Deep blue eyes she saw in her dreams, which had turned to nightmares.Flesh melting, dripping on her like candlewax.
Graves stood before her, wings stretched out. Dark feathers shrouded the sight of the battle further down the path. His cowl was over his lower face, and he roughly tugged it down, jaw unshaven and lips parting. No sound escaped. He stared at her, and didn’t stop staring, not even as Luella took the tiniest step back.
His hands fell from her shoulders.
Her heart thundered a drumbeat of terror as she awaited whatever fell from his lips.
"Luella," Graves rasped, staring at his blood-covered, gloved palms, before he tugged one free and reached for her with his clean, bare hand.
She trembled and took another step back, reaching up to wipe the blood on her jaw away with the fabric of her cape. The white material was streaked with red when she pulled her arm away.
He took a step forward. "Luella, sweetheart—are you…?" He seemed beyond words.
At the concern in his voice, she released a choked, bitter laugh. "Don’t pretend you care." Her voice trembled. "Don’t come near me. Get away from me," she managed, scrambling back.
Her words made Graves freeze.
His wings drooped, folding close to his back. He looked stricken. His eyes dropped from hers, to her throat, where the collar was. "Luella?—"
She shook her head, stepping back and back and back, away from the vision that plagued her. "You’re not real. Get away. Leave me alone!"Thatcame out strong.
He moved as if to grab her, and she turned quickly, running right toward the burning cart. She heard his shout in warning as the smoke choked her, making her eyes water.
Beyond the cart, the path opened, the burning spikes that lined the way diverging as they encircled a large expanse, wherein she saw the maw of the Lunar Temples.
The white stone steps towered high, disappearing into the smoke. The spires were like hands reaching up into the sky.
Bodies were scattered on the ground. She nearly tripped, hearing nothing behind her as Graves approached, but she knew he was there. Hallucinations did not make noise.
The Stella was thicker here, shoots of stardust whirling in the air before the Lunar Temples, as if to protect its home.
Luella felt the stardust around her neck disentangle, whispering against her flesh as it snaked away and zoomed through the air, until joining with the rest. She touched her neck, mourning its warmth and comfort.
"Luella!" Graves called from behind her. He said something else, but the words were drowned out, falling on her mad ears as she breathed rapidly, back aching fiercely as she spun, searching through the smoke, desperate to disappear.
A loud boom shook the mountains as a figure dropped from above, falling right before her. She gave a scream, staggering back, closer to the temple.
A piece of her soul sang as her eyes rose from the crater-like dip in the grey rock, up strong, slightly bent legs, a heaving chest slick with sweat, ash, and blood, to warm amber eyes.
Az released a ragged breath, blood dripping from the tip of his right horn. His hands were in fists, and he uncurled them, flexing his large, dusky fingers as he stared at her amid the grey ash and dragon fire.
"Lu,angel. Oh gods," the demon sobbed, and Luella shook her head again, as if to shake the image of him out of her mind.
A tiny part of her screamed,Pay attention!
The song in her soul and the way he shortened her name and said it with such affection but?—
He wasn’t real.
A singular black feather drifted to the stone as Graves landed at Az’s side, trapping her. With both of them before her on either side and the burning cart blocking the path, she had nowhere to run but the…temple.
Luella staggered back, feeling a sticky warmth at her spine from her hurried movements. The cape stuck to her back, and her wing stump throbbed, making her movements increasingly sluggish. She heard their gasps as she gave them her back and fled, tripping over bodies and stumbling up the near-endless steps of the Lunar Temples. The marble was cold, even though fire ravaged the stone nearby. The Stella parted for her, warmth misting her flesh and drifting over her hair. Her steps grew surer.
Until a voice pierced the night.
Luella, stop running!
She stopped, falling forward on the steps until her palms crashed against the marble. Her hair slipped over her shoulders, acting as a curtain.
