AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My chest burned, my lungs screamed at me, and I tasted my heart in my throat. Adrenaline pumped through my body, and my palms were clammy, slick with sweat.
My mind spun, but it was mentally exhausting trying to fight Cyrene, to push her out. I needed a mental break from all of this.
I suddenly walked in the sun in a beautiful garden. The sound of water flowing nearby was soothing.
“Erol?” Hazel asked, and she smiled at me. Her dark hair hung loose over her shoulders, and I walked to her, running my fingers through her hair before I touched her cheek.
“I was hoping you’d come. Ren prepared a meal for us. We should go inside.” She nodded toward the palace.
I frowned. How had I ended up in Jasfin?
“Where are we?” I asked.
She laughed, the sound clear like a bell. I could listen to her laughter all day.
“It’s my private garden. I told you I wanted to show it to you. It’s not a crime to be alone together, you know. Everyone knows what we are.”
When I didn’t move, she came to me and took my hand.
“Are you okay?”
“Something’s wrong,” I said. At the back of my mind, a little voice screamed that this wasn’t real. “I shouldn’t be here.”
“Don’t be silly,” Hazel said. “You’re right where you belong.”
The images disappeared, and I was in Palgia. The darkness had grown thicker, although it wasn’t nighttime yet. I knew the sun hid behind those clouds.
Gale force winds blew around me, ripping across the landscape. Debris blew around—broken branches, pieces of wood that belonged in the walls of homes. Half a cart rolled by.
I’d been hallucinating. Hazel, the palace in Jasfin, her garden…
None of that was real. I was starting to lose it.
“You can try whatever you want, you’re not escaping this,” Cyrene said.
I looked around. Her voice was crystal clear all around me, bright despite the roar of the storm, but I couldn’t see her. If I could face her, we could settle it between us, and no one had to get hurt. All I needed to do was find her.
Where are you?I demanded.I’ll take you on, we can take care of this once and for all. Show yourself! You’re hiding away like a coward!
I hated that I couldn’t speak. I was a prisoner in my own body.
Cyrene chuckled. “You’re trying every trick in the book to distract me from what we’re going to do next. You sound like a child, looking for one excuse after the other. It’s pathetic. Your fear makes you weak.”
Just show your face, damn it!
“I can’t very well show my face when I’m inside of you.”
I stilled, and my body ran cold. Was this all that was left of me? A dark goddess who controlled me? Was my future to be stuck in this body that didn’t belong to me, only able to see what was happening without the power to control anything anymore?
“You’re finally catching on,” Cyrene said smugly. “I wondered how long it would take you.”
After everything I’ve done for you, after all the years I’ve given you, this is how you repay me? This is what it comes to?
“If you wanted a just reward, a happy ending, you should have thought twice about turning away from the light.”
You didn’t leave me a choice!
“Everyone has a choice, Erol. You made yours.”
