Page 52 of Evermore (The Never Sky #3)
Thorne
“ R un!” I urged, yanking Paesha forward.
The twisted obsidian spires of the Forgotten loomed on either side, their jagged edges clawing at the unnatural darkness pressing in from all directions.
Paesha stumbled. Her breath came in sharp gasps, but she didn’t falter.
Her Remnants clung to her like a second skin, pulsing in time with the erratic drum of her footsteps.
“I don’t suppose this delightful little sprint comes with a map?” she panted, sarcasm still sharp despite the naked fear in her stunning eyes. “Or can you whip one up and throw it in your book for me?”
“If there was a map, it’d be written in the blood of fools who thought they could master this place,” I called over my shoulder, urging her to keep pace as I tugged on her hand. The only lifeline between us.
I focused on navigating the treacherous terrain.
Dark chasms yawned mere inches from our pounding feet, so deep the light quickly died within their depths.
One misstep, one stumble, and we’d be lost to the ravenous dark.
She knew that, of course. She could see it, but her wit had always been her shield for fear.
And I was glad for it. At least it wasn’t hatred.
A low whisper slithered through the gloom, insidious as hemlock. “You’re going to lose her. Like you always do. Like you deserve.”
Paesha shuddered, a moan catching in her throat. “Please tell me you heard that. I don’t think my regularly scheduled mental breakdown has room for a new voice.”
“I heard it.” I caught her elbow, steadying her as we ran. “That’s not the kind of second opinion you want rattling around in your head, trust me.”
“Oh, you mean like the parade of murdered lovers already keeping me company? That kind of second opinion?”
Despite the barbed words, she pressed closer, her Remnants reaching for me like seeking tendrils. Comfort and accusation, all tangled up in the space between us. Story of our godsdamned lives.
The whispering grew louder, a cacophony of malice boring into my skull as we fled deeper into the labyrinth of twisted stone.
“You know what’s coming, don’t you?”
Beside me, Paesha let out a choked scream, her stride faltering. The Remnants around her lashed out in blind panic, gouging smoking furrows in the obsidian ground.
“Dammit!” My stomach lurched as I skidded to a halt, gripping her shoulders to keep her from crumpling to the ground.
Her eyes shot back and forth, beyond me, seeing horrors I could only imagine.
“Listen to me. It’s not real. Do you hear me?
It’s not fucking real. Fight it! Don’t you dare let it break you! ”
But she was already slipping away, drowning in the fears the Nullweaver dragged to the surface. I could feel the creature behind us, a seething mass of dread and hunger, gorging itself on her terror as we sought to escape its grasp. I shot a glance over my shoulder and then back to her.
I slowed my voice. Slowed my pace until we were stopped.
“Come on, Paesha, darling. Look at me. Remember me.” I gripped her chin, forcing her gaze to mine.
Tears streaked her ashen face, her pupils blown wide with panic.
“You’re stronger than this. Stronger than it.
” Logic. She needed logic. “Whatever it’s showing you isn’t real.
It’s your greatest fear. It’s called a Nullweaver.
Its single purpose is to find your fear and make you live it until you cannot feel anything else. It’s just a vision. Just a voice.”
For a single, breathless moment, clarity sparked in those haunted depths. Her hands scrabbled at my chest, fisting in my shirt. “Thorne…”
“She will betray you. She will be your end.”
“Shut up,” I snarled at the voices, at Ezra’s ghost. At the words he’d hissed into my mind as we escaped the Vale. Losing her had always been my fear. “You don’t get to win. Not this time.”
I gathered Paesha close, pouring every ounce of will into the space between us.
Into the bond that had sustained us through lifetimes of love and loss.
With a roar of effort, I gripped the Nullweaver’s mind and shoved terror down its throat, choking it on the fear it craved.
On the memory of every horror it’d ever tasted.
The creature reeled back, its countless eyes blinking in shocked confusion. I’d only ever seen it in my peripheral, but as it exposed itself, I saw it for what it truly was, a serpent and nothing more. How fucking fitting.
“That’s enough,” Paesha whispered, but her voice grew stronger.
“Maybe you didn’t hear me. I said that’s enough.
” Her head snapped up, clarity and rage burning away the shadows haunting her gaze until she broke from my arms and turned to face the Nullweaver, hands gripped into fists at her sides.
A beast in mortal form. A godsdamn warrior.
