Lux 

Lux was familiar with pain. She was friends with it by now, but the pulsing in the vein running along her temple beat in an opposite rhythm of the ache in her chest. It was angry and throbbing, sending waves of nausea through her stomach and turning her mouth sour. She touched her forehead, and her fingers came away sticky with half dried blood.

"You're awake."

Working up enough moisture to speak was a chore, but after a long measure of silence, she replied, "My eyes are open, and I'm seeing double."

"I can work with that. Better than unconscious or dead."

She rolled to her side, sticks and leaves poking through the thin fabric of her top. She was still in the woods, but from the darkness and quiet, they were deep within the forest and far from her friends. The light. She rocketed to a sitting position, regretting the decision but fighting through the surge of tipsiness.

"Your friends need you, but you are not yet capable of helping them."

"Who are you?" she asked, squinting to try to make outlines in the blackness. Something shifted and clammy hands gripped her face. Lux remained motionless while the stranger prodded at the head wound.

"It doesn't matter right now. Declan will find you soon, and you need to know how to stop the ward breaker before it kills the young Guardian and Sylph." She pulled away, and for a moment, Lux thought she'd left her, but the stranger took her hand in hers.

"How did I end up here? Did you hit me?"

"No! I would never hurt you. The culprit was a low-hanging branch. You hit it rather hard; I was quite impressed with your speed."

Something about her voice reminded Lux of someone she knew, but she couldn't say who. "Why didn't you get one of my friends? They were close." I'd also like to know what you were doing lurking about.

The woman chuckled. "Maybe one day I will answer that question, but today, I am here to give you a gift." She pressed something hard and wrapped in cloth into Lux's hands. "I have waited for you for a very long time. They think you are broken and have been searching for ways to fix you. The truth is that you are special, perhaps the only one of your kind in existence. And so you require something unique to harness your power."

Lux gripped the object in her hand. "Is this my Channeling stone?"

"Lux!" Declan's frantic shout reverberated through the trees. "Lux!"

"Whatever has happened to his unflappable nature?" the woman mused.

"You know him?" The woman had called him by name.

"Be quick," she said, ignoring the question.

Lux unwrapped the channeling stone, her throat squeezing closed as her trembling fingers pulled away the last layer. Light was absent in this place, but it glimmered- creating its own glow in the gloom. Twisting her hand from side to side, she examined it, noticing it was translucent and hanging on a chain. "It's shaped like a key..." She reached for it, holding her breath, fear of failing again almost paralyzing her.

"Trust in yourself, Lux."

Nodding, though she couldn't be seen, she grabbed the stone. Like every channeling stone she'd held, it was warm to the touch, but it wasn't painful. Instead, the heat radiated up her arm and spread through her body. It was like soaking in a hot bath after a long day of training. She closed her eyes- a vision of it moving inside of her, seeking the fissures created by wild magic and sealing them closed.

Whole. Healthy. Painless.

She opened her eyes. The glimmer was now a brilliant, ivory glow.

"You must join with your Circle. Let them continue the spell, but you must chant invisibilia vincula revelare. You will know what to do." The stranger slipped the necklace over Lux's head.

"Lux!" Declan barreled into the clearing, skidding to his knees beside her. His expression was feral, desperate as he crushed her against his chest. "I thought I'd failed again."

She let him rock her for a moment before pushing away and cupping his cheek, wet with tears. "We need to get back to the others."

"Lux, you're hurt. Let's get you safe."

"Declan, no. I'm better than I've been in a very long time. She saved me."

"Who? There's no one here." He swept his hand around, a light floating above his palm. They were alone.

"It doesn't matter," she responded, knowing what she had to do. She leapt to her feet, her heart thrilling at the effortlessness of such a simple feat. She did not wait for him before breaking into a run, but the pounding of his footsteps joining hers was not long in coming.

Her hair cascaded behind her as she moved swiftly as the wind. Every even breath was a cause for rejoicing. It had been so long since she'd been able to walk without exerting all of her energy. Running was a pleasure, but the joy faded as the beam of light stealing the life of her friends appeared. It split the sky and flooded the forest with its impurity, but she still had the same will to fight as she had before. The only difference was now she had the tools.

"It's spreading," Declan said, slowing beside her. They stood just behind her sisters who were chanting, their voices strong and crystalline. But she could feel the push against their power and knew they were failing.

"You found her!"

They turned at the sound of Brooke's gleeful shout. The younger girl was panting from exertion, but her face was serene. Gideon, Mama, and Memaw materialized beside her. The angel's gaze zeroed in on the channeling stone around her neck.

