Page 6 of The Darkest Night

She reached a trembling hand out to him. Hodge faltered for a second before swallowing and taking a step toward her.

Heat detonated inside Mae, so fierce and scorching it felt as if her very body had gone supernova. She gasped and bent over. Tears sprung to her eyes. She clawed at her belly, desperate to dig out the source of the agonizing inferno raging through her bones. Her spine arched the next instant, drawing a shocked cry from her lips. Her head snapped back and her limbs grew rigid, every joint locking in place.

Mae heard Hodge shout something above the buzzing in her ears. She gazed blankly at the ceiling, unable to move a single muscle, the coppery tang of blood filling her mouth.

Dammit! I must have bitten my tongue! Am I—am I having a seizure? Is this some kind of stroke?!

A crimson explosion filled her world. Sound and sight faded.

Fire surged through Mae’s veins and flooded her flesh, a vengeful storm she feared she would not survive. Her heart thudded louder and louder with every painful, wretched beat, as if it were trying to leap out of her very chest and escape her treacherous body. She blinked.

The echo of another heartbeat was rising beneath it. One that felt strange yet achingly familiar at the same time. It was as if it had always been there, waiting quietly for the right time to make its presence felt.

Mae shuddered.

Why did I just think that?!

The other heartbeat grew exponentially until it merged seamlessly with her own, a savage pounding that sent pulses of red throbbing across her darkened vision.

At last…

The voice danced through her mind, soft and feminine, yet filled with such strength and menace Mae could only tremble in fear.

“Who—who are you?!” she choked out.

She wasn’t sure whether she’d spoken the words out loud or just said them in her head. She wasn’t even sure if she was alive right now.

The presence focused on her.

A wave of kindness washed gently through Mae’s consciousness. Tears came to her eyes once more. But this time, they were of grief and loss.

I am you and you are me, Mae.

Images flashed before her sightless eyes. Mae’s breath locked in her throat. She knew instinctively that these were memories.

The battlefield she saw was like nothing she’d ever experienced. An army of monsters crowded an immense landscape all the way to the horizon, their numbers legion. On the blood-soaked grounds they left in their passage were hundreds upon thousands of mutilated corpses, many piled in mounds dozens of feet high. Ash darkened the sky from the fires raging through a burning palace and the city around it, the clouds tinged orange by the fierce flames and the screams of the dying reaching up to the very Heavens.

It was a scene of devastation on a scale Mae had never witnessed and could not even have begun to imagine. And she knew, deep in the marrow of her bones, that it was all because of her and the voice inside her.

Because of who they were.

Another vision flitted before her eyes.

A man, no, a demon with curved horns and crimson eyes stood looking down at her. And beside him, as bloodied and broken as he was, a woman whose beauty was dazzling despite the injuries marking her fair skin. They were holding her in their arms, their tears falling upon her cooling face. Their love for her shone brightly in their grief-stricken gazes, their words a faint whisper she could not make out.

The memory faded. The voice inside her spoke again, its tone steely.

Get ready. They are coming.

Mae woke up with a gasp. She blinked, her vision swimming for a moment. A dark floor came into focus.

She was lying on her front, cheek pressed against the cold linoleum. Her nails bit into her palms where she’d clenched her hands so hard, her knuckles blanched.

The emergency lights had come on in the corridor outside. Alarms blared from the upper stories of the hospital.

Mae unfisted her fingers and crawled onto her hands and knees. She shook her head dazedly, the taste of ash in her mouth and the beginning of a headache throbbing between her temples. Sweat cooled on her skin under her clothes and the protective gown she wore.

The red glow had faded from her body.

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