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How could that possibly be? When all around them was only death? How could there be life in the center of the Dáinnbolg?

She reached out to it.

It reacted.

Strongly.

Extremely strongly.

What in the hell was happening? The world around her felt like it was shaking. And closing in. All at once. Light flashed across the vision of her mind. Thunder crashed from the non-existent sky. And green. Sight and scent. Everywhere. Converging.

She couldn’t help but panic. Retreat. Pull back, but to where? Didn’t matter. Wherever her mind could take her?

Chergoa?

Emiliana?

Chaos. Black and roiling. It felt like she hit the ground. Fallen on her side? Or was that a wall? Did reality even exist anymore? Where was her mind, right now?

Lakefire. The mutation was still ongoing. Without her. Without either of them.

What was it doing?!

They concentrated. Had to get it under control. Figure everything out. Make sense of the world. Of this body.

The horns had changed. She could sense them. All four of them. The bottom two had stretched across her cheeks and touched her ears. More like handles now. Ugh. And the top two had grown up and out. Taller. More prominent than ever.

More noticeable.

It took all of her self-control not to utterly hate herself. Chergoa must have been helping with that.

They steadied themselves. Calm. Quiet. Ready.

Now. Was there anything else? Just the four horns changing? If so, then--

No. There were more now. Along her arms. The backs of her hands. Stubby horns had grown out at intermittent points. Just like the ones on her face had been.

God. Why?

No. It was okay. They were fine, see? In fact, they looked kind of neat, didn’t they?

Oh, shut up.

No. You shut up. And really look at ‘em, instead of just freaking out again. The horns weren’t totally brown and gray like the ones on her face had been. There was a bit of green in them, around the flat tops. What did that tell you, huh?

Green...

Hmm. What did that tell her? She could feel something more there. Life. Budding potential? Like with her vines? Could they grow leaves or flowers, too, if she wanted?

More.

Yes.

Much more.

Those horns were connected to her very bones. Of course they were. That was what horns were, anatomically speaking: protruding bones covered in a tough shell of keratin, the same protein that composed hair.

And these little horns... they were feeding into her brain, too. She could sense their form as clearly as her own fingers and toes.

There was some kind of extra sensitivity there, she realized.