Runelight (The Aenigma Lights Book 1) by JA Andrews

Author:JA Andrews [Andrews, JA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Kate tucked Bo’s journal into her pack, and the back of her hand hit the corner of the aenigma box. She could only see the corner of the lid, but the mosslight hit it at such a shallow angle that the carved runes were full of shadows, standing out starkly against the smooth wood, calling to her to study them.

She pulled the box out and held it so the light from the lantern just skimmed the top, plunging every carved symbol into blackness.

The triangle created by the three main runes was readily visible. The topmost one reading a king brought to his knees connected strongly to the battlement cannot stand, which sat on the left. And both intertwined with the strange runes on the right.

Her eyes traced those carvings, moving past ideas of sorrow and loss and brokenness before getting caught up in something that reminded her of hope and life.

She set her finger on the edge and funneled a little vitalle into them. They blazed into warmth, the web of thin lines carved around the lid lighting up.

Not a web—a net.

The thin lines crisscrossed around the larger, bolder rune, containing it. Holding it together.

She leaned closer.

Once she started to separate the net-runes from the central one, she noticed it wasn’t a single rune. It was two. The first and most obvious rune was loss. Not a small loss. A huge, gaping loss.

It took a moment to decipher that the second was one smaller rune embedded in the center of a larger one.

The root of the outer rune was hold, but the modifiers spoke of unending desperation. Clinging with all one’s might and never stopping.

The smaller rune tucked inside it said broken. No, more than broken. Shattered.

The net wriggled around these runes, wreathing them with a repeated series of symbols made of smaller, thinner lines. She poured a little more vitalle into them until they brightened, and she separated them out.

Starlight.

Waiting. Or waiting with the slightest hint of hopefulness, so more like anticipation.

Something that meant beams of light, like sunbeams, with the idea of them emerging from darkness.

And finally, one that was repeated even more than the rest, healing. A short symbol twisted above it each time, and she considered the shape of it. Complete, maybe. Complete healing. There was a little more to it, though. She was tapping her fingers on the side of the box, trying to draw out the real meaning, when she noticed the thin tail wrapping around the rune.

Restore.

She sorted out the different ideas. Her thumb rubbed over a metal strap along the edge, the feel of the delicately carved runes oddly soothing against her skin.

This spoke of something shattered being held together desperately by the one who had suffered the great loss of it, all enveloped in bits of distant starlight and the anticipation of the broken thing being restored.

All the darker parts—the brokenness, the desperation, the interminable feel of the holding—were stronger than the rest, and Kate ran her fingers over the waiting rune.

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