Page 29 of Spirit Storm

It’s subtle at first. A vibration without sound. It resonates in me the way a phone buzzes when it's face-down on a thick table. I feel it. I press my mug against my knee and close my eyes.

Reaching out… I go still.

The blood bond.

Tharuzel’s taint on my bloodline is always present but has been dormant. Other than when he invades my dreams, I can almost pretend he’s not a part of me.

But this is different.

Whatever is happening, there’s a hum in my blood that wasn't there a moment ago, and underneath it something older, larger, and building…

I close my eyes again and reach out.

I extend my senses the way Wylder taught me, not demanding or forcing, just opening myself up to what already exists. I pull in a slow breath, and listen with a part of myself I didn't know only a few months ago.

The bond that ties me to Tharuzel stretches out before me like a line of the finest spiderweb. Something has plucked it, and I feel the vibration along its length.

I’m trying to understand what I'm⁠—

The wave hits, and I drop my mug as I grab for the stair rail. The smash of ceramic barely registers over the rush of my pulse through my ears.

It's not pain. It's something past pain, something that doesn't have a simple explanation.

It’s a massive exertion of power, raw and deliberate and ancient, and at the end of it a satisfaction that isn't mine.

It’s a sense of completion. Of triumph.

Finally.

My eyes snap open.

"Poppy?" Asher is kneeling on the step in front of me, Tanner right behind him. "What just happened, baby girl? Are you all right?"

I pull in a breath. "Tharuzel… he did another ritual. I felt it through the bond. I felt his triumph when the rock split.”

“What rock?”

I thought about that and shook my head. “No, not a rock… the stone split. He did something and broke the stone… or the seal on the stone… I don’t really know, but he’s feeling really good about himself that it’s destroyed.”

“Him feeling good about anything is bad for the rest of us. But how do you know? Were you sleeping during my super awesome training montage?" He looks over his shoulder at Tanner. “She sometimes connects with him in her sleep.”

Tanner nods. “When her mental shields are down. That makes sense.”

I blink, but will have to circle back around to that later. Right now, I need to…

My legs buckle when I try to stand, and Asher catches me as I fall. He scoops me into his arms, carries me up the back steps, and the house opens the back door so he can bring me inside.

The sudden warmth envelopes us, and Asher toes off his boots before carrying me over to the couch to lay me down. He takes off my boots and hands them to Tanner, who’s looking concerned.

“Are you okay, P?”

“Yeah, I think so. I just felt something weird and reached in to find out what it was. That’s when I linked in with Tharuzel. It’s like yesterday, when he did the ritual in that cave in Ireland and caused the earthquake.”

Tanner's expression shifts, and something behind his eyes goes careful and quiet.

Alarm bells start ringing in my head. "What does that mean to you, Tanner?”

"I can't interfere, Poppy. But, if I were to finish this lesson with Asher, I’d suggest he shift his focus from flagstone to lockstones."