Page 41

Sage was ready to bounce out of her seat at the prospect of something new happening that she most likely would go home and journal about after.

Bryn turned the black stone in her hand under the sconce, watching the veins of red catch the light.

“These are called soul stones, and no, there is not a soul in there. The soul is in each of you, but that stone holds your power. I am simply reuniting you with what is already yours. I’d ask if you have questions, but I know you do, so let’s get you set to rights, and then we can discuss everything further.”

Callum assisted Danu in taking her seat again after she finished speaking, and Bryn wondered at what she meant by the inanimate stones holding power.

Watching as Callum took Danu’s hand in his, both of them began speaking in a language Bryn had never heard before. A lovely language that sounded all too much like song as they spoke, the notes lilting.

As they chanted, the stones in everyone’s hands began to crack, an inner light shining through.

Bryn jolted as the black stone she held disintegrated and became a powder, swirling as if air currents were moving it, yet Bryn felt no wind.

Suddenly invisible arms were holding her to her chair, and her inner animal panicked, ready to claw and maim its way to freedom.

Before she could try to escape the invisible bonds, her lungs seized, and panic overtook her as she tried to breathe.

“Relax, my children,” Danu soothed as Bryn tried to force her chest to open up and let air in.

The powder swirled closer, and before she could do anything, it forced itself into her mouth and nose.

Trying to breathe through the feel of sand moving into her lungs, the grittiness stuck to the sides of her throat, she choked. Her body tried to sneeze, but whatever hold Danu’s power had was pushing her natural instincts aside to force the powder in.

Choking could be heard around her, but she didn’t know if that was her or not. Caden was yelling at Danu to stop, but Bryn was fixated on the red vines eating into her vision. The room trembled around her as she finally was able to release a scream, joining in with the chorus of other screams in the room.

Her ears flooded with smoke that felt like liquid, as if she’d dipped her head beneath water, yet she was on dry ground. The red in her eyes closed over completely, her vision gone, her body slowly going numb as she lost the fight.

Through the darkness of her vision, lights flashed, and she wondered if her brain was dying.

Visions started moving through her mind, ones she’d seen before and ones yet to come, she was sure.

All the deaths of people that she’d seen die and the ones yet to happen. Both those she knew and those she didn’t, all swirled into a soup of images that melted together to make up the same drab-brown color she saw every day when she opened her eyes.

Swirls of shadow moved over her vision before the shadow man was standing before her in her own mind. Fear struck her as she could no longer feel her body.

The human shadow, the man, with silver orbs for eyes, was in her line of sight. A crooked smile on his face.

“Stop fighting it,”a deep baritone voice soothed in her mind.“It should be over soon.”

She wanted to scream, beg him, whoever he was, to return her to her own body. To tell her why he was there and to plead for his help.

“Let the power have you. Give yourself over to it. Soon you will be my equal, and we shall finish what we started.”

His shadowed hand moved in front of her, and she wished she could bite at it, the fury inside her bubbling over at the lack of control.

“Push through the pain, Phantom Queen. I am curious to see how much of you is left in that pathetic mortal shell. I want an equal in the battle ahead that leads to your final death.”

The strange man smiled, and nothing hurt near as bad as the fire that tore through her at the snap of his fingers. The shadows swirled around her as black encroached on the edges of her vision.

The fire engulfed her until she lost consciousness.

Chapter 18

Groaning,Brynrolledontoher back, her arm going over her eyes.

The realization was slow to come, but she was outside lying in a field. When had she ever fallen asleep outside?

The sun beat down on her, and she lifted her arm to shield her face, but she wasn’t sweating. In fact, she was pleasantly cool, which was never something one felt in Ifreann.