(Isla)
Caius stepped closer.
"Try something," he said.
I looked at him.
"Don't wait for the light," he said. "Just reach for it."
I looked at my hands.
"Reach how?"
"The same way you reach for Vaela," he said. "Not by thinking about it. By knowing she's there."
I understood that.
I stopped waiting and simply knew.
The light answered immediately, spreading to my elbows before I even registered it had started. I watched it move without reacting to it and for the first time it didn't fade the moment I noticed it.
It stayed.
Not long. But longer than before.
When it finally faded I looked at Caius.
"That was different," I said.
"Yes," he said. "That was you."
I stood there for a moment after it faded.
"It didn't disappear when I noticed it," I said.
"No," Caius said.
"Yester
