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If I’d done so well, why did no one else have downed trees near them? Why were they giving me a little more space? Well, I couldn’t hold that one against them.

Still, I couldn’t stop the tremors as I stood there looking at the tree. What if I’d let it go and someone had gotten hurt? What if I’d killed someone—again.

Kaden looked at my hands. “Let’s take a quick break. I want to see if I can help some of the others.”

I crossed my arms, hoping no one else would notice. Luisca walked over with Tiber, a thermos in her hand.

“Let’s have a tea break,” she said, as if that would fix everything.

It might not fix things, but it wasn’t a bad start. I sat down on another fallen log, one I hadn’t felled, and Luisca poured me some of her tea.

I looked around at the people practicing, knowing that a couple more had been feeling the stirrings of power building within them. Still, there were some who had nothing happening, a few which hadn’t shown up today.

“Why are only some people getting stronger? And some don’t seem to have any powers at all?” I said.

“I’m not sure I can answer that question accurately,” Tiber said. “I can only tell you what legend says.”

Luisca rolled her eyes. “I’ll be back,” she said as she got up and headed toward the house.

“What does the legend say?” I asked.

Tiber smiled, as if he’d been hoping to get the chance to talk about this. As much as Kaden didn’t like discussing the old Kradix legends, Tiber seemed to live for them.

“NowthatI can tell you about.” He glanced around, his eyes lingering on a few people that hadn’t had any newfound magic. “Our legends say that when the rebirth starts, the pure of heart will regain their strength. Those who aren’t worthy? They won’t. If that’s true?” He threw his hands up. “I don’t know. No one can see into another’s heart or say what drives them. But I do see a certain trend with what’s happening with who and what I know of their characters.”

I didn’t know why, but there was a familiar feeling coming from the east.

“What is that?” I said, getting to my feet.

“It’s Kradix, maybe more than one, and they don’t know how to mute their signal.” Tiber was on his feet as well.

Kaden stopped what he was doing and headed in the direction of that feeling, which took him right toward us.

“You want us to come?” one of the guys called out.

“No. Keep practicing,” Kaden said.

Looked as if we were all feeling it.

Kaden kept walking, and damned if I was going to be left behind. Tiber came as well.

It took a good twenty minutes to get to the source. There were two young men in the field who were walking in our direction but slowed their steps as they saw us.

We stopped about ten feet shy of each other, leaving a nice, healthy buffer as each party took in the other. They looked no older than their early twenties, and bore a definite resemblance to each other.

The slightly taller one lifted his hands, as if surrendering before there was even a hint of a fight. “I’m sorry if we came uninvited, but something weird has been happening, and there was word we might find answers here.”

“Who told you about this place?” Kaden said.

“Our great-uncle. Some weird stuff has been going on with us lately, and he said that we were descendants of a great race that had all but disappeared. He said something about a rebirthing?” The man shrugged, looking as if he were waiting to either get shot or laughed at.

“We know. It sounds kind of crazy, but there’s definitely some weird things happening,” the other man said. “Do you know about any of this?”

The always stoic Tiber looked like he was about to jump up and down like a kid getting a new bike. What if he was right? What if all the legends were true? What other answer was there?

“Give us a minute,” Kaden said to the strangers.

Tiber, Kaden, and I all turned to each other.