New, primal heat surged in my gut, twisting my insides. It was a desire that I had long ignored, once again making its presence known. The need to create life—and the overwhelming desire to do it with Tobias.
“I’ll give it to you, Azzy. I’ll give you what you desire.”
My ears twitched, my thoughts grinding to a halt as I stared down the empty hallway. Had I imagined his voice, calling out to me from the dark? That was the only explanation, as Tobias was far from this place.
“It can be yours, Azzy. I love you so much. I’ll give you what you want. I’ll make you a father. We can grow old together, tending to the roses. Don’t you want that?”
The voice bounced down the smooth walls of the hall till it came from all directions. I turned back to Cirian, finding his eyes open and wide.
“You heard that, too?”
He nodded. “It’s never been so loud before. You can’t listen, Azrael. It’s just trying to lure you in, like it did the others.”
“What does it want?” I asked.
“I don’t know. And I don’t want to find out. Come on, we can’t linger here.”
Cirian moved further down the corridor, the light from his tether dimmer, but still bright enough to keep the shadows from encroaching on us as we went. The path ahead snaked around several curves, and we moved in silence. The voice did not speak again as we went, and eventually it faded from my mind, like the details of a dream that you struggle to grasp.
“Wait,” he said as we rounded another turn, stopping in his tracks. He placed a hand over his chest, his brow furrowed. “I think we may be getting closer.”
“How can you be sure?”
“It’s just a feeling. Like I could pass a thought down the line to him. It’s something that we did while we were—uh—never mind, it matters not. The point is, I think I can reach out.” He closed his eyes once more, his features contorting in concentration and fingers wrapped around the luminous thread, as if he were going to pluck the strings of an instrument.
“We’re coming to get you,” Cirian whispered. “Just let us know where you are.”
The tether vibrated, much like a harp as it resonates, a dulcet tone permeating the stagnant air around us. The tether’s light glowed hot, growing so bright that I had to avert my eyes.
Then, all at once, a snapping sound and the light faded. Cirian staggard backward a few steps, a trickle of blood dripping from his nose.
I caught him by the shoulder before he could topple, his lanky frame swaying dangerously.
“What happened?”
“I was right. He’s nearby. But he’s not the only one. The thing that created all this terrible shit is there too—the Umbral. It’s keeping me from getting through to him.”
“How is that possible?”
“Magic, probably. This thing is like a sponge for it, soaking up any bit it can get its grubby hands on.”
“Did it try to communicate with you? Did you get a sense of what it wants?”
He shook his head, nearly all color having drained from his face at that point. “There is no reason within that thing. Only hunger.”
“That’s not exactly helpful.”
“I don’t know what else to tell you. Just having a part of my consciousness near it is terrifying. There’s no telling what damage it’s already done to Bastien.”
I opened my mouth to ask a question, but something shuffling behind me caused me to spin in place, my claws manifesting in a flash of purple sparks. The hallways stretched ahead, dim and lifeless as they were before, except…
“Shit,” Cirian muttered, pawing at his chest. “The thread vanished.”
From within the shadows, a horrible clicking sound emanated.
Muttering an incantation under my breath, an orb of purple light appeared over my palm, and I held it over my head to shed light as far as I could. The shadows did not react to this lightlike they did to what came from the tether. They moved closer, clinging to the ground as they moved.
“We need to move,” I said, backing towards Cirian.
