Something isn’t right here, I thought to myself. But still I kept moving, my need to see if I could even pick up a trace of Exos forcing me onward. Because if he resided in this field, it was a wonder he still breathed.
“He’s strong,” Cyrus whispered. “He always has been. But if he pushed you out, it was for a reason.”
“And you suspect this is why.”
“Yes.”
“Where did you follow Mortus to?” I asked, needing to focus, to ground myself. Because already I could feel my soul being twisted as if invisible hands had entered my being to stroke me from within.
And we weren’t even inside yet.
“I’ll show you,” Cyrus said, his touch falling away from my back, to my arm, and down to my palm, where he linked our fingers. “Don’t let go of me, Claire.”
“I won’t.” I squeezed his hand for emphasis and allowed him to lead me over the threshold. Moss instantly encased my feet, sliding over my shoes and up my socks. Yet when I looked down, I saw nothing but gravel.
Strange.
Cyrus continued moving, and I struggled alongside him, my ears clouding with a buzzing energy that hummed inside my mind.
Not words, no.
Just a constant sizzling that left me squinting into the foggy chasm. I blinked to clear it, but that didn’t help. All I saw were writhing creatures, smoke and brimstone, and a darkness that threatened to swallow me whole.
I tried to ask Cyrus to explain but found myself alone, his hand no longer in mine.
Whirling around, I sought his presence, only to see miles and miles of clouds in all directions. The ground began to shake, my name a chant on the wind.
Cyrus…
I couldn’t sense him.
Couldn’t breathe.
What’s happening?
The moss was climbing again, still invisible, but there. It drove through the fibers of my clothes, seeping into my veins and painting my blood in shades of black.
I shook in time with the ground, my soul screaming at me to run. But I didn’t know where to go. I couldn’t remember where I’d entered, couldn’t focus on anything other than the impending doom surrounding me.
Tears streaked down my face.
My heart raced.
The world blinked in and out.
And all I could do was fall, fall, fall… into nothingness. And everything. And bittersweet darkness.
My home.
Cyrus
Fuck!
Now I knew what Mortus had been up to last night. He’d set a fucking trap. And not for me, but for Claire.
I wrapped my arms around her, tugging harshly against some unknown force. It seemed to be sucking the elements right out of her, as if starving for her life. And it was fucking killing her.
Her skin turned ashen, her breath stuttering between blue lips. It’d all happened so quickly, her body whirling around in a violent circle as her life drained before my eyes.