Page 88 of Jagged Souls

Wetting my cracked lips with a dried tongue, I scream again, “Varius! I’m here!”

A light darts sideways through the terrain, and I realize he went back for a flashlight.

He knows I’m here.

He can feel me through our bond.

Closing my eyes, I drop to my knees, my chest shaking so hard, I’m struggling to breathe.

“Oh gods…”

In the back of my mind, when seemingly everyone else came to rescue me but Varius, I thought…

I thought he might’ve died.

I have been refusing to think of it, refusing to let even a single thought fully form in my brain, but it’s beenthere.

A subconscious fear niggling at the back of my mind.

A terror too great to face.

But he’s okay.

He can feel me.

He hasn’t lost too much blood like I did.

Tears stream down my cheeks as I fall forward, pressing my palms on the ground. My shoulders shake. My breaths come out hard and raspy.

“Micha!”

At the sound of his voice, my head snaps up. I struggle to my feet.

“Varius!”

“Micha!” His voice cracks, and I might not be able to feel him through our bond, but I canhearhis desperation, his pain, his happiness at finding me through that single call of my name.

He lights up my cage with his flashlight, and I raise my hand to shield my eyes. I blink rapidly, trying to see as fast as I can.

He’s close.

So godsdamn close.

I lower my arm.

My chest swells with hope and happiness as I watch him near the cage. The monsters have gone, scared off by this mad neanderthal, but there’s a massive anaconda wrapped around his upper body. I stumble forward, blindly trusting that he wouldn’t have brought a giant snake to eat me, and I reach mygoodbetter arm through the bars, waiting for the last few seconds it’ll take him to cover the rocky, barren terrain to get to me.

My eyes widen as he screams in agony.

“Varius!” I shout, so godsdamn terrified that a monster’s managed to grab him despite the protection of his blood.

But then I notice that the light filling my cage has just got brighter.

Because there’s another lightsource.

One coming from above.

“Noooo!” I scream, my body shaking with utter terror, with the death of hope.