41. Atikus

Chapter 41

Atikus

I stared into the darkness.

What had once been the most beautiful, vibrant sight I had ever seen was now devoid of light or life. Even the residual glow of the crystals along the hallway through which I’d run as the mountain shook had begun to dim.

My head swiveled, searching for any speck of light.

“Declan? Kels??” I cried over and over, stumbling through the darkened cavern.

The only answer was my own voice echoing through the mountain’s heart.

As I nudged my way forward, my foot caught on something jagged that shouldn’t exist where I knew smooth, transparent flooring should have lay.

I kneeled and felt with my fingers.

Sharp edges scored a line across one bony digit. Unseen blood trickled into the chamber’s gaping wound.

“Damned darkness,” I muttered, wishing for light to see how deeply I’d cut my finger.

I stumbled back as a ball of swirling, pulsing light bloomed before me. The chamber was suddenly bathed in a dim, flickering glow.

“Sweet Spirits, how—”

I looked down at the massive crack in the floor, and horror hammered in my chest.

The currents of magic I recalled drifting beneath, with their gentle mist stretching upward, now oozed like sludge, bubbling and hissing as they passed beneath the crack. It looked more like syrup or oil than a mystical spring.

A foul scent of wrongness prickled my nose, and I had to smother a cough in the crook of my elbow.

The glowing orb waited a few paces before me. When I moved to inspect the Well’s platform, it led the way, casting its eerie light some twenty paces in every direction. I wished for brighter light, and the ball blazed.

“How—”

The rational scholar seized control and began testing every insane theory that flooded my mind.

First, I held out my palm and thought of ice. An instant later, the air around me warmed , and a ball of pure, frozen water formed in my palm. I’d just pulled the heat from the surrounding air, combined it with moisture, and frozen it, all with barely a thought.

That is not possible. I have no Gift for . . . any of this.

I tossed the ice aside and held out my palm again, this time thinking of fire. The surrounding air cooled, and sapphire flame erupted and hovered above my hand.

My stomach growled, so I pictured the platter of bacon still sitting on the kitchen table. Barely an eye blink later, the blaze was replaced by a platter of fried pork. I gasped and stumbled backward, dropping the platter to scatter across the floor.

“I wish Pel could see this,” I breathed, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose with gnarled fingertips.

“Atikus?”

My eyes flew open, and I found myself standing above Mage Pel’s bed, the bleary-eyed, startled man staring up.

I drew a sharp breath and bowed my head.

“The Gift has been shattered.”