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“So kind,” I said, sharing a smile before she yanked on my hand, and we bolted through the gap the dogs had left, slipping between the spindles of the gate rather than trying the handle.
“Let’s hope that was the hard part,” Paesha said, staring behind us at the hellhounds that moved back to their guarded positions as if they’d never seen us at all.
“I’m guessing it wasn’t.” I stared at the labyrinth of dead trees that lay between Death’s forbidding castle and the dimly lit path we now stood upon.
Chapter 59
The overgrown garden within Death’s court loomed before us, a twisted mass of gnarled trees and tangled vines. The air was heavy with an unsettling aura, as if the very essence of despair and decay clung to each leaf and petal.
“We’re going to have to go through that,” Paesha said, resting a hand on her sword’s hilt, though she didn’t draw it.
There was no way around the overgrown barrier. It stretched as far as the moonlight fell, and farther, into the depths of the shadows beyond, somehow growing in the eternal nighttime, thriving as the foreground to the towering black castle beyond.
“Looks like it,” I answered, beginning my path forward.
“What’s the plan once we get to people? I mean, are they people? Are they ghosts?”
“I’ve seen Death in all forms, but mostly corporeal.”
“Just keep your wits about you. If the hellhounds were the welcoming committee, you can bet this isn’t going to be a walk in the park,” she said.
“No shit. What was the first clue?”
She pointed to the largest spider web I’d ever seen, glimmering in the moonlight. “That.”
As we made our way through the maze of vegetation, whispers floated on the breeze. Ghostly voices beckoned from all directions, their words both haunting and enticing. They spoke of long-lost desires, regrets, and the echoes of souls trapped in eternal torment. The garden had become a distorted canvas for the voices of the departed, and we were the only ones there to bear witness.
Paesha’s multi-colored eyes darted around, her expression growing distant and transfixed. Enthralled by the spectral echoes, her gaze fixated on a figure that materialized among the overgrown foliage.
“Ezra?”
I’d never heard her sound so weak, so sad.
I reached out to Paesha, desperate to break the spell of illusion that gripped her. “He’s not real,” I pleaded, my voice filled with concern. “It’s a trick. Stay with me.”
She covered her ears, squeezing her eyes shut. “I hate this place. Why won’t they stop?”
I wasn’t sure how to comfort her. I tried moving closer, placing a hand on her shoulder. But the large figure in the distance took a step toward us, and her resolve faltered, her longing overriding reason. My heart broke at the hope in her eyes, the vulnerability in trembling fingers that dropped to her side.
“I have to see, Dey. I need to know.”
Reluctantly, I followed her careful steps, my heart full of worry as the madness stirred by Death’s dark forest seeped into my mind and glimpses of faces I’d recognized flashed by. The voices of madness whispered to me in fragmented, disjointed phrases that sent shivers down my spine. They were like riddles from the abyss, their meanings elusive and maddening.
“Lost echoes... shadows dance...”
The words seemed to shift and swirl like mist, making it impossible to grasp their true intent. They were fragments of memories, half-formed thoughts, and cryptic prophecies chasing us as we moved toward Paesha’s mirage.
“Blood-stained hands—eternity beckons.”
I stumbled over gnarled roots, my mind struggling to make sense of the whispers, but for some reason, I still tried, as if it were a puzzle I needed to put together in order to leave the forest. The maze around me pulsed with a malevolent energy.
“A sacrifice.”
“Puppet strings.”
“Madness calls… embrace the void…”
The darkness deepened, and I struggled to maintain my grip on reality as the forest itself seemed to warp and twist, gripping my mind and the pressing need to solve an undefined riddle. Paesha’s figure ahead of me became a distant specter, and I felt as though I were descending further into the abyss. Though my heart thundered and every warning bell my brain could muster rang, I still couldn’t help the way I chased the mystery rather than my friend.
