Page 103 of Midnight Reign
Hope snaps into place, misguided or not, I guess we will find out. “Contain her where?”
Zaiah takes the book and holds it up. “In here.”
“Oh shit,” I mutter as I take in the extremely cautious faces of my friends. My brothers from different species but it makes it no less true.
“Do it,” Dad says, stepping up next to him. “Do it and do it now.”
Zaiah glares at him, clearly not taking orders from him.
“Zaiah,” I snap. “Whatever it takes, just bring her back to us.”
He nods, his expression grim as flashes of bright white light hit my sensitive senses.
He and Zephyr begin to chant, their voices rising and falling in a melodic cadence that is drowned out by Malachar’s furious yells of frustration.
My skin tingles as the magick whips into action.
I hold Adelaide close, willing every ounce of strength I have into her. “Fight, Addy,” I whisper. “Whatever’s happening in there, whatever you’re facing, fight it. Come back to us. Come back to me. I love you. We all love you. We can’t do this life without you. Do you know this? Do you know we are nothing without you?”
As the chant reaches a crescendo, the massive form of Crimson above us begins to writhe and twist. A keening wail fills the air, making my ears ring. The obsidian pillars around us start to crumble, the ground shaking beneath our feet.
“It’s working!” Ignatius shouts over the din.
But something feels wrong. Adelaide’s body goes rigid in my arms, her back arching as if in pain. A scream tears from her throat, a sound of such agony that it feels like my heart is being ripped out.
“Stop!” I yell. “You’re hurting her!”
Zephyr hesitates, his eyes wide with panic. “If we stop now?—”
“I don’t care!” I roar. “We’re not losing her!”
Suddenly, a blinding light erupts from Adelaide’s chest, scorching my skin and forcing me to shield my eyes. When I look back, my heart stops. “No,” I whisper, horror crawling up my throat. “No, no, no!”
The light intensifies, and I feel Adelaide’s body shake uncontrollably. I try to hold on, but it’s like trying to grasp smoke. She slips through my fingers as she rises off the ground.
“Adelaide!” I yell, reaching for her even as she floats horizontally above the ground.
Dad and Adelaide’s mother have stopped their battle with Malachar, and he with them, all of them staring in disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of us.
Adelaide’s unconscious form hovers, and the energy that was Crimson suddenly seep through the air towards Adelaide. She is suspended in a cocoon of swirling energy. We watch, helpless and horrified.
“We have to do something!” I yell, my voice cracking with desperation.
But before anyone can move, the tendrils make contact with Adelaide’s floating form. The moment they touch her, a shockwave of power explodes outward, knocking us all off backwards.
As I struggle to rise in the twister around us, I see something that turns my blood to ice. She is being filled with swirling darkness through her eyes, her nose, her mouth, and her ears.
“What’s happening to her?” I choke out, sheer terror clawing at my insides.
Zephyr’s voice is hollow with dread as he answers. “I think we fucked up.”
“You think?” I snarl, shoving my hands into my hair.
If Crimson is trying to possess her again, this isn’t like before. This is something much, much worse.
As the darkness continues to trickle into Addy, her body begins to change. Her skin pales to an almost translucent white, and when her eyes snap open, they’re completely, utterly black. Endless pits that swallow all light.
“What the fuck is this?” I stare up at the floating form of the woman I love, now transformed into something I don’t recognise, filled with a bone-deep dread.
