King Pendefyre is taking no chances with another invasion.
The morning slips away. I do not ask where he is taking me, and he does not offer up the information. I content myself with savoring the rarity of the moment—pushing aside the obligations that await us both in Caeldera as I slump back against Penn’s warm chest and allow his ever-present heat to sink into my spine. It is not enough to drive off the chill that has settled over me since Fyremas, but it helps.
I feel the maegic singing in my bones even before the forestyields to a craggy coastline where the wild ocean meets the western shore. It has been so long since I saw the sea. My heart cries out for the comforting rhythm of crashing waves and tidal breezes I knew for all my youth. But the strange cove that comes into view is as unlike Seahaven’s white sands as I can fathom.
The frothing bay is ringed with dozens of oddly shaped tidal pools, the waters within them still and shiny and tinted a greenish-yellow hue. The air smells strongly of brine and sulfur, stinging my eyes until they gloss with tears. There is no dune, no beach. As Onyx slows to a stop his hooves crunch on crystalline salt deposits thicker than frost. Closer examination of the shallow pools reveals they are not home to any darting, jewel-scaled creatures or tough-shelled crabs; they are stagnant and steaming, their viscous surfaces belching occasional puffs of boiling vapor.
“What is this place?” I ask, tasting fumes on each breath as I look around.
“Blister Bight.”
With that succinct answer, Penn swings down from the saddle, then offers me a hand to help me dismount. My fingers tingle with warmth as they clasp his, but he releases me as soon as my feet hit the ground. Leaving Onyx to wait beneath the battered trees at the edge of the forest, we pick a path between the bubbling vats, our boots crunching in the thick salt. Deep beneath the surface, a thick chord of power pulses through the earth, like a mallet on a drum. Like a heartbeat. Something alive, something ancient, vibrating up from Anwyvn’s very core, creeping through the cracks between the pools.
I shudder as I gulp pure maegic into my lungs with each breath, feeling it fill my veins and permeate my bloodstream. The Remnant mark on my breast throbs with suppressed power, an icy burn against my flesh—so antithetical to the air, whichgrows hotter and hotter as we move deeper into the ring of odd sulfuric pools. I have been in places of natural power before, from Seahaven’s Starlight Wood to the portal at the heart of the Forsaken Forest to the warded chamber tucked away behind Caeldera’s great falls…but this is by far the most potent.
Penn’s shoulders move visibly beneath his cloak as he breathes deep. The maegic is affecting him, too. I can see the flush of it on the exposed skin at his neck, reddening the sharp cut of his cheekbones. His hands are fisted tightly at his sides, and I know his control is being sorely tested.
“Is there a portal here?”
Without answering aloud, he points to the left. My eyes follow the gesture beyond the field of pools. I spot it almost instantly—a jagged arch of slate gray rocks, stacked one atop another to form a nondescript doorway. A faint shimmer disturbs the air around it, the only indication of the glamour that conceals it from mortal eyes.
“Are we using it?”
“No.” Penn answers without breaking stride.
“Why are we here, then?”
“I want to show you something.”
My brows lift. “What?”
“You’ll see.”
I heave a sigh.
“Not much farther,” he notes, sounding somewhat entertained by my impatience.
We come to the largest of the pools, set at the edge of the bight, just out of reach of the waves’ spraying foam. Twice as wide as the others and several feet deeper, it is a vivid orange color striated liberally with yellow and green. To my utter delight, it is surrounded by dozens of lounging lizard-like creatures with bodies of near-identical coloring to the pool. Anatural camouflage. Some are small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, others are the size of a house cat. They pay us little mind as they doze on the superheated rocks. A smile stretches my lips wide as I watch one of their black tongues flick out—and, with it, a small fireball that floats up into the sky.
“Are they dragons?” I ask, enchanted by the sight.
“No. They are fymandridae. Fire salamanders.”
I drop into a crouch, wanting a closer look, and am rewarded with fiery warnings from the creatures closest to me. Several tiny fireballs shoot in my direction and I jolt backward into Penn’s legs, nearly knocking him over in the process.
“Sorry.” I giggle as he helps me regain my feet. “They surprised me.”
He stares at me for a long moment, his eyes intent. They are swimming with fire maegic, two pools of molten lava that scorch me where I stand.
“Don’t apologize,” he whispers. “It’s been a long time since I heard your laugh or saw your smile.”
The smile slips off my mouth. I swallow hard, ignoring the way my stomach clenches. “Is that why you brought me here?”
“Is it so inconceivable that I would seek to make you happy?”
“No,” I murmur. “I just…”
He sounds suddenly tired. “Justwhat, Rhya?”