Page 21

Twenty-One

T he silence was deafening. Her ears rang with all that she accomplished with her cohort. Her fingers tingled where they made contact with the Heart, as if congratulating her. It felt both unreal and real at the same time. The Heart of the Thunder Court was gracing her skin.

“We did it!” Roz exclaimed, her face beaming with an almost disturbing delight.

The others cheered and hollered, proud of what they accomplished. Zoya was the first to let go of the Heart as she embraced Janina tightly. Lycaster fell to his knees, but all the adrenaline must have prevented him from feeling the pain of the hard ground.

Kamine's own joy was short-lived. A churning in her stomach told her something was off. A deep despair seemed to loom.

“Zoya, did you stop all the rocks?” Kamine asked.

Zoya responded, her face cringing. “It slowed when I left, but you know this doesn’t end until the Heart is found. There might have been another onslaught.”

Kamine furrowed her brows. Her family had to be alright. Grimot had to be alright. She tried convincing herself, but the feeling deep in her gut told her otherwise, told her she needed to run.

“I need—” she stumbled over her words. Zoya gave her an encouraging smile. “I should go,” she pointed behind her.

Kamine finally let go of the amethyst Heart. The sensation of success wiped away from her, and the seriousness of it all came back. She needed to find Grimot. She needed to find her heart.

Even with all the training, Kamine’s feet were tired. Her ankles ached, and she kept almost twisting them on the uneven ground. She wanted to get to him fast, but she also wanted to be in one piece when she arrived. One of the lenses of her glasses had cracked at some point, but she didn’t let that deter her from her goal.

Grimot is okay, Grimot is okay , she chanted to herself as she pumped her legs across one village, and into the next. People began to come out of their safe havens to inspect the damage. They were barely a whisper in the wind as she trudged forward.

At one point, she was in a large empty field, and a few cattle grazed the grass. They looked spooked from the Undertaking, but hopefully some grass in their bellies would calm them.

Luckily, Grimot and Zoya came from the same village in the east, Schod, so she knew the direction of it. Though, she had no idea exactly where she was or how much farther it was to Schod. She searched for a home on the farm, and found a barn. No one was inside, but when she circled the perimeter, she found an old woman, shoulders hunched forward due to age, with her head bent upwards and yelling at the roof.

“Excuse me,” Kamine said with a sense of urgency in her voice. “Do you know which way is east?”

The woman stepped back, startled. Kamine didn’t notice it until now, but the woman’s arm was wrapped in a sling. “It’s that way,” she pointed to her right with her uninjured hand.

Kamine prepared to leap off and go, but stopped herself as the woman turned her eyes back to the roof, her hand arched over her eyes to block the sun that had just come out.

Kamine took a peak and noticed a small cat perched up there. It looked frightened.

“She won’t come down,” the woman said. “She was out here during it all. She’s lucky to still be kicking.”

Kamine didn’t think twice. She moved the ground beneath the barn and the cat leaped down into the woman’s arms after some hesitation. Hopefully, that didn’t further traumatize it.

The woman thanked her, but Kamine was off before she could finish.

Each street she passed, each hill she tiredly faced, brought her closer to him. The only thing that motivated her to continue was to see his face and the stubble that covered it. She couldn’t wait to drag her fingers through his hair, couldn’t wait to press her lips into his, not caring how disheveled she appeared.

She couldn’t wait to tell him that she, along with the others, found and touched the Heart together. She had broken his curse because she had accomplished this with him. Without him, she never would have been able to do it.

She was ready to hear his side of his story, to listen as he explained himself. Like Zoya and Janina said, she deserved the truth—his truth, not Kestra’s.

She crossed into his village and as she crept further in, the damage appeared minimal. A tree had been crushed, the roads blocked. Zoya had done a good job.

Kamine sighed a breath of relief.

Then, she heard a raging scream.

Kamine bolted in that direction. A pregnant woman was kneeling in front of what Kamine assumed was her home. A man was digging through the rubble. Kamine noticed, as she neared, his arms were slashed with red marks.

“What happened?” Kamine asked them urgently.

“He’s trapped, he’s trapped!” the woman shouted while she rocked back and forth on her knees, holding onto her belly, as if the life inside her could bring out the life under the rocks.

“Who?” Kamine whispered, already knowing what the response would be.

“Grimot!” the woman yelled, as if she were calling to him, and not responding to Kamine’s question.

No , Kamine thought. He can’t be under there. He would be dead.

“Watch out,” she warned the man. Kamine now guessed they were Grimot’s parents. Looking at the man now, it was obvious. Even from a distance, those piercing black eyes matched his son’s.

But Grimot’s father wouldn’t move, as if he refused to keep trying to save his son.

“Move,” Kamine said more sternly, but he still wouldn’t listen. “I can help,” Kamine now pleaded with his mother. “He just needs to move.”

His mother nodded as she called to her husband. His father’s shoulders slumped, but he finally came away from the rubble.

“I would back up and hold onto something,” Kamine warned.

They seemed to trust her, and did as they were told without protest.

Kamine needed to be careful. She needed to bend the ground so the rocks on top tumbled outwards and away from where he might be crushed. So she concentrated, and she allowed the love she had for him to lead her powers. Because she did, she realized. She loved him. She had no idea when that happened, but it made sense in the end. He never gave up on her, even when she wanted him to. How could she not love him after that?

He would tell her not to, but Kamine closed her eyes. She didn’t need to see the rocks moving, instead she pictured him. The way his hands were strong and confident. The way his shirt was always loosely tucked into his perfectly pressed pants. The way he had no problem wrinkling them so that he could climb on top of her, and ruin her sanity. She saw him sitting in his chair in his private library, the way he would alway lightly scratch his face as the words distracted him from the world, and how with just one word from her, she could pull him back out.

“Come back to me,” she said and repeated. “Come back, come back.”

The pile of rocks moved. She had no idea where his body would be, but she trusted her powers would instinctively guide her. She poured out her love in bursts. Love for him. Love for her family. Love for her mother. Love her friends and cohort.

“I see him,” his father said.

Kamine opened her eyes, and she saw his body. His arm was bloodied, but she could see the small rise and fall of his chest. She let out a whimper as she went to his side, tripping over the rubble.

She touched his cheek, but his eyes remained shut.

“Rest,” she whispered. “We’ll get you somewhere safe.”