Ruelle'sPOV
I had always trusted the wind more than people. People hesitated. They kept secrets. They broke promises without warning. The wind never did that. Through changes in pressure, it tugged at loose fabric and rattled partially closed windows.
It warned you when something was near. It moved. It never pretended to be still. It carried the same charged tension that had filled Averyn's bedroom ever since the Codex had finished its selection.
Now, it whispered restlessly through the curtains.
The gems stayed close, settled and dim, as if they were watching.
I tried to seem unfazed as I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed. The Codex floated just inches above the ground. Its pages were no longer flipping wildly, and its glow was dim but watchful.
It felt like it had shared its thoughts and was now waiting for us to respond. No one was ready to break the silence first, so we stood loosely around it. As Jade flexed her fingers, waves of heat rolled off her skin.
"So, that really just happened," she said, her excitement barely in check.
I let out a quiet snort. "Sadly, the answer is yes."
The air changed again strongly this time. It started moving when I breathed like it was waiting for me to say it was okay. The air wrapped around my shoulders. Went through my hair. The air was really responding to my breathing now.
I really hated the fact that it felt so natural to me. It just felt right. That is what bothered me about it. The natural feeling of it was something that I could not stand.
I whispered, "It seems like the room is really paying attention to what we're saying."
Vynessa stood with her arms folded in front of her as she took a step closer to the Codex. The soft white-gold light, around her was steady. It made her feel calm. This light did not get brighter or weaker.
Vynessa said "The gems chose us for a reason."
"We just need to figure out how to listen to them " Vynessa said in a firm voice.
Green energy continued to flicker beneath Carmira's skin like something alive as she paced close to the foot of the bed.
Gianna stayed near the window, her fingers twitching as if she were waiting for the next wave. Averyn's very presence anchored the room as she stood near the Codex. I let out a slow breath.
I said, "Tell me again why we're trusting our fate to a magic book that just rewrote reality."
Averyn's lips curled up as she turned back to her. "Because the house hasn't been destroyed?"
I winced. "Low expectations."
The Codex moved.
Not with force, but with purpose.
The room itself seemed to be taking a breath as the air thickened and pressed in. I felt it the instant it happened. The wind swirled up to my chest and lodged deep within my ribs, sliding into my lungs.
It was not chaotic.
This was recognition.
My heart started racing. My balance was challenged as the invisible currents pulled at my sleeves and entwined around my fingers.
"I can sense it," she whispered.
Carmira halted. "Ruelle...?"
"It's—" I swallowed. "Blame it on the wind. It is responding."
The current flow intensified.
In a burst of movement, blue and silver plates of a translucent quality layered over me like folded wings to create my armor. The pattern was shifting, with borders that flowed instead of connecting and changing in minute ways. It looked ridiculously fragile, as if it was held together by breath alone.
I stumbled back, wide-eyed. "This is unreal," I breathed. It wasn't the wind shoving me—no, the wind just hung there, waiting.
Suddenly, heat rushed up Jade's arms, crackling up her skin but never hurting. She sucked in a breath. Crimson and gold, sharp and bright, blazed around her, snapping into armor that fit like it had always belonged. Flames crowned her shoulders, alive but somehow under her control.
She let out a shaky laugh. "Well. I did not see that coming."
Vynessa moved up behind them, light spilling from her chest, shaping itself into smooth, glowing armor. It didn't blind, it wrapped around her, more like a promise than a shield. Her voice was calm.
"I can see more now." She glanced around, her eyes sharper.
"Not just the room. Everything looks clearer."
Carmira's emerald energy flared up, twisting into armor that looked like vines—alive, shifting, almost breathing along with her. The plates slid into place, moving naturally, always ready.
Gianna sucked in a breath as silver-blue energy snapped into shape around her, sharp and shining. Her armor caught bits of light and threw them across the walls. A shield shimmered up, quiet but solid—something she could trust without thinking.
Averyn just closed her eyes. Water answered her. Armor flowed over her skin in smooth, rippling layers of blue and white, silver lines glowing along her arms. It moved with her—always changing, always alive.
I just stared. Air. Fire. Light. Earth. Lightning. Water. Chosen.
She finally let out the breath she'd been holding. "Figures. I get the element that never shuts up."
Jade let out a laugh. "Honestly, I wanted something wild, like earthquakes."
"I don't float," I shot back. "If I start floating, I'm out."
Averyn moved in, steady hand on my shoulder. "Air's not just about drifting," she said, softer now. "It keeps us breathing. It sweeps storms away."
I swallowed hard.
The wind brushed my face—gentle this time. Like it trusted me.
I'd always lived on edge, waiting for things to fall apart, hunting for cracks before something broke. Maybe that's why the air picked me.
For the moment, the Codex's aim was met as it faded further. The wind died down outside.
Nothing ever felt the same inside.
The first shift had just occurred.
I was the best person to know that things were always changing.
They moved.
I was finally learning how to move with them this time.