Page 70 of Stormvein (The Veinbound Trilogy #2)
My power explodes out of me without thought, light erupting in response to seeing Sacha betrayed again . Lightning strikes the ground at Lisandra’s feet, forcing her to leap backward.
I tear myself free of Varam and race down the ridge toward the hollow, abandoning all pretense at staying hidden. I don’t know if anyone is following me, and I don’t care. My focus is locked onto Sacha as he turns to face Sereven once more, just as the other man raises the crystal.
A beam of blue light breaks free, striking Sacha in the chest again.
He staggers, shadows tearing away, leaving him vulnerable.
Sereven presses his advantage, and the crystal’s light cuts through Sacha’s defenses, each beam ripping away more shadows.
Yet he doesn’t retreat from the pain it must be causing.
My power surges again, responding to Sacha’s danger in waves of silver light that pulse outward from my body.
Every instinct I’ve developed since arriving in this world screams at me to reach him, to help him, to stop whatever is happening before it’s too late.
I can’t lose him again. Not after everything we’ve survived together.
The mist stalker roars inside my head, but I dare not let it free, in case it weakens my focus.
I reach them as Sacha falls to one knee, his shadows in tatters around him. I press one hand against the wound in his back, and my other hand finds his. Where my fingers touch skin, threads of silver flow into him, seeking out the damage.
The moment I touch him, power erupts between us. My power surges into Sacha, targeting the places where his shadows have been torn away. Where silver meets shadow, new patterns form, intricate spirals and whorls.
The sensation is electric, intimate in ways that transcend physical touch, as if our essences are merging, exchanging, and strengthening each other. I can feel him everywhere—his determination, his pain, his protectiveness.
Can he feel me too?
The boundaries between us blur as my power fills up the broken places in his. His shadows curl around my silver in response, not in defense but in acknowledgement, dancing with it in perfect harmony.
Sereven’s eyes widen as the combined energy pushes back against the crystal’s power. The blue light falters, its beam no longer cutting through Sacha’s defenses but meeting resistance it has never encountered before.
"Impossible," Sereven breathes, staring at our joined hands.
The crystal pulses erratically, its light flickering as if struggling against unexpected interference. For a moment, it seems we might overcome it completely, might wrest it from Sereven’s grasp.
Then Sereven staggers backward, the crystal clutched protectively against his chest. The remaining Authority guards scramble to close around him, forming a defensive barrier between us.
His eyes snap to me, and the color drains from his face.
"Elowen." His eyes are fixed on me with horrified recognition. "It can’t be?—"
The name coming from his mouth sends a cold shock through my entire body.
Elowen . My full name—my real name—the one I haven’t used since I was a small child. The one on the note they found with me when I was abandoned. How could this man from another world, this enemy of Sacha’s who I’ve never spoken to before, look at me with such recognition? Such fear ?
His face has transformed completely. The cold confidence replaced by something I never expected to see—genuine fear. Not just surprise or shock, but bone-deep terror, as if I represent something far more dangerous than he ever anticipated.
Before I can process what this means, arrows fly from the ridge above, forcing Sereven and his remaining guards to retreat further or die. The other part of our group has reached Lisandra, and are pulling her to her feet.
"We need to go," Varam shouts from behind us. "More Authority forces are approaching."
I help Sacha to his feet, keeping one hand pressed against his back where silver light continues to flow into the wound.
His shadows have steadied around us, no longer fractured but moving with renewed purpose.
Some of them reach out, flowing toward where Lisandra stands frozen with her bloody dagger.
She tries to step back, but tendrils of shadow wrap around her wrists and ankles. Her weapon clatters to the ground as she’s pulled forward.
“No,” she says, struggling against the shadow-bonds. “Let me?—”
“You’re coming with us.” Sacha’s voice is quiet but implacable. His shadows lift her bodily, carrying her along as we begin our retreat. “We’ll discuss your actions later.”
His eyes meet mine, but we don’t have time to talk about what happened. We have to keep moving, and get out of here. Sacha’s raven soars overhead, and a quick glance at him shows me his eyes are fully black as he connects with the bird, seeing what it sees.
"He knew my name," I say quietly, still trying to process what happened. "My real name."
Sacha’s eyes meet mine, shadows shifting beneath his skin, his control over his appearance non-existent. What runs beside me now is the Vareth’el, not the man. "Yes."
"What does it mean?"
"I don’t know yet," he admits. "But together, we affected the crystal in a way Sereven clearly didn’t anticipate. That’s significant."
I glance at Sacha again, thinking about the way my power flowed into him where his shadows were damaged, healing him where he stood. Is that what it does, this power that’s taken root inside me?
Not only that, where our powers combined, it was enough to temporarily interfere with the crystal’s effect. Not enough to give us a complete victory. Not this time, anyway.
And then there was Sereven’s reaction to my presence, to the name he spoke with such horrified recognition.
Elowen.
I focus on the path ahead, aware that we’re still in danger, that Authority forces could be pursuing us, hiding somehow from Sacha’s shadows. But beneath the immediate concern for safety, a deeper question forms.
Who am I really? And why does Sereven seem to know more about it than I do?