’s not your fault. Like you said, I’m the one who talked you into it.”