The sense of otherness inside me deepens. It burrows into my mind, and I can feel it sifting through my memories. Searching forsomething.
Sweat beads on my forehead, and my Mark heats. A flame, scorching in its intensity. My throat closes in on itself, and air doesn’t reach my lungs.
I shake my hand, trying to break the seer’s hold, but her nails gouge into my skin and slice through my flesh. Crimson beads swell, copper reaches my nostrils, and a frigid breeze blows past. Clouds darken the sky, covering the suns and casting us in shadows.
Oh, gods. This is fucking bad. And I would know, considering the way my life has gone lately.
Evelyn’s prayer reaches new heights—she’s practically screaming. I whimper as her fingers carve into my flesh. Blood trickles down my palm, wet and warm and wrong.
The otherness is a pulsing, throbbing mass in my mind, digging its claws into me.
Didn’t she say this wouldn’t cause permanent harm?
Well, I hate to break it to her, but this pain feels very real and very fucking permanent.
Milky eyes turn towards me, and even though I’m certain she can’t see me, it doesn’t stop me from shivering. There is a wrongness about this that has shaken me to my core. It’s like my very essence is being shredded into tiny pieces, each particle being analyzed and dissected.
How can this be what she had intended?
Those claws dig deeper into my brain, tearing my mind apart from the inside out, and I scream. Only, no sound comes out. My eyes burn, the seer blurs in my vision, and I stare at her through a shroud of tears, silently begging her to put a stop to this.
Did I think this was a nice place before?
Cast in shadows, the so-called Haven feels more ominous than ever. The only reason I don’t yank my hand out of Evelyn’s is because I don’t know what will happen if I break this connection early. What if I do and I’m stuck here? Then I’ll never see Gabriel again.
And that is unacceptable.
I refuse to stay here because there is so much Gabriel and I have left to do. So much that has been left unsaid. I need him more than I need to be free of this pain. Besides, it must end sometime, right?
I steel my spine. I can do this. I can survive until this torture is done. Not just for me, but for Gabriel.
Forus.
This time, there is nothing intimidating about that word. Nothing that frightens me about it. We may not have sorted everything out between us, but at some point, we’ve become an “us,” and I am pleased by that.
Unwilling to let that go so soon after Gabriel’s awakening, I picture his eyes and hold them in my mind as the seer’s talons dig deeper into my consciousness. I swim in his green gaze, letting it envelop me as she tears me into tiny pieces until I feel like I’m a moment away from dying.
Minutes go by, each feeling like a lifetime before Evelyn’s prayer finally stops. She falls silent so suddenly, the lack of noise is like a booming drum in my ears. There’s a sharp inhale of breath, and then her milky white eyes sharpen and focus on me. The claws retract almost as if they’d never existed.
Her Mark pulses, washing us in warm violet light. She lifts her hand. Slowly. Reverently, even. The young seer’s hand trembles as she folds it in her lap, staring at me as if she isn’t quite sure what she sees.
“Well,” she says slowly, picking her words with care. “This is... interesting.”
Because of course it is. Why can’t anything involving me ever be normal? I’d love not to stand out for once in my life. But apparently, that day isn’t today.
Before I can respond, the world dissolves.
32
THE FIRST HARVEST
GABRIEL
One moment, Wren is swaying beside me. The next, she’s drawing in a deep, gasping breath, jerking her hand out of mine.
“Wren? What’s wrong?—”
“What the fuck was that?” She speaks over me, glaring at the seer.
