Page 27

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, for my mind to catch up. The silent suffering on her sleeping face mirrored the agony in my soul.

I looked down at my translucent palms, realizing I was in my astral form. It was my body that slept beside the love of my life.

I had meant to pull myself out of the cave, but instead, I’d pulled the cave right to Rowen.

“Rowen,” I screamed through the ether, sprinting toward him, but my body rammed into an invisible barrier. He jolted awake and immediately checked me by his side. When he noticed I was unconscious, his eyes darted up, widening in horror as he saw me within the dark cave.

I had opened an astral window, a two-way screen that allowed Rowen to glimpse into my projection—forcing him to watch as Erovos closed in behind me.

Rowen shot up, but what he was seeing was a projection and nothing more, and his hands zapped with electricity as he tried to reach me. “Keira, where are you?” he asked, fear shooting down our bond.

I placed my hand on the astral window. “I’m in . . .”

Before I could answer, Erovos hummed with delight.

“So you’re bringing this lovely scene to your soul flame.

How very talented of you. Yes, let the little lord watch.

” I whipped around to face the Dark Spirit as he stepped within Rowen’s sight.

“How did you like her gown? Did she tell you that my shadows caressed every inch of her skin as I dressed her in my darkness?”

Rowen’s face twisted in fury, and his fists pounded on the astral screen. “You sick fuck! I’ll kill you!”

The orange eyes that haunted me flickered across my face. “I told you I was working on something grand. Now that you’re here, would you like to see it? ”

“How have you created anything in here?” I asked, his oppressive aura stretching my mind thin.

“I impregnated the earth within this crevice. Even now, my children grow.”

I gagged.

“Your powers in sealing this cave are quite impressive. You may have trapped me away from the physical world, but as you know, I’ve been amassing a great deal of energy for some time.

When I’m not striving to tear this mountain apart, I take great pleasure in perfecting my creations,” Erovos said, gesturing to three dark figures slowly emerging from an even darker swatch of midnight.

“Allow me to introduce my newest creation, the Voro-Kai.”

Huge, hulking creatures prowled toward me.

Demons made in the likeness of a man but with the tusks and fur of a beast. Their enormous limbs rippled with unnatural muscle, and misted horns curled up from their boar-shaped heads.

“Their bodies exist only astrally, but their wounds can cross planes, turning all they have bitten into Voro-Kai.”

The pit in my stomach crashed into my spine. I tried to wake up and snap back to my body, but as the demons stalked closer, my limbs went numb.

Was Erovos’ plan to get in my head, or could these Voro-kai truly hurt me in my astral form?

“What do you think will happen to her if she dies in this state?” Erovos asked, seeming to read my mind.

Curiosity rippled across his face as he turned to Rowen.

“I have my guesses, don’t you? Will her body slowly shut down beside you?

Will she disappear all at once? Or will she be wracked with painful tremors as she dies from the inside out? ”

I despised that he was speaking to Rowen, even dared to glance in his direction.

He was deliberately antagonizing him to throw me off, to get so deep under my skin that I couldn’t think straight.

“Don’t you dare speak to him,” I seethed, clenching my fists so tight they ached.

Every poisonous word he spoke to my soul flame fueled my fury.

“Or,” the Dark Spirit mused, ignoring me as he continued to speak to Rowen, “should we mentally torment her, ravage her astral body while you watch? See what’s left of her when she wakes?”

“You touch her and I will destroy you,” Rowen growled, his face a murderous snarl.

Erovos chuckled. “I know my creatures would love to have a taste, and they aren’t opposed to sharing.”

“Keira!” Rowen roared my name from across the cosmic field, and my frozen limbs rushed with molten rage.

I hated that Erovos’ plan was working, that my fury was all-encompassing as he dangled my life in front of Rowen—hated myself even more that I was projecting this scene to him at all.

I would let my wrath carry me and do what needed to be done; if not, Rowen would watch me die as I silently laid beside him.

The first demon lunged, its monstrous arms barreling towards me, but I swirled away just in time. My physical body may not be here, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let these fuckers touch me in my astral state.

My peripheral caught Erovos’ orange eyes, observing with curiosity as his three Voro-Kai approached me. If I let them surround me, I was as good as dead.

I darted to the nearest cave wall to protect my back. My heartbeat galloped in my throat, and my fear bounced off my skin in a haze of light. There would be no hiding here. My body was lit up like a neon sign.

I reached for my weapon, but my hip was empty.

My heart lurched until I remembered I had other weapons.

The nearest Voro-Kai, a horrifying beast with three tusks, charged at me with a bellowing roar.

I raised my palm, willing the Alcreon Light to cooperate as I sent a push of power through my hand.

The Light shot through the dark, freezing the beast within a beam of light.

I held my arm out, keeping the creature in place as the largest of demons struck down upon my head.

On reflex, I threw my other arm up, creating a barrier of Light between myself and the second demon. Its razor-sharp claws hammered against my blinding shield.

The force from its blow knocked me off balance, causing my hold on the Voro-Kai with three tusks to loosen.

