I covered my mouth. Words didn’t come out—the horrible words, that I couldn’t find him, that he wasn’t there—but tears did, and Rian grabbed me, hugging me hard.
“We didn’t find the body,” Galen murmured. “But—”
“Of course he’s alive,” Rian growled. “You don’t know anything about my brother.”
I pulled back, nodding. “He has to be alive, right? Kairos—Kairos can’t—”
Rian pinched my cheek. “Kairos is the most clever man I’ve ever known. Of course he’s alive.”
“There’s a branch of the river close to here,” Kata said softly. “If I can get to the water, I’ll be able to try again to heal the guard.”
I thought of Theron, and how only a few days ago I wouldn’t have known which guard she meant by that. But now the two men were distinguished by their loyalty, a line I wished I’d never made them cross.
“Then we go,” I told her. “We’re not losing anyone else.”
We walked for most of the night. We reached the river, and Kata waded into the water and out again a moment later as Zeph slumped down onto the ground.
“Zeph?” I called. “Zeph?” I touched his cheek—he was still breathing, but he had passed out. “Kata, please hurry.”
We all waited, watching as she worked on him. Kata looked heartbroken as she said the arm was lost, and she couldn’t heal it, so the men held Zeph down as Galen cut through the rest of it, severing his arm above the elbow. Zeph was so weak he barely fought against the pain, and as it was done, I went to his side, wiping his brow, speaking soft words of comfort to him, trying to protect him from pain as he had always done for me.
Kata’s power took after the arm was gone, and she grew pale, sweating hard, pouring her power into him as his breathing eased and his heart grew stronger.
I stayed beside him as Kata went back to the water, pulling her strength from it. Galen sat beside me, tucking his body close to mine, and Rian sighed and sat down near Zeph. The other men of the Resistance came and sat with us.
Rian leaned his arms on his knees. “He’ll be all right, Shy.”
Galen grunted. “Please. He’ll never be the same again. He will be lording this over me for years—lost his arm protecting his queen!—I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Shalia,” Kata said, and I met her eyes. She gestured toward the water.
With a deep sigh, I stood, going over to her. There was a frown on her face that made me think of Galen, and it was strange to think he was right behind me, right beside me in all things. “What is it?”
“Do you feel that?” she asked, running her hands in the water.
I dipped my hand in. “Cold?”
“No,” she said. “Your power. Does anything feel strange with your power?”
I felt out along the rocks, along this place that hummed with threads. She was right—there was something there, like a break, like a place where threads had been cut.
“I think so,” I told her. “What is that?”
Her eyes met mine heavily. “I’ve felt something like that once before,” she told me. “In the islands. When I was … when they tried to get my powers to show.”
“It feels stronger here,” I told her, following the river upward. The stream disappeared into rock, and I pulled at it to make the space wider.
“What are you doing?” Rian asked from behind us.
But Kata was at my shoulder, and we pressed forward, going to the gap I created. More water was rushing out, and then something fell into the stream. I reached for it, but Kata snatched my hands away. “Rian,” she called. “Grab that!”
I pulled away from her as he took it from the stream. He held up a glass cage, fused shut with gold, and inside an orb filled with red liquid shimmered, dark and dangerous.
“Blood?” Galen asked, coming closer. “What is that?”
I felt along it with my power. The gold was foreign to me, flat and unresponsive. All around the cage, I felt like the threads had been cut, and I couldn’t use my power. Slowly, my fingers covered my mouth. “The elixir?” I breathed. “I think this is what Calix was looking for.”
“This is the elixir?” Galen asked, taking it from Rian.
“This was a person,” Kata said, her voice a snarl. “It’s the blood of an Elementa. The blood of an islander.” She shook her head, turning away from me. “It was a person.”
“Kata,” Rian said, going over to her. I stepped aside, wanting to move closer to Galen, but not wanting to get too close to that thing.
“Don’t touch me,” she snarled, turning to push Rian away. I saw tears in her eyes, and the sight made something crack inside me.
But Rian pushed forward, gripping her arms, pressing his forehead to hers. Her breaths were rough and shallow. “I’m here,” he said. “You’re safe. You’ve made yourself safe.”
I felt totally lost, looking at them. Rian and Kata … meant something to each other that I had never noticed before.
Her breathing slowed, becoming even and steady. In his arms. I looked to Galen, wondering if he knew that’s what he did for me too. “This whole time, he wasn’t looking for some magic potion. It’s not an object,” Kata said softly, tugging my eyes from Galen. “It’s a person. It’s a fifth type of element.”
“You said you felt it before?” I asked.
She nodded. “When he came to the islands. After he broke our numbers, they spent two days rounding people up and trying to get us to show our powers, and I tried, but I felt like this, almost as if it was severed. Like the power didn’t even exist.” She pulled away from Rian, wiping her face, shaking her head. “No. It couldn’t have been the same. I know he used something like this to take the islands, but they wouldn’t have tried to make us use our powers with it nearby. They would have known I couldn’t.”
“Us?” I asked softly, looking to Rian. He shook his head. “Who were the others?” I asked.
She nodded. “At least two more. I didn’t know them.”
“Kata,” I said softly. “One of them was probably this fifth element, some kind of void that can cancel out the other elements. And they didn’t know it anymore than you did.”
“How could it be?” she asked me. “I’ve never even heard of a fifth element. There are no more priestesses, my family is dead, and there is so much I don’t know about my own heritage. About these powers.”
“Your family is here,” I told her fiercely, taking her hand.
“So we should destroy this,” Galen suggested, holding it up over the river. “It doesn’t look hard to break.”
“Don’t,” I told him. “We don’t know how that works, but it’s like my power feels disrupted around it. Crumbled, a little. I think if that blood spills, it will be far worse.”
Kata nodded.
“How did it get here?” Zeph asked, still sitting against the wall.
I pointed to the river. “That leads straight from the lake Calix was searching. It must have shifted.”
“We’re lucky it didn’t break,” Kata said. She took a deep breath, stepping closer to Rian and kissing him briefly. “We’re going to have to hide it until we can figure out how to destroy it properly.”
“Not here,” Rian said.