Page 86 of The Stone Survival
Serath stood, shoulders slumped.
I went to touch him, and he flinched away. My heart hurt. “I’m sorry…”
He turned to me, shaking his head. “No…” He pulled me into his arms. “I’m okay. I’ll be okay.”
But he wasn’t. I could feel his distress, his disgust, and his horror through our bond. He’d forgotten, but seeing her had reminded him. The only way to help him heal would be to end the bitch’s life.
The door opened again, and this time the other graynites came in. They had a glazed look about them, as if they were here but not here. They took up position around the chamber, standing on specific symbols as if they’d been ordered to.
Ordered by Yarrow.
Yarrow was the voice.
Of course he was.
“What are you doing to them?” Serath asked.
“Let me show you.” Yarrow tipped his head to the side, and Serath cried out in shock.
“Serath!” I made to grab him but was pushed away from him by an unseen force. His head fell back, his eyes closed, and his body slumped even though he remained upright.
“That’s right. Sleep,” Yarrow said.
“No!” I rushed forward again, and this time, the disembodied shove sent me into the wall, where an invisible pressure held me firm. “Let me go!”
“Calm down,” Yarrow snapped. “Once this is over, you can have him back. Both of them.” He gave me a knowing look that made my stomach hurt. “I’m allowing you to live, Cameron. I’ll help your body adjust to my new world. You and Serath. Consider it an apology for all the pain you’ve been through. This is the last step. Don’t make me change my mind.”
“It’s all right, Cameron,” Serath said. No. Not Serath—Ubron. Awake now that Serath was asleep. “It will be all right.”
Yarrow tipped his head to one side again. His eyes glowed brightly, and Ubron jerked forward, his limbs moving stiffly like a marionette.
“Stop fighting me.” Yarrow’s voice echoed around us, and Ubron moved faster, coming to stand at a spot opposite me. He had the same glazed look on his face as the other graynites now. Under Yarrow’s control just like them.
How could Yarrow have so much power? “You could have made people do what you wanted all this time. Why use blackmail and subterfuge?”
“I didn’t have this power back then. I had to gather it. Earn it, and let it grow until it was truly needed. Tonight I will finally use it.” He climbed the steps to the platform and stood, arms loose at his sides.
The light of the moon filtered down on him, spreading across the room as the moon moved across the sky. The symbols on the ground, where the silvery light touched, began to glow.
My stomach tightened. We were running out of time. “Yarrow, please don’t do this. Please stop.”
He kept his face tilted, ignoring me.
“Dammit! Yarrow, this is wrong, and deep down you know it. Razing this world won’t right the wrongs done to you. Bringing your sister back at the costs of countless lives isn’t noble; it’s monstrous, and it’ll make you just as bad as the coven that used you.”
“Shut up!” His voice boomed in my head, and my body froze. “Shut up or Iwillkill you. I may not have had the power a week ago, or the week before that, but right now, this close to the alignment, I have the power to snap your neck with a mere thought.”
“Blake?” Flora rushed into the room. “Blake, what are you doing? What’s happening? They said I’m not me. They said I’m a remnant. Blake. I’m scared.”
Yarrow tore his gaze from me, releasing me from my temporary paralysis but not from the power that held me to the wall. He turned to the remnant of his sister. “It’s all right, Flora. Everything is all right. Just close your eyes.”
She swallowed a sob and nodded. “Okay. All right.” She closed her eyes.
“Good. You can sleep now, Flora. Sleep and become the dream that you always were.”
Her body shimmered, and then it disintegrated into a billion tiny motes of essence that glittered as they drifted up into the air before melting to nothing.
Oh…Oh no… “You killed her.”
