Shattered by the Sea Lord - Starla Night Page 0,88
don’t know about you, but what happened to them is not what I want to happen to me. Or my kids.”
Bex nodded.
“Yes, I know.” Angie sighed and flexed her fingers. “I am starting to acknowledge a sensation—I don’t know if I would call it power per se, but a definite tingle—and I simply don’t know how to access it. I suppose neither did they, which is unfortunate because they certainly could have used some defenses.”
Angie was right.
The power was within Dannika, too. Bex controlled hers, but the rest of them struggled. Were they doomed to repeat the past?
“But the brides of the past didn’t know their own power,” Dannika said slowly. “We do.”
“Hm?” Angie turned to her. “What was that?”
“The brides of the past didn’t know they could wield power. Just like Bex never tried to transform, even though she felt like it might be possible. But she knows, now. We know. We’re not like the brides of the past. We are already different.”
Dannika couldn’t have saved Eliot. Even if she’d been with him on the boat. He might have died in front of her, or she might have died herself.
Ciran was still alive. She had the power.
She could save Ciran.
“I have the power,” Dannika said. “We all do.”
Her confidence glowed in her fingertips. A matching glow kindled in Bex, then Meg. It lit up the bell and the undersea lake.
And then it lit Angie, too.
“We have the power to change this,” Meg agreed, wiggling her fingers. “But…is this enough?”
“Feel your power,” Dannika urged. “Let out all your feelings. I’m sure that’s the way. Angie, how do you feel?”
“I’m so flustered about the Luscans who’ve trapped us here.” Angie made glowing fists. “I’m vexed they took Nuno and Lukiyo, and I’m also cross that they sank my yacht. I liked that yacht, even if I bottomed out on Bex’s reef once or twice. Hmm, anger isn’t really my best look.”
“It’s okay to be angry,” Dannika said. “Anger is energizing.”
“The Luscans are angry, too. And their anger is destructive.”
“But it doesn’t have to be. We must use the energy to build, to save, to love. Not to destroy, but to create.”
Everyone soaked in the light and the bell resonated with their power, gently, peacefully.
“Well, that did feel better.” Angie stretched her hands, focusing the energy into a glowing ball—a shield—around her body. “Meg, you try it.”
“Okay. Um…yeah, I still want to go to grad school, even though I’ve missed twenty years of application deadlines, and the Luscans owe me at least twenty years’ worth of birthday cakes. But I’ll still heal them because that’s who I am.” She shook her shoulders. “That’s right. Bex, it’s you. Go.”
“Feels powerful.” Bex flexed her sparkling fingertips, careful not to aim at anything, just bouncing the energy in place. “You know, I wanted to go with the warriors. They didn’t want me to. I shouldn’t have let them tell me no.”
“You never let anyone tell you anything,” Meg said.
“Yeah. I’ve been compromising for three years. It was the right thing to do until you came.” Bex nodded at Dannika. “And then it was the wrong thing. Maybe I was scared to change.”
“You know.” Angie bit her lip, and her glowing shield flickered. “I wouldn’t normally admit this, but I’m worried we may have to take this rescuing business into our own hands.”
“Oh, me too, like, two weeks ago. Oops.” Meg’s light went out. She flicked her fingers, and the light returned. “Good. Oh, how funny. I couldn’t shift for the longest time, but now I just know how to get it back.”
Ciran had tried to be Dannika’s strength. And she had only feared losing him. But she hadn’t ever considered the other possibility—that she could lose him and then go take him back.
That’s what she had to do now.
Wherever he was, she would find him. She would save him. And she would love him.
Because she was his soul mate.
Warmth blossomed in her chest and flowed down her fingers as if she’d taken a deep gulp of hot cocoa. It radiated through her body with whipped cream happiness. She opened her eyes, and the light glowed from her fingers, too.
She reached out to Angie on one side and Bex on the other.
They reached back. Angie and Meg touched fingers on the other side.
The light danced between their fingertips, brighter and brighter. A subtle vibration shook the bell. Loose dirt and pebbles cascaded from hidden places, and the metal glowed. It sounded a pure, clear, bright tone.