Page 82 of Grave Revelations (Prophecies of Angels and Demons #3)

Chapter 81

Sophia

Sophia landed in the river and grimaced. It was transformed, as Elizabeth had promised it would be. When the line between Primoria and Earth blurred, Sheol was similarly affected. She hadn’t been sure where she would end up when her maker was destroyed, but there were certainly worse places than Sheol. Still, she’d never found her sisters here, and now that she was trapped forever, she feared she would never see them again.

This time, as Sophia gazed around the transformed landscape, she noticed no other souls. No souls sloshed into the water; no guards patrolled the banks. It was empty.

Marching toward the tree she’d gone to every day since finding Adalaide, she halted beside the single blossom on the magnolia she had come to think of as her sign of hope.

“Adalaide?”

A deep, throaty chuckle came from behind her, and she spun to face the red-haired witch. “Sanura.”

Sanura smiled, darting forward with preternatural grace, and closed her fingers around Sophia’s biceps. “Thank you for coming, pet. I need you for this next part. ”

Sophia wriggled in her grasp, but her grip was like iron, and her nails lengthened, cutting into Sophia’s ashen skin. She had assumed she couldn’t be harmed in Sheol—where her soul only manifested a form to encompass it—but blood trickled from her wound, and she watched in fascination as it ran down her arm.

Was this some manifestation of her imagination, too? Could she stop it? Sophia focused her energy on believing she was a soul, not a body, and could not be harmed, but even as she ground her teeth in concentration, the blood continued to fall freely.

“Nice try, but I hold dominion here,” Sanura said. “If I will it, you bleed.”

Sophia grimaced. Had Sanura set herself up as ruler of this place? Or had the magic used to banish her somehow given her that ability?

Sanura pulled Sophia up the rocky side of a hill to a pile of boulders roughly stacked to form a chair. She sat, yanking Sophia closer, and held her arm up as she ran her tongue over Sophia’s skin, lapping up the blood.

Sophia struggled in her iron grip, but Sanura was stronger than anything she’d ever imagined.

The rocks and pebbles under her feet shook as the ground trembled, and Sanura’s makeshift throne thrummed with energy. Sanura’s eyes lit up, and a soft blue haze formed around her. Ruby lips stretched wide as she bared her teeth, a look of pure elation coming over her face.

When the ground settled, and Sanura’s skin had returned to its natural pallor, she stood, dragging Sophia with her.

“There, I needed a charge. Now let's go find your bestie.”