Page 46 of Shadows of Nightshade
The groaning grew louder, more grating with every second; and I didn’t understand how—if any of the boys had stayed with me—they couldn’t hear it.
Or maybe I was imagining this, I had fallen asleep.
I dismissed that thought the second it occurred. This was real. I knew it.
Just when I felt I might go crazy, the hair-rising keening stopped, again leaving that dreadful silence in its wake. At this point, I didn’t know which was worse.
I needed to get out of here. It didn’t matter if I got burned.
I stumbled through the dark, reaching for where I knew the door to be—but I felt nothing. I’d gone too far not to have run into it, or anything else. But the world was empty outside of me, the presence, and this horrifying nightmare.
An eternity passed, or maybe it was only a moment. I only knew that it felt like forever, and with every second, despair continued to claw its way deeper into my very being.
Where was this feeling coming from? It wasn’t me. Was it?
I was forgotten. Nobody understood, nobody cared. Not even the person I was destined to be with. I cared so much, yet they still didn’t want me. I would be alone forever.
What did I have to do to be worthy?
I would do whatever it took.
I touched my head, pulling at my hair, as I fell forward to my knees. This wasn’t real.
I hadn’t known my new friends for very long, but being around them was different from anything I’d felt before. That was why I was so terrified of losing them.
These weren’t my thoughts, my feelings.
I wasn’t alone.
“I’m okay…” I pushed myself off the floor. These weren’t my thoughts. People would remember me. If I died now, for example, the boys would at least know my name, even if it was just the odd girl who was killed by Damen’s bath salts.
And at least Finn might remember me—for whatever reason.
“It’s okay,” I reminded myself again. I desperately tried to think of any way to escape this situation. I might go mad if I stayed any longer.
The spirit. Two presences entwined, fighting for dominance.
Why hadn’t they moved on?
“Leave,” I began to whisper under my breath. “Leave.” They did not belong in this world anymore.
“No!” The air exploded behind me, breaking free from the battle. The volume of the refusal was so unexpected that I fell to my knees and screamed. The soft energy of the second presence faded as the velvet darkness began to grow stronger.
I was choking on my breath, and my limbs refused to obey any command to escape.
But why, when there was nothing here holding me down?
My face was wet with tears. “I’m sorry,” I said, hoping to appease the angry spirit. I had done something to upset him—now that it was stronger, it was more obvious that this second presence was male—but maybe that would help.
The force of his presence grew closer, reaching for me. Suddenly the note of it had changed. “What’s this power?” he asked, his icy voice pierced through the darkness. “Give it to us.”
I was going to die.
My mind screamed at me to move—to fight. I had to dosomething. If I was killed, it might attack the others next. They’d never be able to defend themselves against something they couldn’t see.
I was stronger than this spirit. With a courage I didn’t know I possessed, I stood against the overwhelming pressure trying to keep me down.
I wouldn’t let them get hurt. “Go away,” I commanded.
