The Bound (Ascension #2)(40)

She walked until she could no longer hear the sounds of the city and then found a small clearing in the woods. She took off her cloak, removed the cap, and let her long locks fall down nearly to her waist.

Taking a seat on a section of soft grass, Cyrene closed her eyes and opened her mind.

She could immediately tell the difference between the city and the woods, not that she found a pulse. But it was definitely quieter out here alone. Since she was closer to the elements she was attempting to tap into the meditative state came much quicker.

She went through the exercises—earth, air, water, fire.

Each one came back blank.

No pulse. No magic. Nothing.

By lunch, she was starving. She took a short break to eat the bread and fruit that she had brought with her in her pack, and then she got back to work. She only had a precious few hours left before she’d need to return, and she didn’t want to waste any of it.

Cyrene rearranged her skirt and then closed her eyes again to try to reach for her powers. Almost as soon as she reached her meditative state and opened herself up to her magic, she felt something stir within her chest. Her eyes flew open in shock, and she lost whatever had been happening. Her breath came out in short gasps.

“What was that?” she wondered aloud.

It certainly wasn’t the soft flutter she had been feeling all this time. That was like hitting a wall. It definitely was not like the well of energy she’d used to create the force-field pulse. But it wasn’t like any of the pulses that Avoca had said she would feel.

But Cyrene couldn’t just ignore it. If it meant she could feel anything, then it was worth it.

Wiping the worry off her face, she waited until her heart rate slowed again, and then she reached back out for her calm state. It hit her full-on.

A heartbeat. A crescendo.

Not a pulse. A coursing boom that could have burst her eardrums if she had been listening to it outside of this state. She resisted the urge to clutch her head to stop the noise. She wanted the noise.

As she peeled back the layers of what she was listening to, she realized that she had intentionally grasped her magic for the first time. She fumbled with it and then felt it drifting away.

Then, she remembered all of Avoca’s lessons. Instead of trying to direct the magic, she let it direct her. She stopped trying to work with it and just let it set the pulse.

The noise picked up pace, and everything steadied out.

It was a pulse.

A real pulse.

A heartbeat.

Fire.

She was fire!

Yet it all felt so different than how Avoca had described fire. No sizzle intensified with the flame. In fact, there was no flame. The pulse felt like a jumbled mass of confusion. Like the heartbeat was running. Like it was something.

She quickly grabbed her bag, cloak, and cap and then ran toward the pulse that still echoed in her mind. She never released her magic in fear that she would never be able to find it again. Her legs pumped beneath her as she followed the feeling inside her. When she sprinted into a clearing, the heartbeat she had been following started to fade.

“No!” she cried.

She couldn’t let this slip away. She had come all this way. She had to discover what it all meant.

Then, she saw the most beautiful white-tailed deer stride into the clearing. It was a massive buck with enormous antlers. The deer turned in her direction and looked directly at her. She watched with bated breath as the fading heartbeat continued to hum in the background.

The deer inclined his head in her direction. It was the deer. He could sense her, too.

They shared a moment where she could feel every heartbeat from the magnificent creature. If this was fire, it was incredible. Her magic felt full and whole, not overwhelming, not like it was going to make her collapse.

She was one with the deer before her.

Then, he stumbled forward, and that was when she saw the arrow protruding from his side.

Her hand flew to her mouth. She had seen hunting expeditions while growing up. It was basic survival methods to hunt deer from the mountainsides. She understood why this was happening, but it didn’t make it any easier to watch the magnificent animal die. Not when she could feel everything.

A second arrow whizzed through the air and thumped heavily into the creature’s neck. The fire went out. The heartbeat quieted. All was still once more.

Even though she knew it was pointless, she dropped her things, rushed to the animal, and fell at its side. Tears immediately hit her eyes, fresh and hot, and she released her magic in a rush. No magic could bring back the life of this animal. And if that kind of magic existed out there, it was not something she was interested in.

She realized then, quite plainly, that what she had heard wasn’t fire at all. It was the actual heartbeat of the buck. She had never been surer of anything in her life. She felt like she owed him something for surrendering his life and for inevitably giving her the key to her magic for the very first time. But the creature was dead, and she could never thank him for his deed.





“You there,” a man called out.

Cyrene stumbled back from the animal. How could I be so careless? Of course there are men in the woods. Who did I think had shot the beast?

But she hadn’t been thinking. All she could do was rush toward the animal that had given himself for a greater purpose.

A man came galloping into the clearing on a brown steed. The horse looked as beautiful as any her father would have kept in the stables, but the man riding it was not in nobleman’s attire. He had on brown pants, tucked into nearly destroyed riding boots, and a drab green shirt with the laces open in the front, so she could see his tan chest beneath.