Page 1 of Soul of Thorns
Caelynn
Ipush harder, feetthumping over the uneven ashy terrain. Dark fluid flutters from the sky like flurries of snow, except instead of the gentle sting of frost, it’s the harsh bite of acid. The searing pain scatters over every inch of exposed skin, leaving red welts behind, but I clench my jaw and push through the pain.
We’re getting closer to the center of the Schorchedlands. The air is thick in my lungs. Sweat drips down my back and beads on my forehead as the heat pressed in. The poison in the atmosphere gets stronger until it feels like the acid isn’t only on my skin—it’s inside me. Will I even know it when I reach the inner circle, where a mortal cannot survive even an hour? Will I realize the life is being sucked from my body before it’s too late?
Every lung full sends more pain cascading through my chest but I don’t dare focus on that now.
Now, he is in trouble. Now, I might lose him. And I cannot let that happen.
That’s all there is now—pain and determination. I run because I must. I try to use the pain to my advantage, to become the pain. But it weighs on me. Heavier and heavier, tearing at the light inside of me, dying like a soft ember barely clinging to hope.
“If he dies, you’ll be free to escape,” a familiar voice purrs in my ear, even as I sprint over the rubble of this broken place. Scarred and toxic, just like my own soul.
“No,” I growl through my painful breaths.
My wraith floats effortlessly beside me. Frustration fills me at as his ease, his calm. It sends a wave of fury over my body, and I fight against a roar of anger. That will not help me now.
That won’t help Rev.
Instead, I use the anger as more fuel. I will prove the wraith wrong. I will become one with the shadows. Angry magic rushes through my veins, pulsing with every movement. It hisses in my ear and presses in on my vision until all I see is darkness.
I can use the magic within the natural element of shadows to my advantage, and here, it is everywhere. In everything.
Except here, it is not my friend. Here, the darkness wishes to devour my very soul. It claws deeper and deeper every moment I use it. Not unlike the Night Bringer so long ago. How his magic carved through my body like butter and left a seared edge and shattered soul behind. Even Rev with his healing magic can’t save me from those wounds.
But I can still save him.
The way he looks at me now... I wince and push the image away. Because it isn’t real. It isn’t possible. He couldn’t possibly adore me the way his expression last night implied. And if he does... he’ll regret it soon enough.
Because I destroy everything I love.
“I belong here, you fool,” I tell the wraith. “One day, you’ll accept that.”
“If you stay,” the wraith whispers, “the Night Bringer will take away more of you, piece by piece, until it’s only his magic that remains. Then, he will free himself with ease. It will be his soul inside your body, reigning over the Shadow Court. On that day, Caelynn, Princess of the Shadow Court, you’ll lose everything you ever dared to hope for.”
Rev
