Dreams like this were becoming more frequent lately, but this one felt… different. It was as if the shadows were reaching for me, but not in the way that my own power does. This was someone else’s. They began to latch around my wrists and ankles like shackles, pulling me down as if chains bound my limbs to an invisible floor. Then, before I had time to react, my entire body was ripped downward.
I fell into an empty, bottomless pit as the shadows crawled over my body, swallowing me. Once they reached my throat, my airway constricted, and I could no longer breathe.
“Wake up!”I heard nearby. The voice was familiar, but they sounded so far away.
The veins in my head were pulsing now as my body fought for air that wasn’t coming. I wanted to claw at my own throat—release the hold that these invisible hands had around it, but I couldn’t move my arms.
“Tristan!”The voice yelled again.“Wake up!”
I woke to the feel of someone holding my head. I was in my bed still, but my body had been turned onto its side. It felt like my limbs were as stiff as iron, but my heart raced too rapidly; I thought it was going to burst.
“It’s okay, Tristan,” Mara whispered from somewhere nearby.
I couldn’t turn my head to see her, but just knowing she was there gave me some level of comfort.
“Breathe… You have tobreathe!”
I can’t,is what I wanted to tell her. My mind was panicking as my chest continued to tighten, and I felt my lips begin to tingle. But as stars danced in my vision, a strange image seemed to flash across my mind. The black dots almost appeared to take the form of a… face. It disappeared so fast that I couldn’t tell if it was real or not, but something about the girl nulled the fear that had trapped me.
Then, like a cord snapped apart, I sucked in the most painful breath I had ever experienced. My arms and legs ached with something fierce, and my chest still shook from the aftermath, but I could finally move again.
“Thank the gods,” Mara rasped, forcing me to sit up as she wrapped her arms around me. “You’re okay. You’re alright.”
That was the first time I felt the wrath of my father’s power—his true intent in what he had done to me that night in the tunnels.
I was only half the size of Mara at the time, and the face I saw? I knew who it was now.If these lords thought that they could steal the only salvation I had ever known…
They thoughtwrong.
Chapter 29
DEZ
Iwas instantly awakened as I painfully tried to cough up what felt like dirt packed into my lungs.
My chest burned, and I quickly turned over, expelling everything into the grass.Grass?I paused, covering my mouth and forcing myself to take in a breath.I’m in… grass?
The last thing I remembered was the fire that consumed the seven of us. But as I peered down at my hands, I didn’t feel any injuries. What Ididsee was a grey substance smeared along my palms. Rubbing my thumb and forefinger together, I looked up to a cloudy, grey sky. The particles falling from it resembled snowflakes, but I felt no chill—only heat. Which meant that it was ash covering the ground in a blanket of off-white.
Around me, others began to cough, and I had almost forgotten that we were all here together. I pushed myself up onto my feet, and swayed a little from the rush of blood in my head. I needed to be careful. Until we found Morrigan, I would beweak. But absolutelynothingwould stop me from getting to her.
Even death could kiss my ass.
My vision hadn’t quite returned yet, but I ran to the nearest person I could find. Reaching an arm out to them, I clasped their hand and tried to pull them up to stand. But, the moment a specific, brown-haired-and-green-eyed face cleared before me, I sneered in disgust as I shoved him back down.
The next one I found was Dormius. Ash covered his blonde hair, completely packed on top of the strands, indicating we had been lying there for quite some time.
“What is this stuff?” he groaned, his voice raspy from still clearing his throat.
“Ash,” I answered. Once he stood stable enough on his feet, I continued moving across the grass to the others. “I don’t know where it’s coming from. I can’t smell a fire nearby,” I called over my shoulder. “But it’s definitely ash.”
He cracked his neck. “Let’s hope wherever the fire is, Morrigan is far from it.”
Once everyone finally stood, I found a nearby tree to lean against. I had to take a few deep breaths to steady myself, and pressed my palm against my forehead.So close,I thought.We are so close.
“What now?” Naaz asked. “We know nothing about this world. How are we supposed to find her?”
“We could split up,” Cass suggested. “We’d cover more land that way.”
