Rain’s POV
On the morning of Odett’s flood exercise at the Academy, I stood at her bedroom door and watched the protection marks fade beneath the wood. They would warn me if her power surged or Lorilie disappeared from her reach again. Their silence should have comforted me; instead, I kept picturing her waking to a floor she no longer trusted.
‘She woke safely,’ Dosha said with steady reassurance inside my mind.
‘She ate, argued with her journal, and left with Joshy. Those are good things,’ she added patiently.
‘They are normal things,’ I answered.
‘Normal does not explain why something kept Lorilie from reaching her,’ I reminded her uneasily.
‘No, but fear does not explain it either,’ Dosha said.
Dosha sounded like Mom when she wanted me to slow down, and I hated that they were bo
