Page 110 of Claim the Twilight
“No idea,” Crush replies.
A white wing lands beside us. “The threat seems to be neutralized; we should evac?—”
Boom!
A shockwave knocks me off my feet, but I hit the ground in Crush’s arms, cradled against his chest, shielded from the impact.
“Incoming!” someone cries past the ringing in my ears.
Crush hauls me up, bracing me as I get my bearings. The world is gray, the deep purple of an angry bruise, the ground blackened and dead, stretching out around us like a charred desert, and huge, menacing shapes race across it, aimed straight for us.
I turn back to Crush, and the panic rising in my chest freezes. There’s blood coming out of his mouth.
He blinks slowly, then frowns and looks down. I follow his gaze to a huge patch of blood on his shirt and the black, pointy metal thing sticking out of the center.
The center, right through his heart.
HEMLOCK
The echo leads me through winding dark passages that slope upward as the dank, musty air slowly clears, the scent of death and decay falling behind, and a purple light blooms ahead.
“The atrium,” the echo says. “No one goes there anymore. Not since…” She trails off, her form fading in and out faster as if in agitation before she zooms away from me.
I fall into a jog to catch up, squinting as light blinds me.
The atrium is a domed room filled with flowering plants unlike anything I’ve seen and rock pools filled with sparkling water. Stone statues of intricately carved, strange beasts guard the doorway, and smaller statues are hidden among the deep purple and orange foliage that covers the large space.
“This way.” The echo beckons from across the room, her spectral face peering out from a leafy bush.
She vanishes, and I dive in after her, coming out into a small flagstone area with a wooden bench, a small bed, and a pile of books that look as if they’ll crumble with a touch.
“What is this place?”
The echo hovers by the bench. “It was my haven once. I felt safe here. I dreamed of escape here; maybe that’s why the breach found me. Look under the bed.”
I shove the cot aside to reveal a glowing purple aperture. “That’s a breach?”
“One of them. It leads to the outside.” She drinks me in with her dark eyes. “Outside is…vast. But I’ve been brave. I’ve been exploring. I found two large breaches, each guarded byherminions, and then a third…That’s the one I told you about. It will take you outside of this realm. But we must hurry while her attention is elsewhere.”
A rumbling fills the air, and the ground beneath my feet trembles. “What’s happening?”
The echo looks up at me with wide eyes filled with horror. “I think the veil between the worlds just tore…fully.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means our worlds are merging. It means that there is no fabric to contain your explosion. The plan for you to step outside and burn us from without won’t work.”
But that was never the plan. “It’s all right. The plan can still work.”
“How?”
“I have no interest in burning a world, only the goddess that’s corrupting it.”
Comprehension lights up her eyes. “You…you want to burnherand her alone?”
“Yes. I want to find her and end her. Here, within her realm. My connection to the power is weak enough not to damage this world but strong enough to end her. But if the worlds merge, my connection will grow. I need to get to her now, before I’m at full power, otherwise it’s not only this realm that will burn but Dracul, and if the wards around Dracul fall, then the whole city will burn.”
“She’ll be halfway to the breach by now…”
