Valeria slammed painfully back into her body, and this time with an all-powerful creature of Light forcing its way into her soul. Her world broke under the splinter of brilliance and golden scars as power spilled out of her eyes. She wasn’t a Hallowed. She wasn’t accustomed to the raw force of Creation melding with her soul. Her birds screeched in panic as she staggered and drew in a breath.

“Nile!” Valeria screamed. She’d lost all sense of self and space. Her fingers met rough stone, but the stone scalded her as if she were on fire. “I need you!” She didn’t know why she called for him with such desperation. She’d gotten herself into this mess. She should be the one to get herself out of it.

As if he knew she wasn’t ready to face the world alone, Nile’s voice cut through the haze of overwhelming power. “I’m here!”

The creature had shoved her spirit back into her body, but that creature now curled in a ball inside her soul. You’ll accept me, the Light commanded. You’ll bring me into this world, or you will die. That is our deal.

“I’m trying!” Valeria cried, but the power was too intense. The creature overwhelmed her physical form. Agony and ethereal flames rampaged through her flesh and threatened to rip her soul apart.

Nile’s fingers gripped her without hesitation. “I heard you in the Ether,” he said. “I didn’t know this power rested here. I’m so sorry. I never would have brought you here had I known.” His flesh sizzled at the effort, but he didn’t detach his hold on her. “Tell me how I can help you,” he begged.

You need a physical hold on the power I am trying to give you, the creature thundered in her mind, not without agitation that her body wasn’t able to accept the sweeping waves of her flame. My gift is too much for your spirit to handle.

Valeria stared with her blind open-eyed search of her world. She could make out the fine line of Nile’s face, but something behind him caught her attention. She’d thought these walls dull and lifeless, but now as Light overwhelmed her body, her world glowed with sparks and power as an ancient metal sprang to life.

Manor Saffron was built upon a deposit of raw Divine Material.

“There!” Valeria cried and pointed to the mound of Light that pulsated with untapped power. “Embed it into my wound.”

“What?” Nile screeched.

She slammed into it with a scream, sending the pile breaking into pieces. She swirled onto Nile’s soft silhouette in the brilliance. Only his eyes made him visible to her. She staggered to him and found his fingers, bringing them down to the ground to graze the broken stones. He gasped when his contact set them alight.

“How did you know I can awaken Divine Material?” he asked.

The Hallowed were already conduits between the physical world and the Divine, just on a smaller scale than what her creature wished of her. “No time for that,” she hissed. She produced the sewing needles that she’d kept from her mother. The process would likely destroy them, but now she had no doubt that she’d fallen in line with her destiny. “Use these,” she said and presented the tools. “Tattoo me with it.”

A moment of silence told her that Nile was staring at her with incomprehension. Then the precious mementos were lifted from her grasp. “Where?” he asked in a whispered filled with horror at what he was about to do.

She slammed against the wall, its power grazing her with fresh agony. She ripped off the curl of her blouse to present the open wound at her shoulder. It hissed and complained at the Light, and she knew that she needed to control it. “Tattoo it into my wound.”

“Are you sure?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “Just do it!”

He gathered the stones that had been awakened, and using the but end of his dagger he ground the Divine Material into a fine powder.

He gripped her arm and pressed her into the wall. She swallowed a scream at the contact. Everything set her nerves alight. Her body was overwhelmed by sensation and she couldn’t face the idea of how much it was going to hurt to have Divine Material stabbed into her open wound if even a touch nearly sent her over the edge. “I might pass out,” she warned him.

“I’ll catch you if you do,” he promised, and then he began.

Valeria didn’t last long.

* * *

Nile was a Hallowed, which made him the only being capable of awakening raw Divine Material. She couldn’t control this gift of power, not yet, not without his help.

Nile gasped when their world exploded with magic and power. Anyone else would have gone blind from the blast, but he was a Hallowed whose soul was already purged by Light, and Valeria was of angels, her very cells designed to withstand the purest substance of Creation.

Valeria gaped in awe as Light came to life and surged through the castle walls. Waves of surging power brought melodic beauty to her ears as the Light began to sing with joy. The sentient power inside of her no longer complained or spoke with words, but now thrived as Light filled the castle as if stretching its wings into the world for the first time.

Valeria couldn’t imagine how long the Light had slept here, slowly creeping out into the tainted soil until it had found Tree Mother.

A throbbing pain reminded her that malice was still here, still inside of her. “Nile,” she called over the song. “You need to weave this power into my wound.” She gripped his fingers that burned hot against her own. “I know you can do it.”

She’d learned so much of the Hallowed in the few moments they’d shared. He’d given her his memories, as well as the knowledge of his strengths and weaknesses. He had secrets that he hadn’t shared with Ferdinand. He had power within himself that had threaded with his emotions that he’d guarded so carefully.

Nile didn’t question her. Instead he began to move his fingers in patterns through the air that left blistering scars of Light across her vision. She didn’t close her eyes against the blaze of power. This would be the only time in her life she’d ever witness such miraculous gifts.

Light swarmed until it formed tiny needles. Nile lowered his hands, and with it, the needles shoved into her shoulder.

She bit her lip against the cry as she plastered herself hard against the wall and made sure not to move. Raw flame scourged through the Darkness in her shoulder as if trying to separate the malice from her body. “Don’t destroy it,” she said through clenched teeth. “Contain it.”

Nile continued to weave the needles through her flesh, but stopped trying to extract the malice. Instead, he wound the Light around it until it surrounded it on all sides.

This was what she needed. Black spots sprinkled across her vision as pain threatened to push her under, but she bit her fingernails into her palms and rode the waves of agony. The Light within her, that sentient being that had been trapped for endless seasons in the ground beneath this ancient castle, was now free. The joy that spread through her threatened to separate her spirit from her body and cast her back into the Ether, but she focused on the pain and the Dark to stay centered. The cold, constant pierce was what reminded her why she was here.

Nile’s glowing eyes bit through the confusion and the otherworldly brilliance and Valeria’s breath caught. For the first time, she could match his gaze, and through the rolling waves of pain she saw who he was. His eyes, so pure and crystalline silver behind the power showed her the man within who wanted to fix this broken world—fix her.

“That’s enough,” she said, placing her fingers over his.

The needles ebbed into a dull throb and she struggled to her feet. She leaned onto Nile for support as they left the tunnels, allowing the Light to surge through the rock and soil with freedom it had never had before.

They stumbled into silence to the surface, and Valeria smiled as fresh, salty tears slipped down her cheek. The courtyard, once dead and depraved, now gleamed with fresh life and saffron trees, just like the beautiful grove that had given her a second chance on this world.

For the first time, she felt like she’d come home.