Page 122 of At the Mercy of Midnight
When she’d first fled her parents’ control, Brinkley had been the one she’d run to. He’d never pressed her for details, never demanded explanations, just offered her a safe place and quiet understanding. But he’d seen enough in the tremors of her hands and the fear in her eyes to know she’d been escaping something life-threatening.
This was worse. There was so much more at stake.
She nodded, still avoiding his gaze. “Yes, it’s dangerous. We’re trying to work it out, but we just need somewhere to stay while we do.” Amelia looked back to Brinkley, pleading. “I can’t say more right now, and I understand if you’d prefer we leave…”
Brinkley rolled his eyes, cutting her off with a shake of his head. “Lia, what part of our history makes you think I’d ever throw you out on your bony ass when you need help?”
She gave him a look. “My ass isnotbony.”
He raised his brows flatly.
Amelia smiled despite herself. “Thank you. And Finley…he’s different than I thought. Different from the version he shows the world.”
Something flickered behind Brinkley’s eyes, something warm and knowing. He tilted his head, voice softer now. “Sounds like someone else I know.”
They ate a simple meal of salted pork and eggs, enough to make Amelia feel marginally more human.
Soon after, they left Brinkley’s home and crossed through East Town towards the edges nearest the Rift. They spoke in low voices about Lyana’s revelations, what they might witness, how the past had failed, and what warnings might be hidden in the echoes.
Their destination was known only in hushed tones. The Dead Zone. For decades, it had been a place avoided by instinct, nothing grew there, and animals didn’t linger. The magic which clung to the place was wrong, dense, and cloying, like the air inside the Rift. Even without understanding its cause, people had stayed away.
Now, Amelia knew the truth. The scorched crater was the site of the last failed ritual. The place where Lyana and Bane had made their final stand…and lost.
She wasn’t sure what she expected to feel. But as they walked on in silence, she realised that the closer they got, the harder it became to breathe. Silas was quiet beside her, his expression shuttered, thoughts likely mirroring her own.
East Town faded behind them as they crested a gentle hill, silence pressing in. The usual sounds of midday, birds, wind, the murmur of voices, had vanished behind them.
Before them stretched the remains of a ruined world.
Though time had softened the edges, nature reclaiming the outskirts with overgrown grass and twisted trees, the heart of the destruction remained untouched.
They reached a dilapidated wooden fence, hanging with charms meant to repel lingering magic, but they were faded, their power long gone. Beyond the barrier, the land dipped into a crater, magic pulsing faintly beneath their boots.
The moment they stepped over the threshold, Amelia felt it. It was slipping out of time, into a pocket of history where the world had stopped. A place haunted not by ghosts, but by what the magic remembered.
They stood side by side at the crater’s edge.
“This is where it happened,” Amelia said quietly.
Silas nodded, jaw set. “It’s bigger than I thought.”
“I don’t think it was,” she replied, gesturing to the sections beyond the crater that had withered away. “I think it’s been spreading slowly, like a rot. Like the Rift.”
The remnants of what might have once been homes lay in crumbled heaps, stone scorched and twisted like melted wax. Tendrils of residual magic rippled and glowed faintly in the midday air, looking like dark violet threads on the earths surface. Silas crouched, brushing his fingers over one of them, wincing as it throbbed beneath his skin.
“It’s so strong,” he murmured. “I can feel it reaching out to me.”
Amelia closed her eyes, inhaling slowly.
“Let’s try it,” she said, facing him. “Like we did with the mage. Maybe we can connect again with them…with Lyana and Bane.”
Silas glanced at her, a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. “We don’t know what we’re walking into.”
“I know, but we need to find out what happened.” She extended her hand.
He hesitated before reaching out, clasping it.
The moment their fingers touched, the magic responded. The air thickened, and the violet threads began to stir, swirlingat their feet like smoke catching wind. The bond between them hummed faintly in her chest.
