Page 53 of The Light Within

A rumbling growl reverberated through the bridge, shaking the entire structure. Glass from a close-by lamppost rained to the ground.

“We don’t want to fuck with them!” hissed Cinn, digging his nails into Julien’s arm.

Then, Julien felt it again. That horrible sensation. The nothingness. The dread. He felt more than heard a low groan tumble out of his lips. A palpable wave of despair washed over Julien, coiling around his bones like the vine’s insidious grip on the city.

“Arrête!” Julien eventually spat out, the word dragging itself out of him through a mire of thick, suffocating tar. “Je t’en prie!”

To his astonishment, they obeyed, the oppressive atmosphere receding as the umbraphages halted their assault.

Cinn was staring at him with concern, as if he’d gone mad. Evidently the umbraphages only wanted to torture him.

Julien regained his breath, his composure. His sanity.

“But what do you thinkwecan do about it?” Julien ran his hand through his damp hair to resist folding his arms. “Tell all this to Auri’s consortium!”

JULIEN MONTAIGNE

Julien flinched at the sound of his own name in the booming, inhuman voice.

A sharp intake of breath. Cinn gazed down at the floor, where the shadow cat slid out from between his legs. It angled its eyeless sockets towards Julien while its wispy tail flickered metronomically.

YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST MONTAIGNE WE ATTEMPTED TO TALK TO

Béatrice’s document flashed in his mind:The remaining skin exhibited evidence of umbraphage lacerations.

“You hurt her!” Julien cried.

Cinn pressed his hand against Julien’s back, but it did nothing to calm the storm that thundered within him.

IT WAS NOT OUR INTENT

WE APPEARED TO HER

SHE WAS SCARED

THE LOCKET KILLED HER

WE ONLY TOUCHED HER TO MAKE HER SHADOW

Julien’s gaze fell to the cat.Maybe she didn’t want to be shadow!“So this really is her then?” he asked them in a flat tone. It wasn’t lost on him that if an umbraphage hadn’t ‘appeared’ to her at the top of that mountain, she wouldn’t have channelled, and the locket wouldn’t have killed her. But this line of reasoning would be lost on the umbraphages, of this he was sure.

“Why did you appear to her?” asked Cinn.

WE WERE BOTH OF THE SAME INTENTIONS, US AND SHE

HER AND HER ARCANE PURIFIERS

WE WANTED TO HELP

SHE WENT TO HIM, JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER DID

The ground vanished beneath Julien. His mother? His breath caught in his throat as the weight of the words crushed into him with the force of a hundred thunderclaps.

“What? Who?” he whispered.

PÈRE GÉRARD

“Father Gérard?”

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