Only the song.
I rocked, the rocking helped. The rocking felt nice.
Like the warmth, the warmth so strong.
Song.
Song fading.
I was fading too.
I could feel it.
“Snap out of it, Joclyn!”
That voice.
I knew it.
“Mi lasko! Snap out of it! Get out of there!” The voice was close.
The warmth was strong. So strong it hurt. I looked up to find the voice, but it was not a voice. It was a girl on a bed. A man was kneeling over her. He was strong. His face was strong. He was tall with bright blue eyes and short blond hair. He was the one who was yelling. But he was not angry like Ryland, he was scared.
Seeing him scared me too. I moved into the rats, but the rats were gone. They were scared.
“Joclyn! Come back to me!” he yelled again. I could tell he was crying. He placed his hands on the girl, but his hands didn’t hurt. His hands were gentle.
I didn’t know someone could be so nice.
The warmth inside me grew, but I didn’t claw at it. I didn’t think I was supposed to anymore.
I couldn’t stop looking at the man. I knew this man.
“Joclyn!”
That was my name. He called the girl my name. But the girl was not me. This girl was clean. This girl was beautiful.
I moved to look at the girl.
“Dramin! Bring the Water!” he yelled. Another man entered, this one was tired, but he was kind too.
“What in land’s end is going on here?” The new man was worried.
I walked around them. I couldn’t take my eyes off the sad one.
I knew him.
Something was familiar about him, but something was off.
He couldn’t see me.
Why couldn’t he see me?
“Ovailia has returned. It was just as Joclyn said…. Ryland’s here. He’s awake.”
I spun in fear as the new one said his name. But he was not here. Pain was not here.
“What do you mean he is awake?” the sad one said. There was fear in his voice. He looked back to the girl.
“Joclyn!” he yelled again, but the girl did not respond.
“Ovailia brought him. He is fine. But the bond is gone. Edmund broke it weeks ago.”
The sad one was still scared. The new one looked scared now too.
The warmth. It grew again. It was hot now. It hurt.
“But she is still sleeping… She has been in the T?uha for two weeks. How can she be…” The sad one’s voice was heavy. He placed his hand soft against her head.
They were both so nice. Could people be so nice?
“It’s a Vym?zat.”
“What?” The new man dropped a mug he was holding, the dark liquid seeping into the floor. “How did you miss that? You tried everything…”
“I didn’t miss it. It was hidden.”
The warmth was so hot it hurt. I clutched my shoulder, my teeth grinding with the pain.
“Ilyan, you can’t possibly be saying what I think you are saying…”
Ilyan.
I knew him.
My Ilyan.
The song.
My song.
He sang me the song as I lay dying, when I woke from nightmares, when I was sad.
I remembered.
Everything.
The sight. The sight of the Drak.
My sight. It must be how I was seeing this.
I looked to Ilyan as he continued to yell at the girl, no, to yell at me. Was this happening now, or had it already happened?
“Ilyan?” I yelled his name in a panic, words feeling foreign on my tongue after not using them for so long. But he didn’t respond. He looked at the girl, his hair short on his head. I liked it. Now it was the way it had been in the vision. Was that why he cut it? Was it really him?
I waved my hand in front of his face but he didn’t turn. The warmth continued to grow. The warmth that was Ilyan’s magic.
Magic.
I walked around them, watching their movements, trying to figure out what to do, and why I was seeing this. It had to be for a reason. It was my way out. I knew it.
My heart thumped at the possibility, my body twitching with overstimulation, the way it had for however long I had been trapped in here. One hour to every ten minutes. Weeks. I twitched again. It had been so much longer to me.
I yelled to Ilyan, screaming at him as his panic grew, as he and the new one, Dramin, yelled back and forth. The room was full of sound as they yelled, each person’s panic adding to the noise. Without thinking, I reached out to place my hand on Ilyan’s arm.
My hand made contact, Ilyan’s skin warm underneath my icy fingers. He looked up, and I was sure he could see me. His eyes widened in horror before moving back to the beautiful girl he still sat over.
Everything clicked together as Cail walked through the door, his wicked scowl fading at the scene before him.
And then it hit me.
I had magic.
I placed my hands firmly on Ilyan, shoving him out of the way and directly onto Dramin. Both men fell onto the floor in a heap as I raised my hands; the sleeping form of myself raising hers as well.