Next to him, Rowan did the same thing. He tried to hold his hands up, but he didn’t dare let go of the fire. He needed to explode outward. If he could do so, he could relieve some of the weight on them. He focused on harnessing the fire, and then he concentrated the potential that he could borrow from Sashaak—and from himself—into a tight band of flame. The heat around them began to intensify. Everything within him was growing hotter and hotter, and he didn’t know if he could withstand it.
As the stone started to collapse, compressing them, he felt the heat become overwhelming. And then the stone exploded upward in a torrent.
Debris rained down, but he had hurriedly shifted back to his protective magic and deflected most of it. Cool air drifted down, and then he felt heat bloom again.
At first, he thought that it was something he had done, but he realized that wasn’t the case. This was Sashaak’s heat. And through the connection that he had—and through the connection that had fortified the moment he had broken through—he could see what the dragon was doing.
He was burning those responsible.
And Sashaak roared.
Chapter Eighteen
Laric managed to crawl out of the remains of the cave, immediately feeling the heat that washed over him. Everything within him was on edge, and he wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, except that he had felt some bit of that power that had erupted around him.
Rowan crawled behind him, staying quiet, but he sensed her unease—one that matched his own.
Sashaak continued to roar overhead, and within it, Laric had a vague sense of the power from the dragon, and a vague sense of what he was capable of doing.
He found Xavier curled up on the ground not too far away.
“Xavier?”
The man’s eyes were shut, and he looked to be breathing, but he wasn’t moving. Laric hurried over to him and rested his hands on him, testing whether there was anything that he could detect, but there wasn’t. Xavier was out.
Rowan gave Laric a slight shove.
“I think I can help him, but you’re going to have to let me get in here,” she said.
“Please,” he said.
“I don’t know how well the spellslip is going to work, but it’s one that you showed me.”
“Then maybe I should do it,” he said, smiling.
“No. Let me do this. You have been doing too much already.”
That was the crux of the matter, wasn’t it? She was concerned about the fact that he had already been wielding some of his potential, and about the possibility that he wouldn’t be able to continue to wield anything more.
And so he stood off to the side. She crouched down and worked on Xavier while Laric continued to look around. Sashaak had taken to the air, and there was a bit of heat and energy that emanated from Sashaak as he circled.
“Something’s not quite right,” Rowan said.
“Is it that he’s not responding?”
“It’s more than that. I don’t know what it is. It feels like… It feels like something isn’t quite right with him.”
Laric turned back to her. “I can try to help, but I don’t know if I have the strength, just like you said.”
He wanted to. More than anything, he felt as if he needed to do whatever he could to help Xavier. Xavier had made it clear that they were going to have his help in getting out here, and if Laric could do nothing, then he… Well, Laric wasn’t sure what it was that he needed to do, but he felt a surge of desire to help him.
Xavier had known Laric’s grandmother. More than anything, that was a thought that lingered within him. Laric had wanted to have a connection to that past, wanted to better understand more so that he could truly come to know what that meant for him and whether there would be any way for him to know his past, and more about himself.
And without having Xavier around, Laric simply didn’t know if there would be a way for him to get those answers.
“What are you chasing?” Laric asked Sashaak.
He saw the dragon circling, but he wasn’t just circling. Laric tried to focus on the connection he shared to Sashaak, hoping it would grant him a better way to make out what was happening.
Sashaak could certainly gift him something, couldn’t he? At this point, that was what Laric needed. He wanted to see what Sashaak could see. The dragon could show him, but he had to be willing to do it.
He focused, straining, trying to make out some element that was there, but it was difficult for him to see much. And the more that he struggled to see, the more that he felt the strange pressure on him that suggested that while he attempted to use the connection, Sashaak seemed to be fighting him.
“Let me help,” Laric said.
Sashaak didn’t respond.
He didn’t know why he felt a surge of frustration at that, but he did. Maybe it was just that he thought Sashaak should be interested in helping him, or willing to allow Laric to know what was going on. Or maybe it was just that he couldn’t help but feel as if he should be doing more. Maybe it was all of that, or none of it.
Still, Sashaak remained quiet.
And through that quiet, Laric caught something, but it was little more than a glimpse. Movement.
It felt faded and faint, as if Sashaak was having a hard time showing him anything. Why would that be the case? Sashaak shouldn’t have any trouble showing him what was happening, should he?
But he did. For whatever reason, the dragon was having difficulty revealing something.
A flare appeared in Laric’s mind.
