Page 7 of Left Hand of the Divine
And wasn’t that the question? I had the unshakeable feeling that these wisps of memory Roux kept feeling were from a past life that were merging with the previous incarnations of Nyx. My fear was that if they resurfaced, would I lose Roux?
There was a low groan from behind me, and Roux shot up from the table. Her head was thrown back, her eyes staring up at the sky, and her mouth was moving, as if she were speaking, but there was no sound coming from her. It was like she was transfixed by something in the starry mirage above her.
I approached the table slowly, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Roux?”
Still nothing.
I reached out to brush my fingers against her.
“Be careful,” Thane said behind me. “We don’t know what this is.”
No shit, big guy.
I rolled my eyes at him, not that he could see. I could feel the twins looming behind me as well, ready to defend their Reaper from whatever had her in its grip.
“Roux?”
The minute my fingers touched her shoulder, her face shot around towards me, the movement like something out of a horror movie. Her lips pulled back in a terrifying hiss, and words poured from her mouth in some ancient tongue.
“What the hell?” Magnus exclaimed. “Look at her eyes.”
Instead of the forest green I’d come to love, her eyes were like two black holes at the very edge of existence.
The twins rushed for her, but she recoiled, and more foreign words spilt from her lips.
“What’s happening to her?” Rafe asked, his voice a little unsteady.
There must be something unusual happening with their bond. “Does your link with her feel normal?”
Rayne growled, low and menacing. “No. It feels strained.”
“Like something is pulling against it,” Rafe added as he rubbed the spot above his chest.
My own bond with her felt strange as well. It was there, but it was being smothered. Cloaked by whatever it was that had Roux in its grip.
“I think we may also have another problem,” Thane said coolly.
Did anything bother that guy? “What?”
Thane pursed his pink, pillowy-soft lips. “We’re not alone.”
The room plunged into darkness, thick and dense like the shadows had been in the corridor.
My heart rate skyrocketed with the surge of adrenaline.
“Rafe? Rayne?” Magnus shouted.
I created an orb of light, but it barely made any impact on the shadows. They swirled and swam around me, pulling at the tails of my coat and whipping my hair around my face.
“Atticus?”
That was Thane, but I couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from. It seemed to echo around me, distorted and distant.
“Roux!” I shouted, but she didn’t shout back. Was she okay? Were the others? I couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t get a sense of my bearings. The world was spinning around me, making me dizzy.
A low rumble sounded around the room. Deep and soft. Like someone was enjoying playing with us. What the hell was down here?
“Foolish creatures,” the rumbling voice whispered right by my ears. “You should never have come here.”
