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I shake my head, wet hair plastered to my face. I’m a mess but I don’t care. I’m going to see this through, no matter the end that is coming.
“I’m with you,” I say.
He shakes his head, sending droplets of water spraying off his long hair. He opens his mouth to protest then snaps it shut. Lightning arcs across the sky again, reversing the world as it flashes bright, casting it all into black and white.
Outside the world is bright white light but inside I feel the darkness behind it, just as I did in the lands of the Fae. The darkness is alive and waiting with predatory intent. A shiver races down my spine from much more than the cold rain.
“Fine,” he says at last.
He leads the way, holding my hand. The rain slows us down. He picks our way around pools of water and ground too soft to cross as the peat turns swampy. It takes most of my attention to watch my feet and make sure I’m stepping where he does.
A raven caws, its screech cutting through the blowing wind and the pouring rain. I look up. The raven is sitting on top of a standing stone maybe twenty yards away. It seems to be looking past us instead of at me like it usually does.
I cry out in pain, my stomach cramping. The pain is so bad I double over, clasping my arms over my stomach.
“What is it?” Duncan asks, grabbing both of my arms.
“My stomach,” I say. “It hurts really bad.”
It feels like a fist has clenched my belly tight. Or a miniature blackhole inside is trying to pull all my guts into a hyper compressed ball. It’s worse than anything I’ve ever experienced.
The raven screeches again. Something is wrong. Really wrong.
“How do I help?” Duncan asks.
“I don’t know,” I say, breathing through the pain. The hairs on the back of my neck rise onto the end and icicles trail along my skin. I look back the way we came, sensing an impending threat.
A thick white fog rolls across the flatland towards us. It’s moving fast, too fast for a normal fog.
Terror makes the pain in my guts worse, but I manage to croak one word. “Run.”
“You can’t,” he says.
I force myself up. I’m bawling; the pain is so bad it’s almost blinding but I know that fog is bad. I can’t let it catch me.
“We have to go.” I grunt through the pain. “Now. Now.”
I pull on his arm, stumbling forward. I can’t run, but I can move. I concentrate to make one foot move then the other. He supports me but the pain keeps growing worse. I had food poisoning once and that is the closest thing I can compare this to.
“You cannae go on like this,” Duncan says.
Despite the freezing rain, I’m burning up. I can’t stand up straight, the cramps are so bad. I look over my shoulder and fear clamps onto my chest.
“We can’t outrun it,” I pant.
Ahead of us, echoes the sounds of battle, same as it did when I first arrived here. I don’t know what the fog is going to do to me this time, but every time it comes, everything changes. I’m not ready for a change. Not now. I’ve chosen Duncan; I can’t leave him.
“It’s only a fog, coming down from the Highlands,” Duncan says. “It’s nothing.”
“No. No, it's something more. Worse. I don’t know what it is but, Duncan…” I grip his shoulders, leaning on him to keep myself upright. “No matter what happens, be safe. Live. Do you hear me? You live. Don’t be a fool. Don’t get yourself killed.”
“Quinn, you talk as if you’re leaving.”
The fog rolls over us and our legs disappear in its thick white soup. It rolls in still faster. Desperate, I throw my arms around his neck and cling to him. He wraps his strong arms tight around me, but I know it won’t be enough. I know it in my heart and it’s killing me.
I sob in his ear. “I don’t know what will happen, but you live, okay? For me?”
“Aye, Quinn,” he says as the fog swamps us.
