Page 93 of The Stone Curse
“Serath, it’s me. It’s Cameron.”
Her voice filters into the darkness saturated with hope and…fear.
“Please…please tell me you’re in there. You promised…you promised to hold on.”
Cameron! Panic fuels me, pushing me up toward the gray. I must surface. I must see. A pinprick of light blooms, and her face appears, misty-eyed, mouth parted in a plea.
Beyond her, lethal threats loom. Graynites. I glance down at my hand, but it’s no longer my hand. It belongs to a monster. To one of them.
I’ve changed, and I’m here, which means?—
“I know you can hear me, dammit,” Cameron says. “Serath, fight it. You fight whatever they’ve done to you.”
Yes. I must fight. I need to protect her. I can’t let them?—
The darkness heaves, wrapping its arms around me, trying to pull me down. My hand wraps around her throat, and I can feel the softness of her skin and the thrum of her pulse against my palm. Her thumb strokes my wrist, and my chest aches as I fight the force trying to pull me away from her, because if I let go, she’s doomed. If I slip now, then she’s dead. I can feel the muscles in my arms tensing, and the thing that has control of me prepares to crush her windpipe.
“I love you, Serath,” she says, absolving me of what I’m about to do. “It’s okay. This is not your fault. It’s okay.”
Her face rushes toward mine, and a lance of pure energy shoots into me. Not mine. Cameron’s. It rockets through my soul and connects to my power, and the shackles holding me in the darkness are burned away. It blazes, engulfing my veins.Myfucking veins, inmyfucking body.
“NO!” The voice of the entity that houses my skin reverberates in my head. “This is my body now.”
Fury floods me, a foghorn to my beast and chimera buried in the abyss. They shake themselves out of forced dormancy and rush up to meet me.
“No!” the entity cries. “You can’t do this. You can’t.”
I fill my body withmyessence and power, cutting off the bastard’s voice.
“Fuck you. This is my body. MINE!”
CHAPTER 45
CAMERON.
Iclosed my eyes and waited for the bite of Serath’s teeth, but long seconds passed, and it didn’t come.
I cracked open an eyelid and stared into his graynite eyes.
“Ubron? What is the meaning of this?” the general demanded.
Serath’s left eye twitched, and a low, menacing growl rolled up his throat to blast me in the face. He drew me close, his words barely a whisper. “I’m going to throw you. Get ready to roll when you land. Then run.”
My heart leapt into my mouth, pulse stalling only to kick into a canter. He was back. Serath was?—
He swung back his arm, with me dangling from it, and I let go of him in time to go sailing through the air. I landed in a roll that jarred my bones before coming up and sprinting for the building.
“Now!” Curi bellowed.
The blue shimmer parted to let me past, and I dove through the busted window and straight into Curi’s arms.
He gathered me to his chest for a moment, but I twisted back to the window. “Serath is out there! He’s in control.” He was in battle now. One against six. “He saved me, and we’re taking him back with us. How long till the port opens?”
“It should be here already,” Adaline said.
“It’s not coming,” Shar groaned. “Someone fucked us over. The fact that the graynites found this place…”
Fuck! “Then we get Serath in here, and we hold out until we can recharge and fight.” I looked from Adaline to Levi. “Can you hold the shield?”
