Page 40 of Immortal Consequences (The Souls of Blackwood Academy #1)

Wren

The Blackwood door had transported Wren to a mountainous landscape with jagged cliffs and a star-speckled sky.

Dozens of shimmering constellations hovered above her, each one giving off a yellow sheen, as though they were made from golden honey.

A dense, lush forest decorated either side of the path, thick greenery covered in crooked branches and opaque shadows.

Wren had to admit—it was beautiful. But she also knew that the Ether’s beauty was nothing compared to the darkness lurking inside it.

The transitioned students lingered on the periphery, wandering along the horizon. Dread pooled in her stomach at the thought of joining them. She couldn’t. Not after all the work she had put in. Not after all the sacrifices she had made.

It simply wasn’t an option.

Wren knew she could easily call upon her spacial magic to locate the other students, but she had no interest in teaming up with one of the others.

She had always worked alone during her reaping assignments, and she wasn’t about to change her habits just for the sake of the Decennial.

Either way, her spacial magic seemed to be obstructed now, an impenetrable fog clouding her internal map.

She had noticed something, however, even through the haze. August was close to Emilio and Olivier. In fact, she was fairly certain they were together. Which meant that they had formed an alliance.

Something unfamiliar surged in her chest. A bitter and horrible feeling.

Wren groaned and pushed the unwanted emotion aside.

It was a stupid thing to feel. What did she have to be jealous of?

If August wanted to form alliances, then far be it from her to stop him.

Either way, Wren liked working alone. She’d even expressed this to Louise earlier in the week when she’d been teaching her about the Ether.

They’d been sitting next to the hearth in Pettyworth House, curled up by the roaring fire after a long day of classes.

“So…let me make sure I understand it correctly,” Louise had said. “Every door takes you to a different landscape?”

“Exactly. And there are an infinite number of doors.”

Louise’s eyes had widened in awe. “Then how do you know where you’re going?”

“It’s a bit hard to explain. Our magic works like a compass of sorts. It guides me through the Ether. I can feel the lost soul calling to me. Almost like this pull inside you.”

“And you do this alone?”

“Not necessarily,” Wren explained. “Sometimes they give you partners. I just happen to like working alone.”

Louise’s eyes instantly brightened.

“Well, who knows…maybe once I develop my magic and get good enough, the two of us can do it together.” She’d fiddled with the ruffles on her socks, sheepishly looking up at Wren through her lashes. “I know you said you prefer working alone, but…it could be fun.”

A sense of unease had sparked within Wren at the mere thought of entering the Ether with somebody else. Louise, however, had looked so painfully earnest in that moment. Her eyes wide. Her mouth curved into a hopeful grin.

“I don’t know. I just…” Wren had attempted to find the right words. “I don’t trust myself enough to work with others.”

Louise’s smile had faltered. “What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try me.”

The words had pressed against her tongue, begging for release, though she’d simply dismissed Louise’s request and bid her good night. It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted to tell her.

She had—she did.

She was desperate to tell someone the truth—that working with somebody else terrified her because then she’d run the risk of hurting them.

Of disappointing them. And despite everything she had learned at Blackwood, a part of her feared she was still the same girl she had been back in her old life.

The girl who hurt those around her with her reckless behavior.

The girl who didn’t think before acting.

Who fought against those who cared about her if it meant freeing herself from their expectations.

The girl who had caused the accident.

Wren pushed the painful memories away as she staggered to a halt. She let out a strained breath and pressed her hands against her knees. Enough. She had to remain focused. If she wasn’t going to partner up with anybody else, then she needed to make sure she was faster than all of them.

Wren traveled through the Ether, crossing door after door, determination propelling her forward.

When she finally found her target soul—a man cowering behind a complex ward made of prickly thorns—she wasted no time.

Even when the man begged for her to wait, rambling on and on about how he wasn’t ready to cross over, Wren set aside her empathy and ignored him.

He’s going somewhere better, she told herself as she reached into the core of his soul and ushered him into the Other Side, watching as his body faded into a shimmering wisp of light.

Exhaustion flooded her body instantly. The time for rest would have to wait. She had to find her way back before the others beat her there. If she was last…if she was eliminated…she would never forgive herself.

But before Wren could begin to locate the door back to Blackwood—something shifted in the air. It crawled against her skin, a prickling sensation that raised the hairs on the back of her neck.

Something was watching her.

The pressure of eyes dug into Wren’s flesh like pointed claws. She whirled on her heels, scanning her surroundings, but all she could see was the seemingly endless forest around her. Dense greenery. Spindly branches.

She was seconds away from breaking into a sprint when a large, swirling darkness dove toward her, sending her flying backward with a single blow. She collapsed onto the ground, her senses scrambling.

It was some sort of shadow. A billowing darkness. But Wren couldn’t help but notice how alive it felt. Like it was breathing. Sentient. And then the shadow circled above her head and dove again.

Wren gasped and rolled out of the way, dodging the darkness just before it could reach her.

When she glanced up, the entire Ether seemed to tilt.

Panic coursed through her. She scrambled to her feet, trying to figure out which way was north and which way was south.

But all of her senses were being blocked by an atmospheric change, by whatever that thing was doing to the Ether.

Her mind splintered in every direction, her sentience slipping, disintegrating before her very eyes.

Colors melted into nothing. Shapes blurred into an incoherent jumble.

Was she going crazy?

Nothing made sense anymore. Her consciousness slipped. Black splotches flooded her vision.

There was no time to think. There was only a blaring voice in the back of her mind telling her to escape, to find a way out, to run as fast as she could.

And though she could no longer see the darkness that had attacked her, she could still feel it.

Lurking just beyond what she could see, hovering just out of reach.

She started running.

Blackwood wasn’t far. She had only crossed through one door.

The familiar pull tugged inside her. She zigzagged through the cluster of trees, branches scraping her arms as she ran. Each cut sent a sharp pain through her body, but she didn’t care.

She just had to get back to Blackwood. She had to—

Suddenly, the ground beneath her gave way. The world around her disappeared.

And then she was falling.

Falling…

Deeper and deeper, suspended in the darkness, swallowed by a vast nothingness.

Just when she thought she would live the rest of her existence in this perpetual state, falling into eternity—everything stilled.

Had she accidentally passed through another door?

She blinked, desperate to grasp anything about her surroundings, but everything was entropy and chaos. The world around her smelled like smoke and ash. An overwhelming darkness stifled her vision.

Wren felt it everywhere. That rotting, decaying thing consuming every inch of this land.

And then a horrible thought bounced through her mind.

The shadow.

It could be nearby. Waiting for her.

Wren tried to scream for help, but her voice sounded disembodied, as if it were floating above her and around her. As if the particles of her very soul were being ripped apart at the seams.

Something was changing inside her. Her atoms shifted. Her body twisted.

And then she felt it.

Everywhere. All at once. Consuming every inch of her body without remorse.

Pain.