The deck was wet and cold.. We were alive.
I lay on my back. Stared at the sky. The stars were fading. Morning was coming. The special stars that had guided us here were gone. They had faded back into the sky.. Maybe they were never really there. Maybe they only showed up when we needed them.
Lina was beside me. She had her hand in mine. Her hand was warm. Her eyes were closed. She was breathing steadily.
She was alive.
I squeezed her hand. She squeezed back. It was a squeeze.. It was there.
"You saved him " I said.
She didn't open her eyes. "I almost lost him."
". You didn't."
She was quiet for a moment. Then she opened her eyes. They were dark brown and warm. They weren't glowing.
"I saw it Kael. The thing inside him. It wasn't just cold. It was hungry. It wanted his fire. His strength. His life.. It was stronger than me."
She turned her head. Looked at me. Her eyes were wet.
"I almost let it take him. I almost let it take me."
". You didn't."
She was quiet. Then she smiled a little. It was a smile.. It was real.
"No " she said. "I didn't."
Raka was on the side of the deck. Kirana sat beside him. She had her hand on his shoulder. His face was still pale.. His eyes were open. He was breathing. He was alive.
"How do you feel?" Maya asked. She was standing near the railing. Her silver bracelet wasn't making any noise.
Raka tried to smile. It didn't work. "Like something tried to eat my soul."
"That's not funny " Kirana said.
"I'm not trying to be funny."
He looked at Lina. At the girl who had saved him. Who had gone inside him. Who had fought something in the darkness. Won.
"Thank you " he said.
Lina nodded. She didn't speak.
Raka looked at his hands. His hands that had made fire. That had protected us. That had almost been taken.
"I felt it " he said. "The thing inside me. It wasn't just trying to take my power. It was trying to take—" He. Swallowed. "It was trying to take me. Everything I was. Everything I could be. It wanted to hollow me out and leave something in its place."
He looked at Lina again.
"How did you fight it?"
Lina was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "I didn't fight it. I—" She stopped. Her hand tightened on mine. "I became something it couldn't touch."
Aldo came to us as the sun rose.
He moved among us. He checked our wounds. He looked at our breathing. He looked at our eyes. He looked at Raka the longest. His pale blue eyes were worried.
"You were touched " he said. "By something from the deep. Something that should have stayed there."
Raka nodded. "Lina saved me."
Aldo looked at Lina. His eyes were tired.. There was something else there. Something like recognition.
"I know " he said. "I know what she did."
He turned to me. "The Core. Do you have it?"
I pulled the stone from my pocket. It was quiet and dark.
Aldo stared at it for a moment. His hand reached out. Then it stopped. He pulled it back.
"Your grandfather held that stone once " he said. "He was close enough to take it.. He didn't. He was afraid of what would wake."
He looked at me. "You weren't afraid."
"I was afraid " I said. "I took it anyway."
Aldo smiled a little. It was a smile.. It was proud.
"Yes " he said. "You did."
The journey back took two days.
Two days of silence. Two days of watching the water. Two days of waiting for something to follow us. Nothing did.
On the night Raka slept. He slept for real. Not the sleep of exhaustion. The sleep of someone who had been saved from something that should have killed him.
Kirana sat beside him the time. She didn't sleep. She didn't move. She just watched him breathe.
On the night Maya sat at the bow. Her silver bracelet was quiet. Her eyes were on the horizon. She didn't speak. She didn't need to.
I sat beside Lina.
She was looking at the water. At the darkness beneath the surface. At the place where something had touched Raka. Where something had almost taken him.
"You're thinking about it " I said.
"The thing inside him?. The thing I became?"
I didn't answer.
She was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "When I went inside him I saw myself. Not the way I look in a mirror. The way I am. What I am."
She looked at her hands. Her warm hands. The hands that had held mine since we were children.
"There was light in me Kael. Light I didn't know was there. Light that came from somewhere I don't remember.. When I used it—when I pushed the darkness out of Raka—I felt it grow. Like something waking up. Like something that had been waiting for me to use it."
She looked at me. Her eyes were not glowing.. There was something in them. Something that had been there since the temple. Something that would not go away.
"I'm afraid Kael. I'm afraid of what I'm. I'm afraid of what I might become."
I took her hand. Her warm hand.
"You're Lina " I said. "That's all you need to be."
She smiled a little.. It reached her eyes.
"That's what you always say."
"Because it's always true."
She leaned against me. Her head on my shoulder. Her hand in mine.
We watched the stars fade. The sun rise. The water turn from black to blue to gold.
For a moment—just a moment—everything was quiet. Everything was still. Everything was safe.
The Academy appeared on the horizon in the afternoon.
The white walls. The black iron gate. The tower with the statue at its peak. It looked the same. It felt different.
Aldo was waiting at the dock. He had gone ahead somehow. Maybe he had his way of moving faster than the rest of us.
He looked at us as we stepped off the boat. At Raka, pale but standing. At Kirana steady at his side. At Maya, her bracelet quiet her eyes clear. At Lina her hand in mine her eyes warm.
At me. At the stone, in my pocket. At the weight I was carrying.
"You have it " he said.
I pulled the stone from my pocket. It was quiet and dark.
"Yes " I said.
Aldo looked at it for a moment. Then he looked at me.
"There are nine " he said. "Nine more artifacts. Nine locks.. The things that are waking—" He stopped. His eyes moved to Lina. "The things that are waking will not wait forever."
I put the stone back in my pocket. "Then we won't wait either."
Aldo nodded. He turned. Walked toward the gate.
"Rest " he said. "Tomorrow we talk about the one. The Void. In the Gobi Desert."
We followed him. Through the gate. Through the grounds. Through the halls that had become our home.
Behind us the sea was quiet. The water was still.. Somewhere in the darkness of the deep something was breathing. Something that had begun to wake.
Somewhere in the desert something was waiting.