Page 99 of Cosmic Soul

The voices around me were growing more insistent with each passing moment. I tried to force my heavy limbs to move, but they didn’t, like someone had tied them down. Focusing, I tried again to move, to wiggle, to do something, but I was stuck. I couldn’t be, though. Fyn needed me. I knew he did.

Still, no matter what I did, I was frozen in place.

Something smooth lay beneath me. Like I actually felt the texture. Whatever it was had a squish. I swallowed at the sensation, the true sensation, then flinched at the muscles in my throat contracting. What the fuck? I didn’t have a throat. I did it again, and my breathing increased. Fuck, I was breathing. It was weird and disconcerting; I hated it. Pain infected everyfiber of my existence, and there was no escape from the constant stabbing ache.

If this was oblivion, it sucked more than I thought it would.

“Open your eyes,” someone ordered. “I know you can do this. Open your eyes.”

Zoltilvoxfyn. It didn’t sound like him, much higher pitched, but nothing was right in this… whatever this existence was, so maybe his voice was different too? There was too much happening inside of me. The pain. The smoothness of whatever was beneath me. The way my muscles clenched and loosened. My lungs expanding with each breath. There was way too much.

But Sunshine needed me; I’d promised I would never leave him, and I wouldn’t. Slowly, one eye cracked open, then the second one followed, but it wasn’t Fyn above me.

“Tinlorray,” I croaked in a deep voice unlike my own that made me cringe. What the actual fuck was that?

“Yolkeltod,” she cried, falling onto me.

My nose burned from a different sharp odor surrounding me, and twitched at the soft fragrance coming off of her. I tried to get away from both, but I couldn’t; her solid weight pressed me down, trapping me.

“Yolkeltod?” I asked as a tremor started. God, I was vibrating. I was fucking shaking, making whatever was under me move. What the fuck? A thrumming sped up, filling my ears. “You can hear me. You can touch me. I can touch you. What is happening?”

Tinlorray didn’t answer. I lifted my hand, and the world swirled around me. My fingers were covered in dove-gray scales and tipped with black claws. What the actual fucking hell was happening?

“Yolkeltod,” Tinlorray said, squeezing me.

Pain. Pressure. Touch. A harsh, burning smell. A soft, light fragrance. My heart raced in my chest, thrumming in an odd beat, while beeps grew louder and louder, stabbing my brain.

It hit me like a freight train. I was in Yolkeltod’s body, and I was alive.

Holy fucking hell. This was bad. This was wrong.

She touched me, and I yanked away. My tail thrashed. I had a tail. A tail. It kept moving and writhing. Every single flick caused shards of pain to dash up my spine. Wings pushed against my back. Wings. Tail. Claws. Oh my god. The wind blew in from the window and stirred my hair, making me yelp from the tickling brush.

Stop. God. Please stop. There was way too much happening.

“Don’t touch me,” I snapped. A deep pull in my gut urged me to run, to go somewhere else. Somewhere else was safe.

“Yolkeltod?” Tinlorray asked.

“No.” My head whipped back and forth; the beeping was so fucking loud. The texture of the sheets rubbed against me. The squish of the mattress. The rush of wind. The sharp sting invaded my brain with every inhale. What was happening? My heart throbbed, thrumming, vibrating.

“Sunshine,” I screamed. I needed him. Everything would be fine if he was here. “Zoltilvoxfyn.”

“Dr. Maklownil, something is wrong.”

“Yolkeltod,” an older drakcol with rough pink scales said. “I’m going to give you something to calm you.”

“No.” I threw myself off the bed, landing on my stomach. I grunted, body absorbing the hit, though it reverberated through my spine, sending electricity through my veins. Something crashed in the distance, and there was a tug somewhere in my gut. Tears slid down my cheeks, and I tried to yank away from the liquid sliding over my skin—scales. The cold floor burned me. It was too much. I couldn’t breathe, though, even as Ithought that, my lungs expanded, adding to the cacophony in my mind.

I had to get away.

My arms trembled when I tried to lift myself up and my legs shook. I couldn’t stand. This borrowed body wouldn’t work. “I need Zoltilvoxfyn.”

“What is happening?” Tinlorray asked.

“I don’t know,” the doctor said.

I tried to claw my way out of the room, but the cool flooring scraping against my scales made me shiver. The wind rushed over my bare backside, and I yelped, hating how my throat moved. My tail thrashed, sending knives up my spine, and my wings flared, catching on the bed.

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