AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stand in the middle of the room for several beats of my heart, feeling adrift. A frown crosses my face.
The men aren’t the only people I’ve lost track of. My ghostly passenger hasn’t made a peep since the daimon’s assault started.
“Julita?” I say tentatively into the silence of the room.
No answer. Not even a stirring in the back of my head. I can’t even tell whether I can still sense her presence there. I could be imagining the faintest of tickles, or it could just be the buzz of my uneasy thoughts.
“Julita!” I say again, as if she might be so far away she didn’t hear me the first time.
No answer. What’s happened to her?
Did the attack or the daimon’s magic dislodge her somehow?
I’ve wanted my mind back from the first moment she spoke up in it, but a lump clogs my throat. Right now, I need the company.
I sag onto the sofa. There’s no way for me to find the men. I don’t even know where the other three’s dorms are.
All I can do is wait here for Stavros to return… or for someone to come tell me he won’t be returning at all.
As much of an asshole as he can be, I can’t help wishing that I trusted the gods. Because if I did, I’d send up a prayer that it won’t be the latter.
Twenty-One
Linzi skips ahead of me through the park. Her pale red hair flashes in the sunlight.
Ma said she had to stick with me. She’s only little—two years littler than I am. She shouldn’t run off on her own.
“Linzi!” I call after her, dashing after her. My feet slip on the dew-slick grass.
I’m falling. I thrust my hands out to catch my balance, and Linzi whirls around—and somehow my palms are slamming straight into her chest.
Clouds whirl above our heads, blotting out the sun. Her fragile body erupts, her back bowing. Her head snaps to the side as her arms flail.
A crack forms right down the middle of her. Darkness seems to be pouring from my fingers into her, tearing her more and more open by the second.
Her blood spills over my hands.
“No! No, no, please, no!” I cry, but I can’t yank my hands away. I can’t move at all.
Her skin sloughs off and her flesh gleams a red so much starker than her hair. Her lips part in a silent scream.
And I keep battering her with the poisonous power I can’t haul back.
I can’t stop it.
I have to.
I can’t.
I—
A tug on my shoulder wrenches me out of the nightmare.
I gasp into the darkness, aware of nothing but a vague form leaning over me, and my hand flies to my thigh automatically. I whip my knife up to brace against the intruder’s throat.
And realize it’s not an intruder at all.
With another blink, my vision adjusts to the thin light seeping through the room from the window at the far end. Stavros glowers down at me, poised over my body, his mouth slanted into a grimace that might hold a hint of amusement too.
