Page 105 of Soul of Thorns
Caelynn heaves in adesperate breath and claws at my arms. I hold her, press her to my chest.
“Caelynn?” I barely dare to hope.
“Rev,” she cries.
It’s her; she’s awake. She’s here.
Terrifying hope fills me, and I hold her close.
“What happened?” she asks as her nails claw into my skin. I don’t even care. This pain is more than worth it.
I hold my Lumistone tightly in my palm. It burns bright and true. My mate is here, with me. Home. “I don’t know.”
Neither my brother nor her wraith are anywhere to be seen. It’s just us, lying in the valley below the mountain.
Then, the ground beneath me booms, and a massive shadow looms over us.
“Do you suppose this means you’ve won?” her voice trembles with rage. The Night Terror’s red eyes blink down at us. We are but flies to her. Pesky rodents she requires.
Pets. Slaves.
I swallow.
“He will take her back. And even if you think she can keep control of her soul now that you’ve saved her, what now?” she whispers, amusement clear in her tone. Her finger-like branches twist and turn like stiff snakes. Her roots scurry like spider legs, causing a near-constant tremor in the ground.
I look over my shoulder. We are miles from the Wicked Gates. Caelynn weighs heavily in my arms, her body limp. She couldn’t walk herself out of here, not with her injury, and who knows what kind of mental state she’s in right now.
The Night Terror is right, I don’t know how close she’ll be to succumbing to that darkness inside of her. It’s not gone. It’s just under her control—for now.
“All I have to do is crush your skull, and she will falter once again.” Her fang-filled mouth twists into a smile. “And you have to escape me and all of my friends.”
I shiver as the groans begin. Distant at first, but they grow quickly.
I pull Caelynn into my lap, cradling her. Her eyes are lidded, barely open, but I can feel her fire, her muscles relaxed. I hold her tightly, realizing that I’d saved her from that fate only temporarily.
Crooked, grey limbs appear over the bank of the swamp, and several bodies pull themselves out of the water. They crawl, unable to walk. But I watch in horror as dead bodies pile out. Hundreds of them. Thousands.
My mouth falls wide.
Then, wraiths appear, whipping through the flame wall and floating toward us. Soon, the army becomes so thick it blocks out what little light of the sun we can still see.
A wall of obedient wraiths has come to the Night Terror’s beckoning and have created a shadow so thick it may as well be night.
“Do you see the hopelessness now, princeling?”
I wince, keeping my eyes closed. The knife weighs heavy in my hands.
––––––––
WE’RE BOTH GOING TOdie.
And, well, dying is the better of the two possibilities for her.
“Unless,” the Night Terror purrs, “you’d like to make a bargain with me.”
My breath comes out ragged, trembling. Caelynn stirs against me and wraps her arm around my neck. She pulls herself up so her lips are at my ear, her fingers gripping me tightly, desperately.
“No,” she whimpers but says no more.