“Get out of my fucking head,” she growled. Her Remnants swarmed the monster, tearing into it with savage precision. Practically a goddess, taking on a thing of nightmares. Something my brother and I had only ever trapped and never killed. “You want my fear? You can choke on it.”
The creature’s shrieks battered our ears, its body shriveling beneath the onslaught of Paesha’s unleashed power. I watched in awe as she ripped it apart, a storm of midnight death with vengeance in her eyes and my heart in her hands.
And then, between one blink and the next, the Nullweaver was gone. Shattered to nothing beneath the hands of my Huntress’s wrath. Paesha swayed on her feet, the sudden absence of her target leaving her unmoored.
I caught her before she could fall, pulling her into the shelter of my arms and she came without hesitation, burrowing into my chest as the adrenaline drained from her trembling limbs.
“That was incredibly reckless and equally breathtaking.”
“Don’t sound so surprised. I’ve always been a badass.” She groaned, pulling away from me. “Part of my charm.”
I huffed a laugh, and for a single, stolen moment, the darkness felt a little less horrifying.
“Thorne, I…”
“I know.” And I did. In that moment, I understood the war raging behind those fathomless eyes. The longing and the loathing, the desire and the dread. I felt its echo in my half of our shared soul.
“Our story was always fated to be carved in blood and tears. But I’ll be damned if I let the final chapter close in tragedy.
” I reached for her again, unable to stop myself.
“Not until we’ve rewritten every line, turned every page, and stolen whatever happiness we can from this cursed tale.
But I’ll endure it all for these tiny moments.
Even when it doesn’t make sense to a single other soul but ours. ”
I couldn’t hear the voices that undoubtedly plagued her, but I saw the distant look move in.
The blink and short breath as she fought another mental battle, silently.
A distant shriek pierced the momentary quiet, shattering the illusion of safety.
She stepped farther away, her Remnants coiling defensively around her once more.
“Please tell me that was just the wind.”
“Since when has anything been that easy for us? We need to keep moving. The Nullweaver wasn’t the only monster playing in the dark here.”
She blew out a shaky breath, squaring her shoulders as she fell into step beside me. “If you get us lost, I’m feeding you to the next horror we stumble across.”
“Neither of us know where we are or where we’re going, I think it’s fair to say we started lost and we’ll likely leave this place lost.”
“I almost forgot how annoying your know-it-all personality was.”
“Glad I could remind you,” I said with a smirk.
Her eyes traced my face before she said. “I meant what I said, monster bait.”
“I’d expect nothing less.”
The reprieve was temporary with the betrayal foretold by Ezra’s vision still lurking in our future.
If locking me away was her choice, then so fucking be it.
As long as I could force Irri to protect her from Ezra first, I’d spend eternity here in my own prison.
That was the price I’d agreed to pay when I stepped into this realm.
Minerva knew it. Tuck knew it. And she’d know it too, before she left this wretched realm.
I’d lock myself away if it meant she lived.
We wound deeper into the heart of the Forgotten, the darkness growing thicker. It clung to our skin like oil, seeping into our pores, our lungs, until it felt like we were drowning in shadows.
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Paesha gritted out, her grip on my hand bordering on painful. “Are we even still on the path?”
I squinted into the gloom, trying to make out the faint glimmer of frost that had been our guide. But there was nothing. Merely an endless sea of black.
“I don’t know. I think… I think the Forgotten is changing around us. Adapting to our presence.”
“Oh, fantastic. A sentient nightmare realm with a grudge. Just what we needed.”
A guttural growl rumbled through the darkness ahead. Paesha froze, her Remnants flaring out in a defensive fan.
“Please tell me that was your stomach.”
“Looks like the welcome wagon is here.”
“I don’t want to be welcomed,” she groaned.
The growl echoed, bouncing off unseen surfaces until it came from everywhere and nowhere. I could feel more than see Paesha’s Remnants swirling around us, lashing at the darkness as if they could tear it apart and reveal the threat hiding within.
“Any ideas, oh wise and powerful Keeper? Or do we stand here and wait to be eaten by whatever nightmare is stalking us?”
“You destroyed the Nullweaver, I think we’ll be fine.”
“Fantastic. I’ll put that on my headstone.”
I reached out with my power, trying to get a sense of our surroundings, but the Forgotten resisted me, its essence slippery and elusive, like trying to grasp smoke with bare hands.
This place was a manifestation of everything I had locked away, everything I had tried to erase from existence. And it didn’t appreciate our intrusion.