Page 20 of Between Soul and Vessel
Harper’s eyes flashed black, a look of pure hatred and disgust twisting her face into something demonic. She shoved the cup off the saucer and it fell to the floor, the cup shattering upon impact, the herbal drink puddling around the broken remnants. “How many times do I have to tell you?” Harper snarled, her voice no longer hers. “I do not want anythingyouhave to offer! You think to trick me with your fake smile, but I know what you are trying to do.” Her head turned to mine, her expression murderous. “You are all trying to trap me here. That’s the reason you won’t let Sage see me, isn’t it?” She shoved against my chest. “Isn’t it!”
Worry wrapped like bars around my chest, constricting my breath, but I kept my voice calm as I said, “Harper—”
“No!” she roared. Her attention snapped to the door. “Sage! Sage! I’m here! They are keeping me in here!”
Swiftly, Kaleb reached across the bed and grabbed Harper’s hand. Like a fire wicked out of oxygen, she immediately stopped shouting.
I didn’t know if it was Kaleb’s connection to Sage or what, but he seemed to help Harper battle her demons. Whenhe wasn’t near, she became worse. So now, he spent a lot of time in this room, just looking after her. Because that’s the type of person he was.
The blackness fled from Harper’s eyes and her expression softened. She looked from me to Zahra. “Zahra . . . Von . . . I . . . I’m so sorry.” She looked down at the bed, the cloth shredded. “What is happening to me?”
“You are just transitioning.” I held her gaze. “And you are going to be okay.”
But for the first time since I’d retrieved Harper’s soul from the Da’Nu, after she had died from her injuries she had received during the battle that took place in the Cursed Lands, I wasn’t so sure. Seconds ago, when I saw the color fade from her eyes, replaced by a blackness that rivaled my own, heard her voice change into something that sounded nothing like hers, I knew that time was running out for her.
Which meant I needed to act swiftly.
Bits of flame rained down from the red sky, scorching the rocky, barren ground. Not even weeds survived in these desolate wastelands, forged from eroded slopes and jagged, looming mountains. The acrid scent of rotting flesh hung so thick it was like a dense fog coating the air. It was a sure sign I had entered the land of nightmares and horrors—
The Eighth Tier.
I had made it to house the most depraved and maniacal ofsouls—the sick and twisted who would have taken pleasure in being eternally burned in the level above. It housed a myriad of sinister, bloodthirsty monsters.
Come to think of it, it would have made a great home for Saphira.
Shadows swirled beside me, producing one angry-looking immortal.
“What are you doing here?” Zahra whisper-yelled at me, her eyes darting from side to side.
“I could ask the same of you,” I replied, my boot crunching a petrified bone in half as I strode forward.
“I’m here to make sure the monsters of this place don’t spit-roast you alive,” she hissed, her long legs doing their best to keep up with mine.
“We all have to eat,” I quipped flatly.
She didn’t look impressed.
Another swirl of black marred the air to my left. Dameon stepped out from it.
“I had no choice in the matter,” he said with a sigh.
I understood. Mated males were territorial creatures, and we all had that same unrelenting need to protect our females—which was one of the two reasons why I was here.
“It’s fine,” I sighed as we continued ahead.
Zahra sidestepped a luminescent, bubbling puddle. A rotting hand, full of maggots, shot out from it, reaching for her ankle. Before it could grab hold, Dameon’s flame sword found purchase, slicing it clean off. The creature let out a high-pitched, garbled scream as it pulled its bleeding nub under the surface. The severed hand bounced against theground, flopping around like a fish out of water as purple blood poured out of the end.
“Are you alright?” Dameon asked, moving to her side.
“I am,” Zahra reassured him.
“Waaaaait!” cried out a strange voice from a chasm not far from us.
A leg slung out of the deep fissure, tossed up on the side. Then, an arm, then, another. Another leg. Lastly, a head emerged. It had the eyes and mouth of a mortal but the nose and ears of a rabbit. The naked creature bunny-hopped toward us—aggressively sized cock and balls unceremoniously on full,bouncingdisplay.
I quirked a curious brow—how didn’t the creature get ground rash?
Dameon flung his hand to the side, his flame sword at the ready.
