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I don’t follow the newbloods deeper into the Notch, to the tunnels and holes where they can practice without hurting each other Instead, I face the stor rain hit me head-on Cal’s warmth is quickly snuffed out, abandoned behind irl
The clouds are dark above, swirling with the weight of rain and snow A nymph would find them easy to manipulate, as would a Silver storm When I was Mareena, I lied and said my mother was a storm of House Nolle She could influence the weather as I can control electricity And in the Bowl of Bones, I called bolts of lightning out of the sky, shattering the purple shield aboveCal and me from Maven’s soldiers as they closed in It weakened er now
My eyes narrow against the rain, ignoring the sting of each freezing drop It soaks through ers and toes But they do not nu web beneathslowly like a black heart It intensifies the ers of static spin frole into the low rain clouds The hairs on the back ofwith energy A lightning storrip on what I’ve created, hoping it resounds
The first clap of thunder is soft, barely a ru down in the valley, briefly visible through thepurple and white I gasp at the sight, both in pride and exhaustion Every blast of lightning feels brilliant inside ot no ai to the Notch, careful to keep as dry as he can beneath a lip of roof Away froh he eats as well as he did in the Stilts Long hunts and constant anger have taken their toll
"Guess it’s for the best, if you insist on practicing with that so close to ho at the valley In the distance, a tall pine s, do us all a favor and take a hike"
"Are you talking toto hide how out of breath I a tree A weak bolt slices down a hundred yards aell past where I’hed at ht back But his mind hasOnce I hated them Now Ihis poorly cut hair He refused to let Farley shear hi Kilorn with an uneven curtain of tawny locks "Are you letting o to Corros?" he finally asks
"You volunteered"
The grin that splits his face is as white as the snow falling around us I wish he didn’t want this so badly I wish he would listen, and stay behind But Cal says Kilorn will trust me to make my own decisions So Iup forevery word
He tips his head, shoving his hair out of his eyes He picks at the earthen wall behind hi "You think you would’ve learned how to convince people after all those Silver lessons But then, you are pretty stupid"
Our laughter one by In that moment, we’re different from e are now, but the same as we’ve always been
We haven’t talked in weeks, and I didn’t realize howout everything, but fight the painful urge It hurts to hold back, to not tell hiht, or how Cal’s night He knows Mare as no one else does, as I know the fisher boy Kilorn But those people are gone Those people one They cannot survive in a world like this I need to be so but her own strength He et the person I need to be
Silence lingers, soft as the clouds of our breath in the cold air
"If you die, I’ll kill you"
He set h drilling in the yard paired with long planning sessions run us all ragged Our recruitle asp of either relief or horror, and they were both a ruin onto leave their mothers, too many torn away from the life they knew For better or worse, I did it to therounded, andover maps and floor plans, I feel another kind of shame I’ve abandoned the ones still out there, just like Caion How many more babies and children will die?
But I aer s But she remains, frantic, wide-eyed, afraid I push her away in every waking moment, but still she haunts me She never leaves
Everyone sleeps hard, even Cal, who ets asagain, allowing himself back into the fold, Cal pulls away more and more as the hours tick by It’s like he has no room left in his head for conversation Corros has already entrapped him He wakes before I do, to jot downover every scrap of paper we can scrounge together Ada is his greatest asset, and she ht burn holes in the maps Cameron is never far away Despite Cal’s orders, she looks more exhausted by the minute Dark circles round her eyes, and she leans or sits whenever she can But she doesn’t complain, at least in front of the others
Today, our last day before the raid, she’s in a particularly foul ets Naritted teeth She falls to a knee, waving her hand in Cao, her ability falling away, pulling back the stifling curtain of silence "You’re supposed to knock out h she’s frootten harbor town already assaulted by snow and sea storms, she pulls her coat closer around her Cameron’s silence doesn’t only take away your blood-born weapons, it shuts you down entirely Your pulse slows, your eyes darken, and your te in your bones
"Sorry" Ca in as feords as possible A welcoood at this"
Lory snaps back in kind "Well, you better get good, and fast We leave tonight, Cole, and you’re not just cohts Instigate them, yes, watch theuing "Lory, enough Cameron, once more" Mareena’s court voice does me well here, and both stop to listen "Block her sense Make her normal Control what she is"