Odin snorted, shaking his mane and stomping his front hoof as he eyed the black-and-brown-scaled Crolee.

“You’re fine, Odin.” Ash sighed. “They’re nowhere near you.”

I grinned as Crolee turned his large head toward the warhorse and let out a huffing laugh as Odin slammed his hoof down again.

“What’s his problem?” I asked.

Ash looked over at me, his hair more of a deep brown in the starlight. “He feels upstaged.”

I laughed as I glanced at the other onyx-hued draken. Ehthawn was slightly larger than his cousin, and his horns were thicker but not as numerous as those on Nektas. He watched me curiously as if wondering what in the world I was doing.

Poking at my other fang, I refocused. The feeling I had probably wasn’t delusions of grandeur. It was foresight. The heightened intuition that told me life didn’t just exist in mortals and gods. Life was all around us, in the trees and the ground. I studied my hands, thinking about how I’d healed the wounded hawk in the Red Woods—the chora, an extension of a Primal that takes the form of their Primal notam. Unbeknownst to me, the hawk had belonged to Attes.

There had also been Gemma.

The embers had healed the wounded. Was the land here not wounded? While I’d tried to use my touch before against the Rot and failed, it was different now. The Rot was gone, and I was no longer a vessel for the embers. I was the embers.

“It might work the same way as it does when I heal someone,” I said, lifting my gaze from my hands as that tingling sensation returned. “It’s worth a try.”

A moment passed. “You really feel like you have to do this?”

“I do.”

Ash opened his mouth but then closed it. He nodded, and I had a feeling he wanted to talk me out of this.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him.

Ash inclined his chin, but the tic in the muscles of his jaw said he saw right through that assurance.

Hopefully, I would be okay. Healing hadn’t really taken that much of a toll on me before, but this was obviously different. And it was a risk, and possibly a foolish one.

But it was also a gift.

Lowering myself to my knees, I placed my palms against the dry earth of the bank. Soil crumbled at my touch, slipping between my fingers. Feeling Ash getting closer, I closed my eyes and did what I’d done before.

The essence throbbed within me, heating my skin. I opened one eye just as an aura of gold-streaked silver eather pulsed from my palms, spilling onto the dirt.

I waited.

And waited a few more moments.

“Nothing’s happening, is it?” I said.

“Not yet.” Ash knelt behind me. “Maybe it takes some time.”

“Or maybe I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“There is that.”

I slowly turned my head to him.

His silver eyes were the color of the stars above as they met mine. “What are you thinking when you try this?”

“What I’ve done before,” I answered. “I’m wishing for water to return.”

A dark eyebrow rose. “And that is what you did before? You simply wished to heal wounds and give life?”

“I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but yes, that’s what I did.”

“What about when you used the embers to fight?” he asked. “When you freed me?”

“I did the same.”

A lock of hair fell against his cheek when he cocked his head. “I don’t think that’s all you did.”

“Well, if you know what I did, then why don’t you tell me—?” I snapped my mouth shut as it suddenly occurred to me. “It was different as the embers grew stronger. I didn’t wish. I willed it.”

Holding my gaze, Ash nodded. “Remember what I said earlier? The essence is tied to your will. Not your wishes. That is what it responds to.” He paused. “Then again, maybe you’re not capable of bringing water to life.”

My eyes narrowed.

Ash grinned.

“Shut up,” I muttered halfheartedly as I turned to the river channel.

Taking another deep breath, I once more flattened my hands against the arid soil. I didn’t close my eyes this time. I stared at my fingers and the golden swirl on my right hand. Focusing on the pulse of eather inside me, I held on to it, coaxing it to the surface. My skin grew even warmer. A faint golden glow appeared beneath the skin of my hands, slowly traveling up my arms. I felt it flowing across the skin hidden beneath my cloak as I lifted my gaze to the river channel.

In my mind, I pictured fresh, clear water filling the waterway, rolling over the parched earth and soothing its cracks and scars. I willed it. Holding the image in my mind, I demanded it. Water would come. It would. Water would come.

The glow around my hands intensified, flaring with brighter pulses. Water would come. It would rush through this channel, healing this land. Bring life back to it. Water would. I would restore life—

Energy swelled, pressing against my skin. I’d gotten used to the ebb and flow of eather I used to only feel in the center of my chest, and even its intense force the handful of times I’d tapped into the essence of the Primals, but what I felt pulsing through me now was something else entirely.

A low trilling sound came from Ehthawn. Eather pulsed from my palms, rippling out in dozens—no, hundreds—of fine streaks. Arcs of eather went in every direction, covering the riverbed in a network of silvery-gold radiance that beat back the encroaching night. The spiderweb of luminous brilliance throbbed rapidly. One. Two. Three. Then slapped into the dry earth with a shocking, thunderous clap.

Sucking in a startled breath, I jerked back. Ash caught me by the arms, stopping me from toppling over.

“Sera?” Concern filled his voice as he cupped my cheek. He started to turn my head to his.

The ground trembled beneath us. All around us. Dirt beaded and clumped, rolling down the sides of the riverbank.

“Shit.” Ash stood, lifting me as Odin whinnied nervously. He urged me back a step.

Crolee lifted his head, letting out a low-pitched, staggered cry as the riverbed shuddered.

My stomach dipped. “Is it possible that I created an earthquake?”

“I’m beginning to wonder that myself. We should probably move—” he cut himself off with a sharp inhale. “Fates.”

“What?” I scanned the land, not seeing what had caused him to stiffen.

“Look,” he whispered hoarsely.

“I’m looking.” Panic and frustration crashed together. “Where?”

Ash curved his fingers around my chin and guided my gaze down to the center of the channel, where he pointed with his other hand. “There.”

I didn’t see what he was talking about at first. It was just the ground vibrating hard enough to cause the pebbles to bounce. But that…

“That’s not pebbles,” I gasped.

A short laugh burst from him. “No, liessa, it is not.”

Slipping free of his grasp, I went to the edge and bent slightly to get a better look. What I thought had been pebbles dancing in the vibrations were thousands of waterdrops. I looked down the riverbed a ways, stunned to see small puddles forming.

“It’s like it’s raining from the ground.” I laughed. “Gods, that sounds silly.”

Ash was right behind me. “But that’s what it looks like.”

Clasping my hands together, I tried to fight a smile but lost as I looked back at the palace. “This is…wow.” I glanced up at Ash. “It’s going to take forever this way, but this—”

I jumped back as a geyser of water erupted from the center of the riverbed, spraying the air with dirt and cold liquid. Ash caught me with an arm around my waist as the water expanded and grew, forming wings.

He all but picked me up and dragged me back to where Odin and the draken waited as another funnel of water broke through the ground, stretching high into the sky and sprouting water wings. Then another and another—

“I feel like the eather heard your complaint,” Ash stated dryly.