Page 98 of Raven's Dawn

“Three… two…” Rania counted, “one.”

The chant began.

The crashing waves, the winding of the anchor, even my thudding heart, silenced. Our voices, although there weren’t all that many of us, were as loud as a concert at Madison Square Garden.

As we chanted louder and louder, my chest tightened.

Not because I was afraid of what we were about to do, but because I was afraid I didn’t remember each word correctly.

At first, anyway.

Within moments, that anxiety faded.

A sensation of strength dropped on the top of my head and trickled to my feet. In some regard, it was like stepping outside on a sunny day. In another, it was like a cool autumn rain collapsing in a sudden downpour. It was both, and it was neither.

Such a complicated thing to describe, but magic often was.

Maybe this was what Rania had been trying to explain to Rain last night. This power was like nature, or perhaps the universe, itself.

It dropped inside of me, simultaneously washing over me, awakening every pore.

Not from one direction, but from all of them. It floated closer. The louder we chanted in unison, the closer I felt to them all, even Rania and Caeda at the ends.

This strength was all-encompassing, unifying and fulfilling all at once.

A line of green light started in the water before me. It had to have been fifty yards in the distance. With each word we spoke, practically screaming by now, it lifted higher. As it rose, that sense of power within me doubled and tripled in intensity.

Within seconds, that line of light rushed out of the water, climbing over the snow-capped mountains without so much as a splash.

It reached the top in a violent flash of green. The path it had traveled stayed in place, a translucent shield of verdant.

“Now, Warren and Ramona,” Jeremy said. “Now!”

I shut my eyes and dropped out of my body.

While Rain and the others laid the stones, Jeremy had made us survey the island for souls. We didn’t leave our bodies; we only felt the power they radiated.

Just to know where to travel when the shield was placed.

In that dark, astral realm, I flew over the water. At my sides were Ramona, Jeremy, and Luci. And we moved like lightning.

Little boats of blue and black and red and gold, soaring over the island and siphoning everything below. Somewhere between those mountains, life glowed. Every light I saw, I captured. I didn’t even have to drop down to them. I stayed where I was, high above the shield, and I grabbed them.

With no hands and no tangible strength, I grasped hold of their souls as if pulling in a deep breath. Each time I absorbed one into myself, I shot it into the sky above.

I stopped counting when I reached ten.

I didn’t acknowledge the color of their souls. I didn’t stop to think what they were doing a moment before. I didn’t acknowledge if their energy was masculine, feminine, or somewhere in between.

I just took them.

I took their souls and shot them into the abyss.

I killed.

I killed, and I killed, and I killed.

And it was different.