eyes. What are you doing? Its tension tells me it already knows—I have a fire and now its skin. I have everything I need for soul magic.
The fire is building, and now there’s only one way to know if my plan works. I take Bastian’s hand and let the magic between our souls swell once more as I hold on tight. “We have to try.”
“It’s my soul, Amora. If I let you in … there won’t be any going back. There’s no more running away from me.”
“I know.” I squeeze his hand. “It’s my soul too, remember? Bring me to it.”
There’s no time to worry about whether there will be consequences, or what this will mean for him and me. Bastian pulls soul magic around him like a shield, and despite the danger, I shut my eyes and follow his lead as it consumes us.
I feel him everywhere. In my skin, in my soul, in my mind. I feel his spirit. Taste the salt on his skin as he opens his soul to me. As he lets me into the most intimate parts of him.
Bastian’s soul is one of pain. Of longing. Yet it shines with adventure, brighter than any I’ve ever seen.
He’s beautiful.
I hesitate as I feel the familiar sensation of magic prying at me, trying to delve into my soul the same way I’d seen it done with Father the night he died.
At first, I don’t let it. My body tenses on its own, rejecting the attempt. For nearly a full season I’ve hidden from Bastian. I’ve hidden in my own thoughts, avoiding my own feelings. But not anymore.
Now, I let him in. And the moment I do, magic consumes us as he extends it out to me.
I press the snake skin and molten fire into his hands, and Bastian drops the piece of the fire serpent into writhing flames, keeping the earth deity’s skin in hand.
We are two people, but we are one soul.
Soul magic flows through Bastian and into me, and I relish its coolness in my veins. In the way it fills me, making me whole.
I shut my eyes to focus on the magic flaring to life within us, helping guide it through Bastian and into me. This time, with the two of us, the magic obeys our command.
We feed the serpent’s skin to the flames, and its fire fizzles out at once. The deity rears its head back as the lava peels away from its charring body. Without its fiery armor, it’s no longer as big as it looked, or nearly so threatening.
When the magic between Bastian and me snaps, I nearly fall to my knees before he catches me. There’s something different when our skin touches this time, a spark of whatever just happened between us. I feel him stronger than ever. The tension in his muscles. The awe as he watches the deity slink back.
Together, no repercussions come from his soul magic. Together, we were strong enough to take it down.
Heed my warning, human, the godwoken warns, voice a vicious hiss. If you choose the wrong path, there will be no coming back.
But we don’t listen. We only run.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
We make it to Keel Haul breathless and battered, stumbling onto the deck as though it’s our salvation.
The others have prepared the ship for departure. The moment we’re aboard Vataea begins chanting at the water, wasting no time. She’s already significantly improved, her dripping-wet hair enough to tell me she must have cooled off by taking a dive. Though I wish there was a chance to say goodbye to Azami and thank her for everything she’s done, there’s no time.
I fall to my knees, lungs gasping for the clean sea air, raw from smoke and breathlessness. My head spins, vision blurry as I fight the urge to pass out, as my body likely should have done ages ago. But I refuse to focus on the spinning, and I won’t give in to my blurring vision.
“I see none of this crew cares about beauty sleep,” Shanty grumbles as she wraps her arms tightly around herself. “Must we get into trouble at all hours of the night?”
Ignoring her, I clutch the snake scale close to my chest and let its magic pulse against my skin. It’s lightweight, with a warmth that sinks into my core. Its latent magic is powerful enough to clatter my bones and make my skin feel as though it wants nothing more than to crawl into itself.
This is magic. I thought