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She failed to mask the horror on her face, even as his fury waned.
The Void takes care of me now. It listens. It grants me what I need.He brushed a lock of hair from his eyes.
Her brows furrowed. Did the Void listen to her too? There must be some truth to his words, for it had led her to him.
I’m sorry,she whispered pathetically.
He leaned his head closer.I’m alive because of you. Had you not brought me into the Void, our enemies would have slain me too that night my mother was butchered.
Cirel interlocked his fingers with hers, and the wave of calm that washed over her was impossible to ignore. It was the same flutter of excitement she felt when soaking in the histories of the world or tracing over ink maps in the library.
There is something you can do to help me, he said.
She nodded eagerly.What is it?
You can share in this power. The two of us will be stronger together. We can shift power back and forth when the other is in trouble.
Tenah pressed farther into the wall. The magic that had suffocated him oozed out into the air behind him, coiling up above their heads. Guttural voices sounded from somewhere in the tunnel. Or were they in her head?
You left me, remember?His orange eye shimmered.You owe me this much.
Tenah shook her head, her breaths shortening into panicked little gusts.I’m so sorry.
It won’t hurt.
She knew it was a lie. She’d heard his screams. Had seen the terror in his eyes when he’d been consumed.
Cirel lifted his hand, and Tenah watched in horror as black smoke bled from his wounded palm. It tumbled into the space between them, looming over her as it took the shape of a giant wolf. Smoke billowed from the hollows where its eyes should have been.
You can try to avoid it, he said. Your family can try to keep you from it. But this is your fate.
The smoky wolf opened its maw, and she screamed. Agonizing pain ripped down her throat and into her lungs. Filled up her ears and blinded her eyes.
So much darkness.It had no end. Thankfully the pain did. Soon, she found her entire body numb. Numb but slick as she reached out to touch solid, wet ground.
Her eyes adjusted to the forest outside the manor, cloaked in night. Leaves crinkled under her weight as struggled to push her body up. Voices called for her, desperation thick in their tones. Had she been missing? Why did her body thrum as if she’d touched a live wire?
Hands gripped her arms and hauled her out of the leaves. Disoriented, she looked up into the distressed, wide eyes of her father. Ames stood behind him, panting.
It was her father’s shaky embrace that shattered her. Why were they looking at her like that?
When she spotted the black stains her tears left on her father’s shirt, she knew. A wail tore from her throat. The Void. Cirel. They hadn’t been another nightmare then. They werereal. Cirel had let that bad magic hurt her.
Her body felt wrong, her skin too tight and itchy as if sunburnt.
Make it go away, she begged.Make me forget him.
Ames winced and shared a glance with her father.
“Do it. Now,” Kherathi ordered.
Ashen magic blasted into her mind. Memories snapped and frayed and twined together in new patterns. And then Chaos poured out of her, streaming into her father’s chest.
Completing the transfer of Corruption.
* * *
There was no more pretending. Despite Chaos’s best efforts to pump her full of self-hatred, Tenah’s mind felt lighter than it had in years. Now she knew the truth, and she could finally, finally…
