The Lark Taps Twice

Chapter 22: This Is What Success Looks Like?

With little effort, Miriam found herself seated beside Jonatham, her temple against his knee. He began to whisper in the same lyrical language as before, and a shimmering iridescent ribbon a few inches wide appeared between his palms. He began to wave his hands in an intricate pattern, taking the ribbon along with the movements, and a gleaming rope of magical energy took shape above his flaring fingers.

The surrounding stones glowed brighter as the rope lengthened and coiled itself into a spiral suspended over their heads. Jonatham's voice maintained a steady drone until the coil hovered inches below the ceiling. After a pause, the chanting resumed, but lower in pitch and pace, a combination that weighed down Miriam's eyelids and limbs so she needed to fight to stay conscious to watch the weaving continue.

While forming the braided cable took only moments, what came next seemed to creep on burglar's tiptoes. The end of the glowing rope prodded a section of debris a few feet off the ground. When that location erupted in a shower of dust and pebbles, the cable retreated, moved a few inches horizontally and repeated its tap. With each attempt, the tension in Jonatham increased, and Miriam found she no longer fought to stay awake as she poured reassurances to him through the bond.

The strand's efforts continued until it nearly circumnavigated the chamber, and the effort of maintaining the weave had her soulmate's muscles trembling against her body. At last, the magic's probing was not immediately answered with falling wreckage, and a golden thread of hope wound through Jonatham's exhausted essence. His chanting took on more energy, and the words he used bounced in her ears like beats on a snare drum.

At this shift, the threads of the rope began to unravel into hundreds of fine threads that then squeezed themselves into gaps between stones. At first, their glow simply disappeared into the wall as the coil of magic grew shorter by turns. Then the gaps around the stones on either side of the magic's entry point gleamed gold. The effect spread slowly outward before each end curved toward the floor. The gaps between the wall and the ruined tile floor radiated light just as the last of the coiled magic vanished into the top of the new arch.

At this, Jonatham's voice became a bellow, and the luminescence from the rocks and the woven magic flared bright, forcing Miriam to cover and close her eyes. Jonatham whispered one final phrase and dropped to the floor in front of her, curling himself around Miriam as a low boom shook them both; a shower of sand and gravel pelted them after.

When all was quiet again, Miriam squirmed under Jonatham's sheltering weight. Let me up, Jon. I can't breathe, and I think the danger is past. You wouldn't want to suffocate me after everything else we've already survived, would you?

A long shuddering breath later, he shifted away, twisting so as to keep his body between her and the site of the weaving. With a brush of lips and sparks against her temple, he rose to his feet, bringing her with him to cradle her against his chest. She sank into the surge of warmth from the contact and let their surroundings melt away.

As much as Miriam wanted – needed – to see the aftermath of the spell for herself, her arms would not push him away. Being held this way, without urgency or imminent disaster urging her to move, soothed a restlessness she'd never recognized in herself before. His embrace reminded her of the first time she used the dreamstone and the essence of bacon and pancakes on the griddle had again filled the room she'd grown up in; it was the feeling of security, familiarity, and affection that she associated with being home. With Jonatham, she knew home was no longer only a physical place on Earth, but also the presence of the man she loved.

Love?

Could she love a man she had known for less than a week? Granted, this had been the longest weekend she'd ever experienced, but could she trust her heart in this? Or was this overwhelming flood of emotion a result of the shock of all the recent revelations, something that would fade once she returned to her job, her regular life?