"Where did you get that?" He reached out, but Lux moved back.

"It doesn't matter. Mama and Memaw- I need you to join the Circle. We need witches with ties to spirit." They didn't argue.

"What can I do?" Brooke asked.

"Stay back here with Gideon. He will keep you safe."

"Lux, I can help. I can offer more power," her father said, his expression grim as the beam constricted beneath the Circle's spell, the addition of the new power bolstering their efforts.

"You can help by keeping Brooke safe," she insisted, grabbing Declan's hand and walking to her Circle.

She felt all eyes on her as she approached the tube, and it was all she could do to stifle her tears when she saw the seizing forms of Travis and Hanish. Declan drew an unsteady breath before releasing her hand and letting his cestuses cover his arms. He dropped into a defensive position, his eyes threatening death to whoever might harm her.

"Invisibilia vincula revelare," she cried out, the words forming in her mouth as though she was born speaking them. "Invisibilia vincula revelare!"

A scream of rage resounded, but she did not turn her head to see if they were under attack. The stone at her breast burned, and her magic rose inside of her. So different from before. Instead of a tidal wave of power threatening to overtake her, it was like a fiery arrow waiting for guided release. "Invisibilia vincula revelare!"

Something shuttered over her vision, but when it lifted, it was like the world was in focus for the first time. Everything had tethers flowing from them, palpitating with different colors. Gold, red, purple, green. All these colors whipped about her, touching and tangling before releasing and seeking the next. But it was the cords that held her attention.

Like everyone else, they started in the center of the chest. Hanish's was the color of glaciers, cool and blue, while Travis's was a kaleidoscope- different colors flashing in intervals- each color more beautiful than the one before it. But unlike the others, the strands were pulled tight and extended up through the tube. The further they travelled from their host, they grew gray, lank, and limp. It spread like a disease, the leaching of color inching closer to their centers.

Lux had to break the connection. She glanced over her shoulder, and as the stranger had promised, the answer came to her. She drew her Circle's bonds to her and weaved them into her own. The green of earth through the red of fire. The gold of spirit through the blue of water. The final two cords waited to be added. She threaded the white of spirit into the center, and then wrapped her strand- she didn't know what element she commanded, for it was a thing of beauty, like a rope encrusted with diamonds- around them all.

"Ligo," she whispered, gasping when the tether snapped right below the place she'd bound them together. Her Circle's voices weakened, and each woman fell to her knees, their colorful links shortened but still shining.

What remained trembled, and she willed it into the weapon she needed. It twisted and burned, the shape emerging as the beam, no longer restricted by her sisters' spell, began to expand at a fierce pace.

"Lux, get back," Mama shouted, but her daughter shook her head.

"Hold on," she yelled, grabbing the athame she'd forged. The handle fit her hand perfectly, and she lunged into the tube, swinging the blade across the cords, severing the connection between her friends and the spell caster.

For one moment, sound and motion ceased- like hitting pause in a movie, and then it all came rushing back. The tube of light lifted from the ground while the upper edge of the beam lowered. She hit the ground rolling as Declan and Gideon swooped in and pulled Hanish and Travis out of the way, diving to the edge of the clearing just as the top and bottom portions of light snapped together in with a clap of thunder. A wave of power washed out over the forest, the concussive force uprooting hundred-year-old trees like saplings.

Ears ringing, Lux crawled across the ground until she reached Travis's side. Audra cradled Hanish, pushing back his long white hair with one hand while caressing his cheek with the other. Lux expected to find Kitty in a similar position with Travis, but her blonde friend sat several feet away, her arms wrapped around her knees while she stared unseeing into the night.

"Are they going to be okay?" Ruby asked. She and Sara Elizabeth held onto each other so tightly Lux didn't know who was supporting whom, and it was a beautiful sight.

Declan pulled each man's mouth open and filled them with elixir. "I think so. Lux, you saved them. How on earth did you know what to do?"

Mama wiped at her cheeks, her black hair in disarray, looking so far from her normal, composed self that Lux wouldn't have recognized her on the streets. But it suited her- this wild appearance, magic humming through her veins.

"I don't know that it matters. They're safe," Mama said.

"For now," Lux agreed, "but we need to know who was behind that spell."

Memaw's lip pressed flat. "I think it's very possible the Bloodborn followed us here."

Gideon looked at Lux before letting his gaze travel to the channeling stone around her neck. He nodded. "There's definitely someone here who shouldn't be."