Page 147 of As Above, So Below

My shadows curl around me like a protective cocoon, ready to lash out at anyone who comes too close. It guards me, like a caged animal protecting its young.

“Let us help you, little demon.”

Ryc.

There’s fear in his voice.

Why?

“We won’t be able to get close to her while she’s awake,” Lilith breathes. The feel of cool hands against my forehead that follow her voice lead me to believe she’s touching me.

My darkness won’t like that.

She screams, but her hands don’t leave me.

Instead, I free fall backward.

It’s then I realize Lilith possesses the dreamweaver innate.

?????????????

For a long time, I felt weightless—floating aimlessly in a pond in the middle of some forest, staring up at the night sky.

Finally, I open my eyes and find myself sitting in my favorite chair before the fireplace in the Tower’s library.

Eyes wide and wild, I fling myself to my feet.

The book in my lap flies onto the obsidian floor.

A small fire crackles in the fireplace, and there’s a short stack of books next to the fire. Several books sit upon the fire, the flames eating away at them with a voracious hunger.

I know this night.

This is the night Netharis locks me in an obsidian box. Punishment for my failure against Zuriel. These are the last moments I stand as whole—before being shattered and unwoven over the course of fifty years. Entombed to rectify undesired behaviors, apunishment designed to alter who I am.

“What is it, Ves?”

The familiar voice causes my heart to seize and I whirl around.

Vaelyn sits in the chair beside me, his silver eyes locking with mine and I gasp. The book in his lap lies open, his feet propped up lazily on an ottoman. With a shuddering breath, I stare at the face of my twin, stunned into silence.

He looks exactly the same.

As if nothing has changed.

How could anything have changed?

Nothing ever changes in the hells.

Falling to my knees, my hands fly to my face, covering my mouth to stifle the sobs that want to break free. He stares at me wide-eyed, as if I’ve lost my mind.

Perhaps I have.

“What in the hells is going on with you?” he asks, his brows furrowing as he gives me a scrutinizing glare. “Netharis has already said your mistake is easily corrected. I don’t know what you’re sobbing for.”

Clearing the vision-blurring tears from my eyes, I shake my head, continuing to sob.

“Vae…” is all I’m able to manage between breaths.