Page 37 of A Cruel Kindness

Soren blew out a heavy breath, nodding to himself. I could almost hear him bargaining with the Bond, telling it I told you she’s fine.

An unwanted swell of emotion entered my chest, but the warmth building there was quickly cut off by the sound of an alarm.

It was time.

Soren’s hand clamped over mine right as a fresh wave of panic overtook me. “We go first.”

As paranimas, I’d assumed we would. I followed Soren as he walked us to the front of the room, close to the heavy metal doors. There was a queue forming, each Match falling into line. In order, I’d guess.

I spotted Freya at the very back of the room, standing next to a shorter young man with close cropped black hair. His gaze was on the floor, and he looked incredibly dim compared to Freya’s light. That struck me as an odd pairing, but I guess parasepts wouldn't be obviously compatible.

My gaze was pulled back to the front of the room as Ford and Esme stepped in front of us. You could tell how practiced they were at this. Even with their disjointed Bond, they worked seamlessly in this aspect at least.

Ford dropped Esme’s pack in front of her feet, and she casually handed him a firearm. As he tucked it in his shoulder holster, Esme bent down and closed the zipper on his pack all the way.

Soren’s hand squeezed mine, as if telling me he saw the same thing.

“Alright,” Peter’s voice rang through the hall, quieting the lingering conversations. “You know the drill. Step through hand in hand. It’ll be bright on the flip side so prepare yourself. Buckets on either side if you get sick.”

With zero fanfare, the doors started opening, letting in a light so bright it looked like a million different colors thrown together and bouncing off each other with such force they started sparking.

My hand tightened on Soren’s reflexively, needing to anchor myself to something.

Ford and Esme stepped through, joining their hands at the last possible second, like it was as easy as stepping over the threshold of a home.

As they disappeared into the light, Soren and I were ushered forward. My breath was stuttering in my lungs, and I could feel panic rising.

“Look at me,” Soren’s voice came from next to me.

I was too scared to fight him. I turned, finding his eyes immediately.

He nodded once. I matched it.

And then we stepped forward together, leaving our planet behind.

Chapter 10

Bellamy

I felt everything and nothing at once. Saw a mass of color and yet the darkest black. Felt fire and ice lick across my veins. It was like stepping off a cliff and being suspended halfway through your free fall.

I couldn’t turn my neck to see if the doors we stepped through were still there, but I doubted they were. It was just light—and then the absence of it. Looking forward, there didn’t even seem to be a path ahead.

My heart seized in my throat, feeling the horrid weight of dread press down into my shoulders. We were stuck. Somehow we fucked this up and we were suspended in space and time with no way out and—

Something squeezed my hand, pulling me out of my panic. I focused on it, taking my energy away from the impossible situation I was in—like I was stuck in a rainbow or the clouds—and on that one, constant feeling of warmth.

After a moment, I started to retreat, feeling my sanity start to creep back in. Once I did, I was forced to acknowledge that the only thing holding me to any sort of reality was Soren’s hand in mine.

It was my anchor while this space between worlds ripped me apart from the inside out.

I focused on that warm, solid force next to me with even greater attention. Put all my energy into that one, grounding moment to get some relief from the feeling of my skin being flayed from my body.

♣

Soren

I’d Crossed hundreds of times. I expected the physical effects, the feeling of getting pummeled under hooves as horses ran over you. I’d always leaned into it, taking the beating for a few minutes until me and Carson popped through on the other side.