Page 139 of Stone Seduction
There and here.
Not here, over there.
“Goodbye, Luke Garland. I’m off to hunt the real Ocean.”
Finn!
As I slipped away into the prison of ice and glass and snakes, I saw Finn leave it.
Here and there.
There and here.
The shadow of you.
The shadow of him.
Me. I was the shadow looming over him.
Understanding seeped into me. This icy prison wasn’t a place for Ember to put me. It was the place the monster put Finn. WhereI’dput him. Everything I saw was through Finn’s eyes, and not because I’d developed clairvoyance.
Oh my God.
How did she do it? How did Ember swap us?
It didn’t matter. This was my turn to sob within the walls of ice, my hands already grazing the cold glass of those windows.
Trapped. A terror. Getting exactly what I deserved.
I smashed a window, beginning my cycle of eternal doom.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Asher
Several hours passed after the end of Brinecrest. I waited in a small room within some secured building in London. I didn’t catch the name, didn’t care.
About anything.
I wanted to sit here and not think and do nothing and maybe the crazy ride would stop and I could jump off.
I tugged at my rose quartz, sending endless prayers to the stone gods.
Still no end in sight, yet. And the bells calling for aid continued to chime.
Thankfully, Eden, Dane, Tom, and Maren were safe. Along with Carissa, who’d told us all to wait inside this gray room. Anita got out, too, and some of the others. No one knew where Luke, Seth, Billy or Luna were, and the casualties didn’t bear thinking about.
Was my boyfriend one of them? Would I feel it if he’d died?
Why do you care about him now?
The terror house survived, those immortal horrors still kicking about inside. The weavers in the town pooled their magicto protect it at the last minute. Smart, but it came at the expense of the tower.
Gods. I couldn’t believe it. Everything fell apart so quickly. One moment we were under a green dome, the town brimming with festive vitality. Next, this shit.
And the ink was barely dry on my relationship with Luke.
Where are you?
