Page 86 of In the Ravenous Dark
Mother, I think.Father.
My heart kicks once.
And stops.
27
IVRILOS
Ivrilos falls hard into the underworld. Sometimes the sensation is like drifting off to sleep and then waking up suddenly—or at least how he remembers sleeping and waking, since he doesn’t exactly do that anymore. And sometimes it’s like being thrown into a cold, dark lake and launched out of it again, saturated by the chill and dark. This time it’s the latter.
He immediately crouches into a fighting stance among the drifting gray dunes, drawing both of his half-moon blades. He’s tired, weak. Damios’s pneuma was enough to bring him back from whatever brink Rovan sent him to, but it wasn’t enough to fully restore him. And then he made his hand tangible and shoved it in front of a dagger.
Idiot! You know better.It was a useless gesture, one that hurt instead of helped.
I couldn’t save her.The thought is far more excruciating than the dagger was.
He needs to find her. He doesn’t let himself dwell on what it will mean when he does.
… But of course it’ll mean that she’s dead.
Don’t think about it. Everyone dies eventually.
But it means something to him thatshe’llbe dead. He’s not entirely sure what, but it might amount to more than what anything else has meant to him in his long, dreary existence.
Worse, he doesn’t know if he’s strong enough to keep her safe down here.
She still may be better off here than upthere.With his brother,whatever he has become. Not fully alive. Not fully dead. Caught somewhere in between, like a venomous spider at the center of its own vast web.
“Where am I? Who the hell are you?”
Ivrilos spins to find none other than Crown Prince Kineas standing next to him. If a death occurs near Ivrilos in the living world, and he crosses over to the underworld at the same time, he’s likely to turn up next to that new shade. Now here they both are. Kineas looks confused and alarmed, but otherwise every bit as whole and arrogant as he ever looked in life.
“Finally,” Ivrilos says with a sigh, approaching slowly through the dark sand and bowing. “I’ve been looking forward to this for a while.”
The crown prince arches an eyebrow. “I wish I could say the same, but I’ve never had the pleasure.”
“Ihave, though ‘pleasure’ is not the word I would use.” Ivrilos pauses. Smiles. “Rovan sends her regards.”
He doesn’t even give Kineas a chance to scream before he lunges. The crown prince tries to struggle, but he’s no match for Ivrilos, who quickly traps his hands and draws him in.
Drinking Kineas’s essence is every bit as satisfying as Ivrilos thought it would be. And as it comes from a life taken in its prime, it’s strong.
Delicious.
When the crown prince is gone for good, Ivrilos rolls his shoulders and cracks his neck, readying his weapons.
Much better. But like any fresh kill, it will likely attract other predators.
Ivrilos casts around, his eyes tracing the horizon. He can’t see far, with the dark dunes cresting around him like a wave-tossed sea. An unfelt wind whips sand into the air like spume. The sand never falls, just drifts up into the sky in darkening funnel clouds. The world dissolving.
As always.
Ivrilos feels unseen bits of him try to drift up and away, but he holds them firmly to himself. A little dissipation is always natural, but he can’t spare anything.
The link between him and Rovan means she should arrive close to him. The bond always keeps him near to his ward in the living world, and the same is true down here. But he doesn’t see her.
Could she…notbe dead? He saw the blade enter her heart. Hefeltit, and not just through his own hand, but through their shared essence. She doesn’t have long to live, if she isn’t already here somewhere.
