Page 78 of A Game of Monsters

I screwed my eyes closed, rested my body over Duncan’s like a shield and laid my head on his chest. Any moment I’d feel Duwar’s power flay my skin from my bones, but what came was the press of a warm shadow.

Just as I placed myself over Duncan, Erix landed atop me, coating Duncan and I with the shield of his wings.

The last thing I heard as the church came down on us was the soft voice of regret from the man atop me. “I have got you, little bird. Both of you. I will never let go.”

Then there was silence.

CHAPTER 19

A figure stepped through the curtain of mist and shadow. Death, the physical embodiment, come to welcome me into their realm, to crown me with my failures.

I released a breath, soft clouds of shadow parting like snakes around me.

It was said that when you died, your loved ones would greet you on the other side. Even in my state I felt a swell of relief at the knowledge. But it was not my mother or father who parted the mists. Nor was it any other friends that I had lost along the way.

“Jesibel?” I said as her form revealed itself, corporeal in a place where I had no body to feel.

The thought that Cassial had killed her too ruined me.

She ran toward me and threw her arms around my middle, before my knees gave way. It was only then that I realised I had a body in this place. Looking down I saw my arms materialise, enough for me to return the hug.

“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed into her embrace. “I know I have failed.”

All my hesitations, all my lack of actions had ended up leading to the path of ruin I tried to steer away from.

Jesibel drew back, looking me up and down. She ran her hands over my body to check that I was, in fact, real.

Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

In life, Jesibel had power over dreams. But this was just a trick again, surely. Something to punish me.

Shaking her head, Jesibel waved her soil-caked hands, and a parchment and quill conjured out of nothingness. Frantically, she began to scribble, until words were visible.

You are not dead, Robin.

I read it twice before the words faded, replaced by new ones.

This is a dream.

“Really?” I gasped, daring to hope.

She smiled through tears, not bothering to clean them from her cheeks as she began to scribble again.

The world thinks you have perished. All of you. The courts have fallen. Alive.

I could barely grasp onto my reality, to understand what the last memory I had was. I remembered darkness and death. Elinor crushed beneath stone… Cassial the vessel for Duwar and…

“Althea,” I gasped aloud.

Jesibel scribbled down something quick on the paper and held it up. What was waiting was a single word, one that cut deep.

Alive–

It wasn’t the violent ache in my shoulders that woke me. Nor was it the bite of metal cutting into my wrists, rubbing the skin raw. What finally had the power to draw me out of the dream was the shock of freezing water cascading over my face.

I gasped, jolting forwards as much as my bindings allowed. High levels of salt in the water made the numerous gashes and wounds across my body sting.

The cry that broke out of my torn throat sounded like the dying chirp of a small creature. “Jesibel–”

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