Page 388 of Elemental Becoming

I know him.

He is my heart.

That truth cuts through the darkness, sharper than Calryx’s roar and stronger than the pain trying to drag me under.

He’s waiting for me.

I squint underwater. The thread is no longer distant. It shines through the darkness, glowing and unwavering. I reach for it with everything I have left.

And I grasp it.

The moment my fingers close around the bond, Thane floods into me.

His presence crashes through the darkness, fierce and familiar. I feel the panic he’s trying to contain, the ache in his chest, and the desperate determination holding him together.

He’s still reaching for me.

Still fighting for me.

Still refusing to let go.

I tighten my grip on the thread.

I’m still here.

The words rise from somewhere deep inside me. I send them through the bond.

The response is immediate.

I feel him hear me and the relief that follows.

A hand breaks through the surface above me, reaching down into the darkness.

Reaching for me.

Gods.

I see it.

I reach up, my fingers stretching toward his. They tremble with the effort, but I force them higher. Our hands meet and he pulls me upward.

Up.

Up.

Up.

The darkness begins to peel away. The weight lifts. The water dissolves into light.

Then I break through the surface.

Gasping.

Air slams into my lungs like fire and life all at once. Sunlight floods my vision, too bright and too sharp, and suddenly the world is sound and breath and color.

I’m supine on the battlefield.

I roll onto my side, coughing violently. My body convulses as I choke and gasp, heaving up water as though I had truly been drowning, as though the black sea inside my mind had somehow filled my lungs and was now pouring out.