Page 99 of Claim the Twilight
“You must plan now.” The echo stands in a corner of the room, her form hazy. Flickering in and out.
“I can’t believe you actually did it,” Ezekiel says to her.
“I don’t lie,” she says. “I did my part; now you must plan a diversion. One that will allow your brother to die. Tell him what you know. You promised.”
Ezekiel’s eyes flinch. “There still may be another way. I told you, a friend of ours is close to finding out?—”
“This is the only sure way.” Her eyes flash, and the air grows thin. She exhales and closes her eyes. “You promised that if I brought him to you, then you would tell us when it will be safe to move him. Tell him the plan and the diversion.”
“I…I don’t know,” Ezekiel says. “I’m trapped here.”
The echo’s eyes go large, and her chest heaves. “You lied to me?” She sniffs. “That’s why there was no pathway to the woman you wanted to see. The goddess has blocked it, and I…shemight have sensed me had I probed.”
Ezekiel’s tone softens in coercion. “Look, you can’t help me reach Orina, but maybe you can help Hemlock to get to her. You said you sensed Orina’s the other pathway? Can you use it to somehow find Orina and forge a new path to Hemlock?”
“I don’t like liars.”
“I’m sorry,” Ezekiel says. “Please help us. I’m stuck here because she marked me. I’m helpless, and I need you. We need you.”
Her mouth turns down. “Ah…the mark. It can be nullified,herinfluence challenged by distance. Enough distance and you may be able to fight her influence and render the mark useless.”
“Will you help us?” he asks again.
“I can try,” she says.
Ezekiel cups my shoulders. “Speak to Orina, tell her that I’m all right. Tell her to get my body as far from the breaches as she can. Tell her that…that I love her. Find out what Padma knows.”
But if Padma never makes it back, then this is goodbye. I can see it in his eyes. He knows it too.
“I love you, brother.” My voice cracks.
He cups my face, his gaze fierce. “Padma will have found another way.” He says it with such conviction that I almost believe it.
I nod, eyes burning with the threat of tears because I’ve only just gotten him back. We’ve had no time to reconnect, and now…I suck in a breath and step away from him.
His hands fall to his sides. “I’ll see you soon.”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak because every instinct, every ounce of intuition inside me is screaming that no. No, you won’t.
Chapter 41
ORINA
The cold one refused to die no matter how often I stabbed it with my blessed sword. Blood sprayed, inky black and viscous, spattering my clothes and my hands, and it would take forever to clean off. Forever and ever and?—
“Hello? Orina?” the cold one said.
I staggered away from it, sword up, ready to strike. “What…What the fuck?”
The cold one looked down at its bloody torso, then back at me. “Oh, this isn’t pleasant at all, is it?”
It hit me then that this wasn’t real. This was a dream. “I need to wake up.”
“Wait!” the cold one pleaded. “Hemlock wants to speak with you.”
A shiver ran over me. “Who are you?”
“A friend. I can take you to him, but we don’t have much time. I’m running out of energy. The path I’ve created between the two of you won’t last for long. Quick, crawl into me.” She looked down at the wound in her belly. “Hurry.”
