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Grunts of pain echoed like thunder. Who knows? Maybe it was. In the wake of a primordial’s despair, the heavens broke open, and storms consumed the earth.
This was not the story I’d been told.
Abraxia ran onto the balcony just as my vision went dark. I couldn't make out what she was saying or who she was talking to. All I knew was an overwhelming ache and gut-wrenching suffering. Not even death was this terrible. It hurt, but not nearly as bad as one’s essence being split in two. I'd never felt anything so all-consuming, not even on my deathbed.
“Wake up.” The harsh words whispered across my consciousness. I barely heard them. “Wake up.” The same phrase repeated; soft, yet urgent.
I couldn’t listen to them when I was having trouble separating myself from the torment Abraxia had put Caius through. Somehow, the remnants of his soul inside me, the part that I carried, felt his pain. It empathized with his anguish and recognized it as its own, thereby subjecting me to the same horrors.
Maybe the piece I carried wanted to hurt me because I was the guardian. Maybe it wanted to make me feel what he went through, or maybe watching it happen all over again simply triggered the response. Despite thousands of years having passed, the soul was able to recall what happened in perfect clarity. Whatever the reasoning was, I didn't know it.
That voice, that unrelenting whisper, spoke louder. “Wake up, you infernal human.”
Human? I clawed for my consciousness, not sure how but trying, nonetheless.
“Eres?” I called out. “Why are you doing this? Why are you making me relive?—”
“WAKE UP!”The power in her shout threatened to blast apart the last remainders of my mind. I held myself together—held those pieces tight—while I pushed for the surface.
My eyes flew open as I inhaled.
Air filled my lungs, but the relief was short-lived as soon as I saw the knife poised overhead.
My consciousness snapped into place like a rubber band. I thanked my lucky stars for the countless safety drills my family and I would practice. That was the world we lived in. While we had never been attacked in The Crossroads, my training would come in handy in Tartarus.
I rolled to the side, flinging my arm up to protect my neck. I was ready for it to make contact, but nothing prepared me for the searing heat of the blade when it lodged itself in my forearm. Air hissed between my teeth.
Whipping my left leg back, my abdominal muscles locked, and I caught my attacker's jaw with the curve of my ankle. She hadn’t expected me to react so quickly, completely caught off guard when I used the full power of my leg and core to throw her sideways by attempting to pin her neck to the bed.
Blonde hair. Ice-blue eyes. Stockier build.
Jana?
“What are you doing?” I choked out, but the words were scratchy and raw from screaming in my nightmare.
My raspy voice triggered a flood of memories from the horrid dream, and the overwhelming sense of pain and betrayal threatened to pull me back under. I did the best I could to shake my head of them so I didn’t get swallowed in the darkness.
Jana lifted my ankle and twisted, jarring me back into reality. The pain, while lesser, acted as an anchor to the present. My hands curled into fists as she said, “You don't deserve him.” Her sentence was punctuated with a snap as my ankle fractured.
What. The. Actual. Hell.
I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of screaming. Through gritted teeth, I panted. “You’re jealous andthisis how you choose to handle it?” I reached across my body to grab the dagger. I really hoped that it didn’t hit my radial artery, because if so, I was going to bleed out within minutes once I dislodged it.
Not that I had many options with a broken ankle.
“I’m not jealous,” she scoffed, and I would have laughed if it were possible.
“Then why are you trying to”—I bent at the waist slashing the knife upward—“kill me?”
The knife made contact, cutting her arm, but I didn’t want it to go too deep and risk me losing my only weapon by burying it in bone.
“If you’re going to refuse him as your mate, you’re better off dead. At least he’d be whole again.”
Her truth, no matter how crazy or crudely stated, hit me deeper than I wanted to acknowledge. I tried to conceal how much her words shook me.
“How did you know that?” I demanded when she stepped back. I threw my legs over the edge, putting my weight on my good ankle.
“We know more than you think,” she spat, then turned her neck to crack it before she stared me down.
