Page 187 of As Above, So Below

Rolling in a pool of blood, Thalion laughs and screams, thrashing against his capture—against my shadows. The cacophony of madness cuts through my bones, resonating up the tendrils of my darkness into my wrists.

Somehow, my shadows around his left arm snap and dissipate, and he reaches, the sound of bones breaking and joints popping out of socket as his fingers constrict around Eve’s leg.

A heartbeat passes and Eve is on the floor, screaming, hellfire streaming from her fingertips as she fights to sever the iron grasp upon her. She claws at his fingers, but the flesh tears and disintegrates with her touch, exposing brittle bone.

The shadows within me scream forfullrelease with the same feverish pitch as the impending reality of Eve’s death.

I cannot lose her this way.

Netharis cannot have her.

Deep within me, something cracks and threatens to shatter as my breathing stops. With a final wave of fear and a blood-curdling scream, my feet carry me forward. The barrier over the wellspring of my innate gives way—in the same heartbeat, my darkness roars tolife.

Darkness explodes around me, smothering the flames and light within the room. A familiar weight pulls on my back, as my glamour vanishes, a sensation I ignore.

The room becomes blanketed in void.

Screams of demons rise from the lawn below drowning out all other sounds. My hands land against Thalion’s chest, pinning him underneath me.

And I push.

Through the flesh.

Into the cavern of his chest.

Where his mutilated soul lies.

I scream as I pull and it leaves my throat raw, bloodied. The familiar thrum of a soul in my hands urges me to give one last pull and free it from its damned flesh. As Thalion’s body goes still, the darkness encasing us vanishes, dispelled by thesilver soulin my hands.

“Red,” I breathe. “It should be red.”

Hands blackened with blood and burning as if I’d thrust them into the fireplace, my eyes widen. The silver orb transforms before my eyes—hardening, growing—becoming a soul crystal.

It gleams in my palms, pulsing with light and I yank my hands away.

Clattering onto the floor, I scramble away from it, pulling myself backward, breathing shallow.

“Good gods.” Cyran’s eyes are as wide as mine.

He’s kneeling beside Eve, holding her steady. Having pulled her across the room and propped her up against the wall.

“What are you?” he whispers, dragging his eyes from the crystal to my face.

“Ves!” Eve groans. Her leg is a mangled mess, bent in ways it shouldn’t be. “You have to go!”

She points, grimacing with each breath, to the balcony.

My head swivels.

The moon hangs in the sky, all but a sliver blood red.

“Hide all of my belongings. Let no one take them,” I instruct, throwing myself onto my feet.

“You’re to remain here,” Cyran shouts.

“You know I can’t do that,” I say, moving quickly toward the balcony.

Cyran rises, snatching my wrist and stopping me before the door.