Page 108 of Inextricably Tied

But it’s too small. Not shaped like his face. Her vision blurs and doubles, but she thinks it’s…a ring.

It glows around people she can trust.

New wetness slips down Harbinger’s cheeks, mingling with her blood. Flint’s connection begins to dry up inside her. Harbinger remembers what this is. Remembers her last breath on the stone slab, liquid sloshing against her the way it does now. Her eyes slip closed, pain shutting down the lights in her mind until all that’s left is the single ring.

That…that can be the last thing she sees.

THIRTY-NINE

Agony

Something is wrong.

Agony knew hours ago when his steady connection with Harbinger suddenly spiked before it vanished. He stopped behind a tree in the forest, tugging on the link as he would Harbinger’s sleeve.

There’s nothing.

Through the shadows, he found their broken-down car again. No sign of Flint or Harbinger. Agony scoured the skies from below, looking for anything flitting past the clouds.

Nothing but birds.

He tried to trace the route they’d taken, but flying moved them so much further, leaving no crushed branches or footprints for him to follow. The trail went cold — but the connection with Harbinger stirred again. Agony strained to reach her, but her mind was slurry, dragging her away from him until she slipped out of his grasp.

Then it was silent again. Murky, as if she was dreaming. Agony raced through the forest as night fell, multiplying the places he could slip through.

It never brought him any closer to finding them.

He won’t stop looking. Can’t stop looking, even when fear surges inside him, the lingering trail of their connection fading fast. He’s not used to this. Being free, slipping through shadows, covering so much ground in such little time. Tendrils of his being waver, flickering like candles about to be put out as exhaustion sinks into his limbs.

Harbinger’s mind sends up a flare. She’s desperate, clawing for Agony, clawing for anyone — then the connection clangs with impact that knocks him off balance. Pain screams through him as he fights to stay on his feet. It slices through his connection with Harbinger, over and over, until it hangs by a thread.

There’s a cabin in the distance.

She’s there. He knows she’s there. His teeth grit, pushing past the fatigue radiating through him. He dives into the shadows, whizzing past movement in the house and down into a darkened cellar. He pulls his aching body from the darkness to the sight of Harbinger’s bloody body splayed on a tarp.

Agony grapples for her hand, slipping through the blood beneath her. “Harbin!”

Her eyes tilt in her head, voice slurring, hand limp in his. Life drains from her body. He can feel her leaving, room spinning as Agony presses to his feet.

A bear creature hunches over another broken body. Flint’s body, his head slumping, face covered in blood. The creature above him blinks, face streaked with surprise under the splatter. “What the fuck?”

It takes nothing for Agony to slam him back against the wall. Nothing to leave an indentation in the rock as the creature claws to escape. Nothing for Agony to crush the air from the beast’s lungs as he lowers his mouth.

“Now I know how agonizingly to kill you.”

Agony knows his namesake. He understands rage. How it overpowers the weariness within him. How it gives him a glimpse at what created him.

The hate that lay dormant in Agony has finally found an outlet, splitting his body into shadows that rip the creature in every direction. Fury pours from him, so loud he barely hears the footsteps thudding down the stairs before he catches a feathered woman. Her legs spasm as Agony crushes her skull into concrete, reflected in the bleeding gashes of her eyes.

He billows up the stairs, bursting into night air and surging into the cabin. Dark strands snap around every creature that springs to attack. They’re nothing. They do nothing. Agony barrels through them all, flinging bodies through windows, breaking every limb, filling their noses and throats with darkness.

The vengeance in him is louder than their screams. There’s no sense of time, nothing but shadows destroying all they come across. Seconds tick by to the sound of bodies slumping to the floor.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.