Page 25 of Aberrant Monsters
She smiled again, a small, secretive thing that made my stomach twist in caution. “You’re loyal too. Good. That trait will serve you well, and it brings me to my proposition for you. If you accept it, you both may have the chance for closure.”
My mother may have been murdered by a person on the other side. If I was going to find out who killed her, I needed to focus on getting the fuck out of here.
“What’s your proposition?”
“Stefan isn’t the only rift walker who’s become infected by an aberration. The past two years we’ve had several such infections. It’s gotten to the point that rift walkers are afraid to do their jobs, and their numbers have dwindled. So.” She held up her palms. “I offer you both a deal. Come work for us. Track down the eldritch horrors that have evaded us thus far, help us investigate this aberration problem, and in return we will find a way to separate you safely.” She smiled at Telarion. “And I have an added incentive for you, Telarion.”
“Oh? Do tell,” he drawled.
“Protect August, help her in her tasks, and I’ll tell you exactly who you are and where you come from.”
What did she mean? “We know where he came from. He came from the eldritch realm.”
“Yes, he did. Aberrations seem to be born there, but he was something else…before. Someone else.”
He rushed the glass, clawed hands splaying across it in the spot where her neck would be. “Do not play with me, witch.”
“Oh, I don’t play, Telarion. I have the information you need. Comply with our request, work with us, and you shall have it. Maybe it will replace the void left behind by your soul.”
Telarion flinched as if she’d struck him.
I stepped forward. “What does that mean?”
Her smirk was cold and decidedly cruel. “Aberrations have no soul, which is probably why they’re attracted to creatures that do. And a rift walker…Well, a rift walker is a shining soul indeed.” She waved a delicate hand in the air. “A beacon in the gray.” She sighed. “So, do we have a deal?”
No soul? I looked up at Telarion. What did that mean for him? How did that affect him? I mean…the soul was essential, right? Ghosts were souls. Souls were what made us, what carried our memories once the shell of our body was gone. So what did that mean for Telarion? What happened to him when he died?
Was he thinking any of the stuff I was? Hard to tell, because his expression was now closed off and neutral, eyes hooded and fixed on Genevieve.
“How long do we work for you?” he asked her.
“You mean how long do you have before you become like Stefan?” She pushed out her lip as she considered his question. “Let’s see, it took Stefan six months to merge fully with his monster, and you’ve been connected for, how many?”
“Two.”
“So you have four months before it’s too late.” Her expression hardened. “Clear the jobs we give you in a timely fashion and we’ll keep our end of the bargain and set you free.”
My attention tracked to Stefan, still on his knees, head bowed. “Have you saved any of them?”
“No. But their sacrifice means we now have the data to synthesize a cure for you.”
“And if we refuse?” Telarion asked.
She smiled sweetly. “Then I’m afraid your host dies. And you know what that means.”
That was one thing we had managed to find out in our research of bindings with creatures from other realms. Yeah, there was a forum for this on the mystic web. If I died while we were bound, Telarion would be pulled back to the eldritch realm, the place he’d been born as an aberration. Trapped there once more, soulless and without answers as to his origins. But if the Order found a way to separate us without killing me, then he would be free to go wherever he wished.
There was no choice. “We accept your deal.”
eight
Icame to a little faster this time.
“Urgh, not again, the fucking bastards.” I opened my eyes to find Uncle Fred peering down at me.
“Oh goodness, thank goodness,” he said.
The Order people had drugged me. Again. A requirement to my leaving, because God forbid my personal monster see their location.
