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“It’s a sanctuary amidst the horrors of Death’s court for the spirits known as the Whispers,” Ezra said, standing pointedly outside of the glow cast to the soft, mossy ground. “The Whispers are a collection of souls that found themselves so entranced by the grove’s allure they became trapped within.”
I tossed the remnants of the crumbled leaf I’d been picking at to the ground and stepped into the cool light, immediately feeling the pull, the cool brush of a calm promise. “So, they get to spend eternity in peace? Sounds terrible,” I said with an eye roll, turning to follow Hollis.
Ezra’s step within came with a gasp from Paesha. I whipped around to see him, half the form of a human and half luminescent spectral, his eyes growing sad as he moved backward. “I’ve spent my fair share of time in the grove, Maiden. Most of us have. There’s a mask of peace, but this is Death’s court, and the Whispers are trapped here. When he comes to play, it’s absolute torture. He’s peeled the skin from my body. Broken every bone. Made me watch as he murdered everyone I’d ever known in visions of torment. Death’s single currency is fear, and he comes here to collect it.”
Paesha joined him just outside of the barrier. “We’ll, umm. We’ll just be out here,” she said.
“You’re safe,” he assured her, stepping back into the light. “I won’t be taken overnight. And Death has been… extra vicious lately. Orin’s massacre has given him a crop of new souls to torment. He only comes here when he has to. I think because something in the magic tortures him, too.”
“But Hollis?” I pointed to where the old man was fading down a hill. “Why did he seem so eager?”
Ezra sighed, his hazel eyes darkening. “Because his wife is a Whisper, and if he spends much more time here with her, he will become one, too.”
“Does he know?”
The giant man nodded. “He’s made his choice. This will eventually become his eternity.”
The edge of the Whispering Grove was hard to step out of. Having spent hours there, waiting for them to fall asleep, each moment coaxing me to wait just a little longer and a little longer until the Whispers came. Like haunted ghosts, they circled, smiling, each face kind as they promised I could stay forever.
We will protect you, they’d said. Don’t listen to the things you’ve heard, Maiden. The grove is safe. The grove is happiness and love. The grove is…
I’d had to cover my ears to block them out, and the moment I did, they vanished, content to let me feel the euphoria of the grove without the badgering.
Paesha fell asleep in Ezra’s strong arms, his snoring never seeming to bother her. Together, they looked so peaceful and happy it made my heart ache, but it also solidified my decision. She’d come for Orin and for me. But if we dug deeper, I knew it was for Ezra, too. Even though it meant leaving Quill behind. Ezra was her eternity. And he was right. Every decision I made put her in more danger than she deserved.
She needed to get back to Quill, and I’d promised her a way. I couldn’t let anything happen to her before it. So, I left her, wrapped in his strength, knowing that no one would protect her or love her as hard as he did. And that was the best thing I could ever wish for her. She needed these moments before they were gone. She’d earned them.
The trees beyond the Whispering Grove felt colder, darker than they had before. There were more people within the forest now, more souls really, though they were corporeal, like those in Death’s throne room. Most faces seemed gaunt, most people keeping a distance, but not all were alone. They didn’t speak, though. Not a single hushed tone crept along the cool breeze. They were scared. All of them. As I should have been.
Still, I followed the silhouette of the looming castle in the distance. Each moment that passed felt heavy, as if it would be the one that captured Orin fully, the moment he could no longer fight. There wasn’t a part of me that could sleep in a mossy grove, knowing intimately the darkness that held my husband by the throat. I hadn’t come here for safety. I’d come for him. He was mine. Fierce and merciless and unmoving. But mine.
I thought I’d have to search the entire castle to find him. I’d resolved to accept any form of torment along the way, but when he stepped out from behind a tree, cloaked in his father’s black robes, shrouded in darkness, and eyes full of hatred, I found that perhaps I wasn’t truly ready for torture.
Chapter 64
Ishould have run. I knew standing before Orin as the darkness held him captive was dangerous. Death controlled him now far more than I could. But I would get on my knees and crawl to him. I would hand him that blade just as he’d handed it to me if it meant saving him. So, we were at an impasse, realizing that there was really no place neither of us weren’t willing to go.
Standing frozen, I stared, waiting to see what move he would make. Shadows billowed beneath him, just as I’d seen from Death my entire life, carrying him forward on a direct line to me, stalking me like prey. And I was weak, so weak and so desperate I didn’t balk when he lifted a hand, didn’t flinch when his fingers curled around my throat.
I wanted him to touch me. Feel me. Draw from me. But if the darkness within him grew sentient, as madness often did, twisting the mind until it was its own, it would know when I used the power of life to heal him. So, for now, I held it back and swallowed it down as his onyx eyes drew nearer until he was no more than a breath away, lifting me.
“You…Why am I drawn to you?” he asked, his voice so strained it broke my heart.
“Do you not remember?” I rasped, reaching for his fingers, releasing the smallest tendril of power. A flash of color lit his eyes on contact, followed by a gasp. “See me, Orin. Feel me. Know that I am here, and I love you.”
His grip on my throat loosened before he jerked away, smoothing his hands down his face, so much agony shining through as he tilted his head back and groaned. Seconds turned into minutes until he settled enough to come back to me, gentle fingers on my face as he swiped his thumbs across my cheeks.
“Nightmare…” He sighed. “What were you thinking coming here?”
“Would you have come for me?”
“Of course, I would have, but you don’t know what he’s like. You don’t know what I’m becoming.”
Placing my hands on his chest, I began to argue, but the screaming in the distance halted me.
He closed his eyes, placing his forehead to mine. “It will be over in a minute, love.”
But then another scream followed, and one more, until a flash of darkness stole him. He tried to pull away, but I latched onto his neck, forcing the contact, forcing a little bit of magic through in a desperate moment. Hoping like hell he wouldn’t be released the way my mother had. But he had never died. This wasn’t his soul touching me. It was him. All of him. His shoulders relaxed, and a full breath filled his lungs.
