“We came to mourn you. Youasshole!” she shouted and the echo boomed throughout the chamber.
I somehow managed to pull the dress over my still damp body and stand, when out of nowhere, came the chilling sound of a low, guttural growl. My insides instantly turned to mush.
“Where’s it coming from?” Tynan asked.
“Don’t know.” Victor turned to the corridor with his sword drawn.
Tynan stood up, clenching the knife in his hand.
“Hey, Frid. Let’s not invite crawlers here,” Victor muttered.
Suddenly, two figures stepped to the light from the shadows. They moved differently, faster, more agile, as if the darkness helped them get a new type of strength. It was so different from the two undead I had seen.
Victor slashed with his sword, but the monster jumped away, changing its direction midair, and landed closer to Frid, who was ready with her blade. I shifted my gaze to Sol as he made a sharp motion with his axe, but he missed the monster and it jumped straight at us. Tynan had already released two knives at the crawler attacking Frid and Victor. Suddenly, I was pushed out of the way when the distorted figure of the undead lurched straight at me, then fell into the pool behind us. Everything went silent. For a moment, thecreature floundered in the water before going artificially still. Almost as one, we moved closer to the edge of the pool, eyeing the monster when its face appeared above the surface. The color of the skin on its face was changing, and getting smoother.
“What’s happening?” Frid whispered.
“I don’t know.” Victor responded.
After a long moment, the body relaxed and slowly rotated face down. Its arms floated peacefully above the surface.
“Did any of you hit the brain?” Tynan asked.
“No.” Sol crouched by the edge.
Tynan jumped into the water and carefully turned the body. The face did not belong to a crawler anymore, it had turned back to a human.
“What the fuck!” Victor sheathed his sword.
"This changes everything." Tynan pulled the body closer to the edge, where Sol and Victor helped drag it out of the pool.
All of us sat by the fire while Tynan told us the most unbelievable story I had ever heard. It turned out, our mating bond had formed long before we had even seen each other. But when the chance of us meeting was slipping away,both Tynan and I had vivid dreams about a reality that could have been, but never came into being.
The more time passed after the poison finally left my body, the more details from my visions came back to me. I remembered so many things about Tynan and the group, and at last, it all started to make sense, even if it was not fully explained.
I knew that Frid was drawn to the short, blond guy, Victor, and he was head over heels in love with her, although she had no idea. I also knew that Sol was very popular with the ladies and extremely protective of the group, fearless and loyal. And Tynan, I knew everything about him. Every inch of his scarred body, and every part of his gentle soul, was mine. I knew that as well as I knew my own name. I could feel him. I could physically feel every change of his mood. He was the part of me that I had never realized was missing all this time.
“I’m sorry. This is too much.” Frid glanced at Victor and immediately averted her eyes.
“In your dreams, Frid and I...?” Victor stuttered.
“Don’t you dare go there!” The girl stood up and walked around the room.
“What happened in Darragh?” Sol asked.
“There was an attack. It was bad,” Tynan said.
“What should we do now?” Victor watched Frid pacing.
“We don’t have many options.” Tynan reached for my hand, our fingers intertwined.
There was so much intimacy in the simple gesture. Oursituation was as complicated as it could possibly be, but for better or worse, we were together.
“If there’s a way through The Fall, shouldn’t we try to escape Talman?” I looked at all of them.
“We talked about it, but we don’t know how to cross. That information was carefully stripped from public knowledge. I suspect members of the council purposefully concealed it.” Tynan responded.
“And I can’t go back to the capital, not after what they did to me.” I sighed.
