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“Alexandra, we’re all born with Shadow inside us. But, as with anything, it’s up to us to decide what we do with that Shadow. We can succumb to its power, or we can overcome it and use it. Our level of control depends upon our ability to resist the Shadow’s hold on us. It’s a choice we must all make.”

A choice. That’s what Caspar Lennox had told her. So, she would choose.

“Help me up, will you?” she asked Jordan. “I won’t answer while this wet snow soaks through my clothes. It’s icky.”

Jordan looked to Aven, seeking permission. At the Meyarin’s terse nod, Jordan kept his blade steady against her neck with one hand while he used the other to yank her to her feet.

The Silverwood blurred in Alex’s vision while she wobbled on her unsteady legs and fought the urge to vomit.Okay, that wasn’t my smartest idea.

When she could see clearly again, she sought Jordan’s eyes. “You’re my best friend,” she told him quietly. “Remember that I love you. Bear, Dix… we all love you. Don’t forget.”

His eyes flickered again but his grip on her remained strong.

“Don’t give up,” she whispered thickly. “We’ll find a way to save you.”

“Time’s up, Alexandra,” Aven cut in. “Answer the question, or I’ll have to motivate you.” He dropped his voice and added, “And I can guarantee you won’t like how I choose to do that.”

Alex looked at Jordan one last time before she turned to Aven. “You still haven’t figured it out, have you?” she said. “I’m surprised. It’s so obvious.”

His blistering glare spoke more than his words ever could.

Throwing caution to the wind, she smiled darkly at him and said, “Allow me to show you, then.”

If I can fight like a Meyarin, maybe I can run like one too, Alex reasoned. It was worth a shot, anyway. She took a deep breath to centre herself, elbowed Jordan in the stomach, forced his sword away, and sprinted off into the forest.

The scenery whizzed by at an alarming speed, and her throbbing skull rebelled painfully against the rapid movement. She could hear Aven screaming at her, and her heightened senses picked up that he was following close behind—too close. But she only needed a head start, and that was what she’d achieved.

Using the same principle Roka had taught her, Alex concentrated on her surroundings. She felt the air as she ran, she smelled the wood of the trees and the fresh snow at her feet. She heard her footfalls and those of Aven catching up to her. She saw everything in crystal-clear detail. And when she held out her ring hand and narrowed her gaze, she saw even more. In, around, and through her very flesh swirled light and dark, both battling for dominance. It was beautiful. Entrancing. But Alex couldn’t pay it the attention it deserved—she had to focus.

“We’re all born with Shadow inside us… We can succumb to its power, or we can overcome it and use it… It’s a choice we must all make…”

Alex knew the choice she had to make, and what she had to do to make it. Caspar Lennox had told her, months earlier.

“…Immerse yourself fully in the Shadow…”

Alex closed her eyes as she ran at an impossible speed. She didn’t need to see where she was going—she could feel everything around her. Trusting her heightened senses, she acted on instinct, scrunching her hand into a fist and focusing inward at the Shadow swirling within her body, encouraging it to move down her arm and towards the ring.

The spine-tingling sensation was unlike anything she’d felt before. The effort to maintain her concentration caused her head to throb more painfully, and she nearly lost both her grip on the Shadow and her ability to keep running when her attention wavered. But then she thought of her friends—D.C. and Bear, who she needed to make it back to, and Jordan, who she had to leave behind for now—and that gave her the strength to hold on.

When she felt like the weight of the world was in her fingers—or really, just the one finger—she acted instinctively again and threw her fist forward, away from her body. Her eyes opened in time to see a thick cloud of dark, swirling Shadow fly from her hand and engulf the wintry landscape in front of her.

One step, two steps, three steps, and she launched herself into what she presumed—and hoped—was a Shadow-fuelled portal. Although she had no idea what she was doing, her intuition told her to channel her thoughts towards her destination—just like with a Bubbledoor—so she did exactly that, coercing the Shadow towards a single place:Raelia.

The darkness surrounded her, pulling at her clothes and slamming her body into invisible walls as it fought for her submission. Alex remembered Caspar Lennox’s words, howhe’d said that Shadow was powerful. Dangerous, even. He’d warned her about the need to resist. Not fight; just resist.

So, that’s what Alex did.

Instead of fighting her way through the darkness, Alex recalled the rest of Caspar Lennox’s words.

“The Shadow surrounds you.But the Light within you… I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Light. That was what Alex needed to focus on. Not the darkness, but the light.

She thought about the faces of her friends. Bear. Dix. Jordan. She remembered the day they’d first entered Raelia together, how they’d joked and laughed even in the most worrying of situations.

Then she thought about the other special people in her life. She pictured her parents and their enthusiastic zest for adventure. She remembered Kaiden dancing with her at the palace in Tryllin, just as she remembered Declan hugging her and promising to keep her secrets. She thought about Roka’s trust in her, Kyia’s approving smiles, and Zain’s annoying ‘little human’ jabs. She recalled Darrius’s kindness, Karter’s grudging respect, Hunter’s faith in her and Fletcher’s unending concern for her well-being.

They were her light. And they were what kept Alex from yielding to the Shadow, which was trying desperately to overwhelm her. Rather than submit, she fortified her mental defences and screamed out a single, commanding word: “RAELIA!”