Page 93 of Dream Reaper

Dragon growled something that Jerrid couldn’t understand, his voice too far away to decipher. He shot Ava a quick glance as he caught hold of the girl’s shin to help hold her back. Sure enough, wings had sprouted from Ava’s shoulder blades once again, and she braced against the ground with scaled claws peeking out from beneath her skirts.

Everyone screamed as the tentacle dragged them deeper down the ravine.

“Jerrid!” Ava shouted, almost as if it were a desperate plea.

He stared at her over the girl’s body, unsure what to do, what to say. How did you fight something that you couldn’t touch? How did you fight a shadow?

You don’t. The shadow laughed, the sound pummeling against his temples with each wicked peal. I live in shadow and darkness. This is my realm, and you cannot touch me.

“My realm,” he echoed around heavy gasps for air.

Ava held his gaze, a question in her eyes.

“How do you fight darkness?” he asked her, a spark of hope igniting in his chest. “With light! Light!”

Understanding brightened her features.

“The torches!” Finnr bellowed. “Someone use the torches!”

One of the older girls dropped to all fours and crawled beneath the form of her suspended friend so that she could get to the front of the line. She thrust the torch toward the shadow, but it merely flickered and carved a path around the orange-red flames. She tried again and again.

It wasn’t working.

“Ava! Use your flame!” Jerrid ordered, his hands slipping when another jolt from the shadow yanked them again. “Use your magic!”

He adjusted his footing and his grip around the girl’s leg, just above the shadow’s grasp. The thundering in his head intensified, convincing him his idea must have merit.

“Hold her! Hold her tight! I need to let go!” Ava cried.

They redoubled their efforts as Ava slowly released her grip on the girl’s waist. She ran ahead of them and held her palm toward the writhing tentacle while the other girl took her place in line.

If this didn’t work…

Jerrid couldn’t even finish the thought because they were all out of options. He wasn’t strong enough to save them, not this time. Not on his own, without Dragon. Even with Dragon he was more of a threat than a help.

Worthless! the shadow screamed at him, its emotions raw and wild.

“Now!” Jerrid yelled, the pain so blinding he could no longer see.

Blue filled his vision, and Ava cried out. The tether that bound him to Dragon snapped taut as the pain became all he knew.

The shadow tore at him, fighting back. Jerrid clung to the girl because he knew he couldn’t give up. He had to stay on his feet and give Ava time to break the tether. But the energy bled from his body as if it were being drawn out of him.

His thoughts grew muddled and distant, and music filled his ears, a haunting and terrible melody that felt as old as time itself.

His world became nothing more than pain, music, and blue fire.

This must be what the final crossing was like, when a soul passed from the mortal world into Valhalla and what lay beyond. The pain couldn’t last forever, and this journey would be brief. If he could just hold on long enough for Ava to save the others.

To save herself.

If she could survive, then none of this would matter. He didn’t care what happened to him.

But his body shook uncontrollably, betraying him. The music grew louder, and the heat intensified. The thundering in his head became so heavy that he knew his skull would explode at any moment. The splintering pain brought him to his knees.

Someone crashed into him from behind, a hand pressing briefly against his shoulder. Jerrid struggled to stand, but he could no longer tell up from down. The world spun around him, a world made up of pain and music, of blue light and shadow…

The music intensified as he began to slip away. Eternity was calling his name. He could hear it on the tides of change, his name being whispered—no, sung—to the tune of that deep and terrible melody.