Chapter56: An Impossible Ask

*Maerilee* Oceanan soldiers are sprawled in unnatural shapes across churned earth and stone, their limbs slack, faces limp with unconsciousness. None of them are dead. I can feel that, somewhere in the strange bond between my magic and the land. But they are incapacitated, stunned by the burst of power that tore out of me moments ago like it had been waiting all along to be freed. No one speaks. No one moves. It feels like the world is holding its breath. But all I can think is that Akin is gone. I stare at the space where he fell, where he reached for me, but it is empty. He was there. I know he was. I saw him. Permiton saw him. Permiton was going to go back for him so we could revive him. Yet now he is gone, and something inside me feels like it has been ripped away at the roots. Somehow, I end up in the courtyard of the palace. I don’t remember moving here, and I have no recollection of leaving my place behind the barrier. My gown is torn, my hands are scraped raw from the ground, a