Page 38 of The Unweaver

Eyes rolling back and necrotic veins spreading, she guided them near the black veil. The uncanny familiarity of death surged up to embrace them. The bathroom disintegrated. A void unhinged its jaws and swallowed them whole. Headfirst, they dove into the delirium.

Her stomach flipped, over and over, until she landed onto a ground both solid and not solid. Blinking away tears and swallowing down nausea, her gaze swept the barren plain of wandering spirits, marked for its absence. Absence of light, of sound, of substance. The unnaturalness seeped into her pores.

With straining effort, she took a step and the nothingness shifted along with her. It wasn’t a barren plain, but animpenetrable fog submerging her in the surreal. Cold steam chilled her to the marrow.

A hand squeezed hers. The fog beside her coalesced into a nude man. Bane, thankfully with the more distracting parts of his anatomy obscured by fog.

Call to him, his soundless voice resonated in her mind.

Teddy?Her wordless plea sounded like it came from somewhere else, from someone else.

Each step through the thick fog was arduous. The fog sensed their intrusion, forming a thousand hands of sinuous vapor dragging them back. They moved but didn’t move. Time passed and stood still. She sensed something just beyond, yet it eluded her.

Precious minutes ticked by.

Finally, from the fringes of her vision, emerged a vague figure.

Teddy!

Hope, breathtakingly fragile, bloomed in her chest. Crying out his name, she rushed forward.

Cora, wait. Bane held her back.

She faltered. Something was off about Teddy, shifting listlessly in the distance. Slack-jawed and hollow-eyed, he was drained of color, as if the fog had taken his nearly translucent shape. She hadn’t known what to expect from a spirit in Purgatory, but he seemed incomplete. A facsimile, too faint to be whole.

Hurry, Bane urged.I can’t keep us here much longer.

The wraith with the mirror image of her own face watched them approach with dull, glassy eyes. When Cora reached out, her hand passed through him. The chill in her bones spread like ice on a pond. The wraith stood motionless, watching her extract her arm from his torso without interest.

What happened to you, Teddy bear?She willed the words into whatever was left of his mind.Who did this to you?

The wraith’s head swung to Bane. His face contorted in sudden fury, then fell back into placidity. Her gaze shot between them. Bane’s expression gave away nothing.

Teddy,she pleaded.Teddy, what happened to you? Who cursed you? How can I get you back?

Solemn, the wraith shook his head and turned away.

Where is your body?She reached out and through him again.Help me find you. I will bring you back, Teddy. I swear to god I will. Where did they take your body?

An image flashed in her mind’s eye. A marble sepulcher, ravaged by time and piled with snow. Beyond the iron fence, a sprawling city belched black clouds.

Who did this to you, Teddy? Why—

We’re out of time.Bane’s hand tugged her back.We need to leave.

No, not yet! Teddy! Teddy, I love you. I will find y—

Fog swirled. Cora fell into vertiginous blackness, clawing at empty air as the ground rose up to meet her.

They landed in the clawfoot tub in a tangle of limbs and a tidal wave of milk. Slick skin grappled for purchase. Smoothness glided along exquisite hardness in a tumult of wriggling body parts, a conundrum of sensations.

Sucking in a breath, Bane grasped her hips and locked her in place, draped on top of him with her hands on his chest and her legs around his waist. Their bodies were flush together, their lips perilously close. Panting breaths mingled in the narrow space between them.

His black eyes, like portals to strange eternities, drew her in and under. Milk pearled on his long lashes, dripped from his hair, and streamed in rivulets down the muscles bunching beneath her. Cora became very aware of where every part of her touched every part of him. She sensed his unraveling composureand longed to wrap one of those fraying threads around her finger andtug.

Shifting, she slipped, crushing her breasts to his chest. He stifled a groan.

“I need you,” he gritted out, his fingers digging into the flesh of her hips. “To stop fuckin’ moving.”

---