House Of Gods 9 - Samantha Snow Page 0,54

together was the last sound of the night.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The next evening came quickly, and when it arrived, they were all ready. Each of the nine took a place on the land of their realm and knelt to place their hand on the ground beneath them. There was a flow of energy within each world, and that flow had once been connected by the roots of Yggdrasil. Now, they would all attempt to pull that connection back together. When the time convened, they each set their palm against the ground, closed their eyes, and concentrated on the power that ran through them and the magic pulsing through the realm.

“I don’t feel anything,” Tannin said nervously to Lopt, who knelt a few feet beside him. Both men were motionless and waiting to feel something, anything that would indicate their attempts were working. “Do you?”

Lopt kept his eyes closed but shook his head with a frown on his face. Tannin’s heart began to pound against his chest. It might not be working.

“Patience,” Astra hushed him.

Slowly, on each realm, the power ran from their fingers and sparked the magic beneath the layer of the ground at the core of each world. Gently as if coaxing a leaf to unfurl, the magic began to flow. The immortals from the chosen bloodline fed their power into the terrene beneath them, giving back a piece of the ancient magic from which all their power stemmed.

Tannin opened his eyes when he felt the forest floor vibrate beneath him but still felt none of Yggdrasil’s power flowing beneath his hand. He watched as Lopt was successful in his pull of the magic. He saw Lopt’s veins pulse with the pressure of additional energy and saw the familiar warp in the air around his hand as his portion of the magic was joined with the others. Tannin waited patiently as Astra had instructed, but still, nothing happened.

As each of the eight others were linked in the transmission of magic that channeled through Astra and fed back into Yggdrasil, Tannin crouched on his calves with his hand held steady to the ground while absolutely nothing happened. Cai and Tara watched in apprehension and waited for there to be some sign of success. But Tara could tell by his furrowed brow and clenched hand, that something was wrong with Tannin.

“What could be the matter?” she whispered quietly to Cai as he stood next to her. “Tannin is the most powerful of all of them. Why wouldn’t his magic be among the first to be accepted?”

“I don’t know,” Cai said. “But, I’m not sure how much longer Astra can continue to channel all of the power.”

Astra was kneeling with both hands on the mossy-covered ground. Her body was shaking, and her eyes were starting to roll upward just enough to see a bit too much of the whites beneath her pupils. It was taking too long. Tara started to walk over to Tannin.

“What are you doing?” Cai said to her quietly as he tried to pull her back. “You can’t interrupt them.”

“I have to do something. It’s not working, and there won’t be a second shot at this.” She walked over and knelt down beside Tannin. She put her palm over his hand against the ground and wove her fingers between his. Her fingertips felt the soft soil, and she felt his thumb reach up to wrap around hers. “I know you can do this,” she whispered.

Tannin’s mouth curved downward into a wince as he tried to push his own power into the forest and pull its magic up to meet his. His frustration was mounting to the point of materializing in beads of sweat on his brow. He was the catalyst for this to work. He was the one with the most power. He was also the one which everything else was depending on. Something was blocking the flow of magic, and his impatience was mounting quickly to the point of anger.

Tara closed her eyes alongside him and placed her lips against his cheek. “I love you,” she said. “You’ve got this.”

Tara felt the ground beneath her fingers rumble and felt the hot surge of energy pulse through Tannin’s veins against her skin. She opened her eyes to look at him and was met with his darkened stare. His eyes looked like a black storm with powerful flashes of energy brewing behind them. All at once, he thrust his power down into the land and felt the convergence of all nine magics