The third beast joined in the assault as I held its pack-mate in a stupor of Light.

My arms extended out on either side of me, shaking and lowering from the strain of holding back three astral demons.

“Finish her!” Erovos commanded his hatchlings of darkness. They bore down on me with brutal strength, and just like their creator, their black eyes swirled with primordial darkness. Their thick and meaty arms beat against my shield ruthlessly.

One bang, my teeth chattered. Two, three bangs, the force traveled up my arm, putting pressure on my elbow and shoulder. After hit four, five, and six, I fell to one knee, my bones and muscles screaming in pain.

My hold on the demon with three tusks fell, and I immediately shot my arm back up to fortify my shield.

All the horned beasts pounded together, their collective assault hitting me so hard that I was blasted back in an explosion of light.

I skidded across the ground, my hair flying around me as a barrage of dirt and rocks pummeled around me like shrapnel.

The smallest beast charged at me, its battering ram of an arm swinging through the air.

I cried out as it connected with my back.

The force bruised my lungs and sent me sprawling forward as if I’d been hit by a freight train.

So they could hurt me in my astral form. Not good.

I shot to my feet, fighting to pull in my next breath. I couldn’t see Rowen anymore, which in equal parts terrified yet relieved me. At least he was safe. The Voro-Kai couldn’t get to him through my projection.

All three creatures charged towards me, trapping me against a wall of stone. I was exhausted, my entire body spent and sore, and all of my light sources were depleted. If I didn’t think of something soon, they would tear into me with their teeth and tusks, turning me into one of them.

Would I still look like me, or would I thoroughly transform into a Voro-Kai?

Would Rowen be able to recognize me? I would take my own life before I ever let my body succumb to Erovos’ darkness.

I would go to any lengths to ensure Rowen never saw me like that and would never have to make the impossible decision of killing me to put me out of my misery.

A decision that would ultimately kill us both.

I scrambled sideways against the stone, begging the Alcreon Light to return. The beasts were inches away, their sharp claws ready to slash me to ribbons. Suddenly, I stumbled back, falling behind a hidden rock wall.

I staggered deeper into the cave, my legs fighting to catch myself.

When I raised my head, horror twisted my gut.

The crevice yawned wider, revealing a vast expanse of rocky hills and jagged peaks stretching as far as the eye could see.

Littered upon the ground in never-ending rows was a sea of demon cocoons.

Their chrysalises were black yet see-through, bubbling and pulsing like external wombs.

Through the thin tissue, I could make out demons floating in inky water.

Their eyes were closed, yet their bodies twitched and writhed in the dark fluid.

Some were fully formed with thick hides and tusks, while others were twisted fetuses, barely recognizable in shape.

Yet, no matter their stage of growth, they all seemed as if they could wake at any moment.

My mouth fell open in terror, and a silent scream lodged in my throat. The sheer scale of what we were facing crashed over me.

Erovos was breeding an army.

All the energy he had taken from the earth through Indrasyl was harnessed into creating an army of astral demons.

The Dark Spirit may be imprisoned, but our destruction would be sealed if his Voro-Kai escaped. And judging by the strength of Erovos’ earthquakes, we were edging closer and closer toward war and catastrophe.

My eyes quickly searched for Demil. He’d helped me once, and hopefully, he would help me again. But he was nowhere in sight.

I whipped around to face the beasts, shoving their way through the narrow tunnel. I found myself trapped between the charging demons and sleeping chrysalises. No matter my move, I wasn’t making it out of here alive, but I refused to make this hellhole my final view.

I closed my eyes and turned the lens inward, hoping to find one moment of inner peace before I died, but what I saw steeled my spine in silver fire.

I was no weakened mare or poisoned girl anymore.

I was the wielder and protector of the Alcreon Light, forged in the heat of blazing stars.

I was a weapon of celestial force, chosen by the Light itself.

I refused to be overcome.

I released a whisper of a command—a surrender. My skin burning and brightening as if I were pyre-born.

Let them touch me.

My body became engulfed in a heavenly blaze as misted claws reached for me.

The creatures bore down on me, their beastly hands reaching for my skin that crackled like an untouchable star, illuminating the crevice in a blinding glow.

As soon as they touched me, the dark creatures screeched, their arms veining with a silver light before disintegrating, melting into smoke and ash as they fell upon me.

I heard laughter echoing from the front of the cave.

“Very interesting,” Erovos hummed, his voice sending shivers down my spine.

I may have trapped him, but his mind was still cunning, and his body was full of power.

“So resilient, my little light. Though I may not be escaping tonight, I’ll find a way to snuff you out yet. ”

His words reverberated through me like a gravitational promise.

When suddenly, Erovos’ arms shot out, his cloak unfurling like the wings of a world-eating dragon.

His mouth opened wide, his jaw unhinging as he let out a distorted frequency.

The air shuddered, the ground lurched, and the crevice shook so violently it felt as if the earth were splitting open from the force of his roar.

I gasped awake, my heart hammering against my ribcage. I thought I had escaped, but before I could catch a breath, strong arms wrapped around me and pulled me tight, trapping me within their grip.