Page 355

With a mighty flap of his wings, they were airborne.

The power was still spilling out of her, but it was no longer the most important thing. Not compared to the warmth of Calcifer beneath her hands, the steady rise and fall of his breath.

He needed her. Maybe everyone else would get by without her. Maybe they’d be better off if she let herself be consumed back into that well of awe-inspiring power that birthed her own. But he wouldn’t. Without her, he’d die.

And that was enough to pull her back—to have some of herself, her own will, resurface.

She had to close the rift. Had to keep the city from being swallowed whole.

Had to bar the ferry’s path before Charon claimed what was his.

They rose, higher and higher—spiraling around and around the storm of her magic to where reality dissolved into eternity.

Taly clenched her fist, gathering her magic there. The air thinned, her breath coming in sharp, visible puffs.

Higher and higher.

Around and around.

Only when they were high enough—when the void clawed at her, the cold seeping into her bones, and every last bit of aether had been dragged from her body and compacted into a single, blinding mass.

When she was close enough to see a shape cutting through the dark, moving without wind or sound.

Only then did she unleash it.

The golden gale ejected from her body and was immediately sucked upward.

Beneath them, the storm collapsed, its winds dragged into the same pull.

Taly threw her arms around Calcifer’s neck as he fought against the force, struggling not to get sucked in too.

The aether kept pouring out of her, an endless stream spewing into the blackness of space. And she let it. If the void wanted power, she would give it everything.Anythingto take herself back.

Slowly, impossibly, it began to close.

The more she fed into the wound, the faster it sealed, the jagged edges of the Weave knitting shut.

A breathless laugh escaped her, half-strangled by exhaustion and swallowed by wind.Thank the Shards.For a moment, she was afraid she might’ve broken reality.

For my fifth gift, the goddess whispered, her voice threading through the storm, weaving through the rocks, debris, and bits of harpies it carried,I will make you eternal.

Taly felt it like a flame passing through her, a final searing push of power.

A golden hand slipped over hers from behind, and for a moment, warm breath ghosted over her ear.

Arise fair maiden of the Dawnand take your place in the Hall of Legends. When your body is dust, they will still sing of the day you cheated Death of his rightful claim.

And as the first rays of a new morning broke over the horizon, gilding her skin, Taly exploded.

Power ripped from her in a blinding burst of gold.

Light scorched her vision. Wind shrieked, flinging her from Calcifer’s back.

She fell.

Air knifed past her ears, the world tilting, spinning. Magic peeled off her skin in golden streaks as the city twisted far below.

As the last bit of that strange magic finally bled out of her, the bond snapped into focus.