Page 102 of Raven's Dawn
Not until so many of us banded together to fight the same wrong, the same atrocity that burdened so many. Not until I felt the Earth reach out to us all with an open palm, not until I heard it whisper, “We will save ourselves together.”
It wasn’t a true personification. It was just a sense, a knowing, that the Earth, or the universe, or nature itself, wanted this as badly as we did. That’s not to say the Earth was not alive and working with us. It wasn’t sentient in the way I understood that phrase, but it was a force all on its own, dropping into all of us like sunrays and lending its strength, its power, to join our fight for the better.
I didn’t understand why. To my knowledge, the air an tagadh were causing no harm to the land. But when I say that the universe, or the Earth, or whatever the hell it was, lent itself to us, it was no exaggeration.
Gradually, those bursts of light rising into the sky slowed. Before long, there were only one or two every few seconds.
“Put the shield down,” Jeremy said, audibly. “Warren, Ramona, and Luci, keep picking them off.”
In my mind, Laila spoke to us all. Bring the injured merrows to the boat.
Finally, I opened my eyes and let my rhythmic chant soften to a quiet whisper. I kept whispering it, though, because I didn’t want that feeling to leave me. That feeling of unity, power.
Still whispering, I watched the cage flicker. At my side, Ezra squeezed my hand. He hadn’t stopped whispering, either. Tears rolled down his cheeks, blood streaming from his nose, but a smile tilted the corners of his lips.
In unison, we kept whispering.
To each other, making sure that no one else heard, I said to his mind, Do you feel it?
He thumbed a bit of blood I hadn’t realized spilled from my nose. I don’t know what to call it, but yes, I feel it.
I don’t want to let it go.
Hopefully, we don’t have to.
A splash sounded on my left.
I turned that way just in time to see a half-naked, shivering Jeremy doggy paddling through the water toward Graham. Clutching onto the side of the boat, he shut his eyes. The limp figure in Graham’s arms stayed that way for a few heartbeats. Then she gasped to life. Together, Graham and Jeremy held her in place as they healed her. She squealed in agony, but they didn’t stop. Not until there was no more blood rolling from her lips.
She dropped her head onto Graham’s chest. Shutting his eyes, he squeezed her tight and planted a kiss on her forehead. She must have moved a bit, because he released her. She dipped down into the water, rainbow tail flapping helplessly against the surface.
“Only a few left now,” Warren murmured, eyes shut.
I traced a hand up and down his back and pecked his cheek.
Beside me, Ezra ran to the edge of the boat. He hollered over the edge, “Do you need help down there?”
Smiling, half laugh escaping, Graham shook his head. “I’ll help Luci and Jeremy with the last merrows. The lot of you, just breathe for a moment.”
A chuckle of my own escaping, I wiped my tears away.
And I still felt it.
I had stopped casting moments ago.
The shield was down.
The battle was over.
But I still felt it. That sense of unity, of strength, that rippled between us all. It was all-encompassing, so fulfilling. Grasping the railing of the boat, I took in and let out the deep breaths, just as Graham said to. And even though I wasn’t holding onto the power any longer, it still pulsed through me.
“I know that look.” Rania’s voice came from behind me, and her hand fell on my back just as I turned to look at her. For the first time that I’d seen, she was smiling. “You feel it.”
Swatting another tear away, I nodded.
She was a few inches shorter than me, but she stepped forward, kissed each of my cheeks, and waited for me to tuck my head down. When I did, she kissed my forehead. Before she pulled away, she whispered, “Never let it go.”
“As beautiful as that may be,” Caeda said, wiping blood from her nose as she walked by, “make no mistake, children. We may not have started this war, but what we’ve just done will not be overlooked.”