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“You must trust me. You said you would kill me if she does not live. As I do not wish to die, she must live. This is the only way.” Without waiting for his response, the svelte witch moved closer and brought the dagger inches from June’s chest. “Keep the pressure on her wound. She must not bleed out before I can complete the task.”
At length, Tristan grated, “I’m trusting you, witch.”
This can’t be happening.
June watched that razor-sharp tip like a test subject about to get vivisected…
Which she was.
“You canna be serious!” Orik’s big frame filled the doorway. Apparently, he’d found the traitors because he was covered in blood. Yet he appeared horror-struck at the sight before him.
Blood loss was making June loopy because she wanted to laugh, seeing the scene from his perspective. She was pinned on the bed, covered in her own blood while a white-haired witch who held an honest-to-goodness dragon’s soul in her palm had declared she was about to impale June with a dragon-tooth-dagger in order to save her life.
The prospect of having her chest split open made dying a secondary concern. Adrenaline surged and her heart began to thunder in her chest, which made Tristan’s job of stanching the flow more difficult.
At Orik’s outburst, other curious faces peered around the door; the guards wanted to see what was going on. In a strained tone, Tristan ordered them to stay back. “Doona interfere.”
Orik protested, “This is madness. You canna trust this witch.”
“I must.” Tristan peered down at June. “You’ll be okay, love. You’ll be okay.” Again, he was trying to convince himself.
A chill ran over her body and she began shivering uncontrollably. She must have muttered something about being cold because Tristan demanded the heat be turned up. His expression was panic-stricken, his tone but a growl the turned to the witch. “Do it now, witch. Save her.”
Orik once again balked. “For fuck sake, Tristan! This witch could have been sent by our enemies.”
“Orik! Don’t come any closer!”
June stopped listening…because the witch raised that dagger and began muttering a chant. June couldn’t make out the words….
Orik made a move to snatch the witch away, and June perceived the loss of Tristan by her side. He’d launched himself at Orik—
Then the dagger plunged.
24
Something like acid poured into June’s veins. It spread out over her chest like liquid fire. Flames crawled along her chest, through her arms, down her legs, eating up her insides. Her fingers seized from the pain, forming claws. The muscles of her neck drew tight as a scream ripped out of her. That fire only grew…hotter…more intense…engulfing her in pure, undiluted agony.
This was hell and she had been damned.
A small part of her mind remained conscious. After tossing the dagger away, the witch brought the sphere of light—the dragon’s soul—between her palms, close to her face, and whispered something unintelligible. The soul’s light intensified to a blinding brilliance and gave off a stunning warmth. It was the most remarkable sight June had ever seen. All the while, the fire burned, eating her alive.
Then the witch shot to her feet and slammed the soul into June’s chest with both hands, like a seasoned ballplayer dunking the winning score.
Mind-splitting pain lacerated her every nerve, and she screamed until her lungs burned…like the rest of her burned. The blaze within her ignited into a staggering inferno. Her insides were being flayed by white-hot blades dipped in acid, scorching her from head to toe. The torment was never-ending. On and on it went, the firestorm growing impossibly hotter, devouring her in until she couldn’t remember a time when there was no pain.
Her suffering wasn’t just in the body. It was molecular. It was in her mind, in her bones, in her subconscious, in her essence. This was a pain that did not only exist in reality. It was supernatural. Preternatural. Celestial. Eternal. Cosmic. Divine. Infernal. It was wretched and wicked. It was seraphic and sublime. It was the work of gods and devils.
With one last searing breath, she fell into a world of absolute darkness.
Tiny flickers of sparkling light erupted around her. Radiant explosions of gold and white, there one second, gone the next. She sensed more than saw the web forming around her, binding together, like sentient neurons. A living nexus, reaching out and linking up to cast an intricate mesh of knots and tangles. As they did, the glowing eruptions drifted closer, latching on to each axon and riding the web like electrical currents.
As if fueled from within, the webwork began to glow, illuminating this dark world until she saw its true depths. It spanned in all directs, tangles reaching out as far as she could see. Was this her brain? Her body? Her soul?
Like tectonic plates crushing together, something was shifting within her. Something momentous. Something life changing. Something terrifying.
She didn’t know what was happening. She couldn’t understand the sensations assaulting her. She felt stuffed with energy yet exhausted. She felt pain yet contentment. She felt powerful yet weak.
Then one of those glowing connections snapped, the sound thunderous. Then another one snapped…and another.
