Page 1 of Wings of Lies
Chapter
One
They captured and poisoned me.
I struggled to remember why, how, who—whether it was one person or more—but the memory slithered away into the endless sea of inky black, much like everything else. There may have been a time when I remembered, before the burning sensation seared into my blood, gradually eroding parts of me, but that time has passed. At first, I fought. Whether it spanned weeks, months, or years, I fought the black cage I called The Void until… I gave up.
I let The Void claim a couple of memories. I no longer wanted them. They were as tainted as this imagined place. But the moment I surrendered one, The Void hungered for more—especially memories ofher.Only a cluster of illuminated strands remained, entwining and pulsating with the remnants of my thoughts.
It was like someone locked me in a cage with my brain, granting me a front-row seat to its gradual destruction.
My mind faded as I watched the pulsing ball.Who was thesheI forgot?
The thought ignited the disjointed, chaotic mess in my mind with a steady light, transporting me to a girly bedroom filled with the clamor of a panicked voice—a memory.
“Lucy, run! Run!”
No, it couldn’t be. But my mom had only used that tone—the one that brokered no questions, that held a thick layering of protectiveness—three other times. Each time, saving our lives. He was here. On my nineteenth birthday, no less.
I dropped my mom’s book. Fear raced down my spine, and, for a fleeting moment, I yearned for my amulet or her soothing touch. Both quelled the turmoil within. But I told myself I’d fight if this day ever came. For her.
The burst of light dimmed, and the memory faded, leaving me with the odd silver mass and a lingering sense of longing—a bitter, unyielding ache.For what?I couldn’t remember anymore.
But I was okay with not knowing.
Another section flared, brighter than the last, pulling me into another memory.
I was wrong. It wasn’t him.
My mom stood in the center of a quaint living room, surrounded by uniformed figures. Long ebony strands curtained her face and fell over her stiff shoulders. Chin raised, she faced them while I cowered around the corner, forcing my trembling knees to steady.
They outnumbered us. Or… her. But my mom couldn’t do this alone. I could catch them by surprise with all their attention focused on her. For once, I wanted to protect her more than I wanted to be soothed by her touch. The moment I moved to join her, she gave the tiniest jerk of her chin, and her eyes erupted in violet fire.
No. Wait! No!
The stubborn urge to stay and fight dwindled, replaced by a surge of urgency forcing my feet into a run. Once within the safety of the lush pines, the urgency yielded to calmness. She’d be okay. Everything would be okay.
The towering evergreens faded, and confusion returned. The Void’s slime attached to the bundle of strands, slowly consuming the white glow and reducing the knotted mess to a solitary strand of light—a mere speck in the surrounding umbra. My thoughts faltered, relinquishing thoughts of her. I felt something in the darkness for the first time—a deep sense of dread.
It sparked another image.
A blurred figure of red and black loomed among the trees.
“What’s happening?” I asked, my heart pounding in time with my growing uncertainty, disrupting the forced calm. “Why are you doing this?”
“You know why,” the figure said, blowing a black cloud of dust into my face.
The walls of darkness thickened around me, urging the poisonous black slime up the thread. Before The Void consumed the whole thing, a ball of brilliant, explosive light fractured my dark, numb world. A cloud of billowing shadows flew toward the silver speck, their wispy tendrils wrapping around the slime and halting its ascent.
Waves of heat blasted into The Void as two figures materialized—one composed of shadows and the other emanating pure, white light.
“Wake up, Lucille!”
I winced from the reverberations of her voice.
“You need to wake up, Lucille!” she yelled again.
I recoiled, needing to clutch my ears, but I didn’t have a body, did I?
