Page 111 of Claim the Twilight
“Fuck. I have to catch up to her. There must be a way.”
She drops her chin for several beats, and when she looks up at me, her face is hard with determination. “There is. I can transport you there, but after that, you’ll be on your own.”
“What do you mean?”
She smiles sadly. “I’m the imprint of a memory, residual energy. I’ve survived all this time on the power of imagination, the kind found in the dreams of the creatures that call this place home. Helping you reach your brother then building a vista toconnect you to your lover left me drained. Once I take you to Loviator, there may be nothing left of me. “
My heart sank. “You’ll die?”
“I’m not alive, not truly, but yes, I may cease to exist. If that happens, then I cannot warn your friends to run.” She floats toward me. “But it’s a risk I will make happily if you vow to do your part and endher. So tell me, is it a risk that you’re willing to take?”
“Have the worlds merged fully yet?”
She tips her head to the side for a long beat. “No. There is time.”
Which means I can contain my explosion to Loviator. “Then let’s not waste it.”
Warmth bleeds into her smile. She holds out a spectral hand, and when I take it, ice wraps around my mind and the world falls away.
I materialize on my hands and knees by an outcrop of rocks, dry grains of earth stabbing at my palms.
“Hurry…” The echo’s voice is a mere whisper.
I pull myself up to the thunder of hooves as two huge equine beasts with glowing magenta eyes hurtle toward me. And behind them, dark hair streaming out behind her like a flag of victory, is Loviator, balanced expertly on a chariot. She brings her arm back, and a whip curls up in the air and lashes at the beasts. They scream and run faster.
Almost on me now.
“The quidra are gentle in nature,” Echo says. “Soft at heart. They will not trample an innocent. Go now and do what must be done…I can find Orina…I will tell her to leave…I have enough…” She fades as I run forward, pulse pounding in my throat as I root myself in the chariot’s path and hope that what she says about these quidra is true.
Loviator sees me, her eyes flying wide. She whips the beasts again. Once, twice.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. My thighs tense, survival instinct urging me to leap out of the path of danger, but killing Loviator means abandoning my instinct to survive.
I grit my teeth and hold my ground, my insides trembling. I summon Orina’s face—her smile, the sound of her laughter, the memory of her touch, and the sensation of her lips on mine.
Calm settles over me.
I’m ready.
The beasts are so close now I imagine I can smell their musty sweat, but I’m sure they’re slowing down.
“Yah! Yah!” Loviator hits them again.
The beasts scream in protest and dig in their hooves, kicking up dust that momentarily blinds me.
“No!” Loviator delivers another blow with her whip before leaping from the carriage and striding toward me, whip raised to beat me. “Who let you out? Who?” She screams the words at me, spittle flying from her lips.
I’ll only get one shot at this. One chance to incinerate her essence and scatter it into the ether.
She pulls back her arm and delivers the blow. I catch the tail of the whip, wincing as it curls around my hand, biting, cutting. I hold firm and pull her toward me.
The shock is enough for her to lose her balance and tumble into my arms, where I wrap myself around her and squeeze, opening the gates to the place within me where the power waits, ready to surge. It flickers then flares to life, bubbling up in a rush, ready to devour me and her.
“No!” Loviator expands in my grip, her body growing suddenly too large for me to hold. I fall back, arms empty, as she steps away, shrinking back to her original form. “No…” She points a finger at me, and ice floods my veins followed by a rushof agony that folds my limbs. I hit the ground enveloped in pain. Blessed, wanton sensation courses through me, bringing a rush of sweet release.
My body bucks, the ground beneath me rubbing against me in delicious abrasion. The channel of power, my connection, narrows and closes, leaving me weak and whimpering.
No…please no…
