Page 74 of Soul of Thorns
The Night Terror is going to use Rev the way the Night Bringer used me.
My vision flickers to black, and I feel myself falling.
My mind and soul are burning, but it’s not like fire. It’s like... acid.
I groan and roll, writhing in pain.
“Ahh, there she is,” a deep echoing voice calls to me. “My little pet.”
“Caelynn?” my wraith asks, and I shake my head, pushing the memories away. “What is happening? Tell me.”
“Memories,” I whisper.
“Of?”
“Him. The Night Bringer.”
“He is trying to pull you under,” the wraith whispers. “You must fight it, Caelynn.”
I clench my jaw. The echo of pain long past slams into me and my vision flickers away, turning black for a second time.
Fire sears my back, and I writhe in pain. “Make,” I force from my cracked lips. “It.” I curl my hands into fits, pain putting pressure on every part of me. My mind. My body. My soul.
The ache is deeper than I even knew it went.
“Stop,” I whine pathetically.
The Night Bringer chuckles. “Gladly,” he rumbles in my ear. “Just agree to my bargain.”
I groan, but the pain won’t let up. “No,” I finally get out.
He laughs again. “You think yourself very noble, don’t you? But you forget, my little pet, I can see inside your head. I can see what you crave. What you would do to gain it. You and I... we are the saaaame.”
***
MY MIND IS RELEASEDfrom the darkness, and I gasp like I’m breaking through the surface after nearly drowning.
“Are you all right?” my wraith asks.
I shake my head, panting in breath. “I don’t know.”
“Tell me what he showed you,” the wraith says.
I bite my lip. “It was just a memory of when he trapped me. Before the bargain.”
Is that what’s happening to Rev now? Is he being tortured like I had been?
My mind spins. Is there even a way to win this now?
She will flay him alive.
I shake my head. It's so much. Too much. I don't know how to do this... I don't know what it all means. "Do you know if a soul can die while the body still lives?"
My wraith blinks. "Yes."
"How?"
"Often, that happens with suicide. The body simply dies moments after. Depression can suck the life from the soul, like an illness on your mind instead of your body. That is usually what it means. The body cannot live without a soul, though. And so, it doesn't make much difference. Soul, mind, body—if one shatters completely, the rest follow."
