Page 7

STYGIAN MURK

F or what felt like days, we meandered through the landscape. It didn’t trouble us that we neither ate nor drank. We succumbed to the weighty, dismal burden of this place. Even Breena’s sparkling personality was fizzling. At times, we rested on the barren ground, chilled and numb. When it was time to move again, we dragged each other back from the depths of overwhelming despondency.

Along the way, we stumbled upon a few people in varying stages of defeat. Bodies were strewn across the broken earth, melding into the landscape. At best, they were incoherent; at worst, catatonic. We tried to help them, but they would not be moved. Eventually, we stopped trying. Or maybe we stopped seeing them, everything a shadow, an illusion. Our minds and bodies were drained of hope—of our will to go on.

We passed a man on our left, his form bent and unmoving. His body was a husk, desiccated skin stretching across a bony frame. Breena paused for a moment, staring at the withered body. “That’s how my grandmother looked …” Her bottom lip trembled, but she bit down on it.

“I’m not sure how long I was lying there before you found me or how much time passed after I left ‘er. Yesterday? Maybe days ago, I saw a light. Ran to it.” She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “But she was gone. It was too late.”

I took her hand in mine, squeezing. “I’m so sorry, Breena.”

She squeezed back, releasing her hold. She waved her hand in the air. “Thank you. When it’s yer time, it’s yer time. I’ll see ‘er again one day.”

“Do you have anyone else you’re looking for?” I murmured.

“No. It was just me ‘n Gran.” She pinched her lips inward between her teeth and wandered a short distance ahead of us. I left her to her grief.

If she wanted to talk, it seemed like she was the type of person who would seek me out. Something about fear and sorrow had a way of binding people together like water droplets in a storm cloud.

Images of shadowy phantoms loomed in our peripherals, lurking behind every rocky mass. Each lightning strike erased the shadows around their forms. “What are those?” Letti’s voice was raspy, her raised hand limp.

“You can see those?” My eyebrows shot up, but my eyelids were still heavy with fatigue.

“Yeah, they’ve been following us for a long time,” she replied, her voice drifting away. Kaden and Breena’s heads bobbed in agreement.

“Ah, I thought I was hallucinating. I, um, think we need to move faster.”

Now that we knew we were all seeing these creatures, our situation was more alarming. Kaden winced, his eyes clearing while he looked deeper into the hidden spots surrounding us. “I think you’re right, Ser. They seem to be getting closer.”

Without further discussion, we all pushed forward. One specter was getting fairly bold, stalking closer than the others. It wasn’t bothering to hide within shadows any longer.

It was twice the size of an adult human. Glowing yellow eyes were the only things stable within its form. Undulating above the parched terrain, the creature’s figure was a dense mass of twisting, black smog. The very shadows around us had come alive, agitated and hungry for any light they could touch.

My scar stamped a tattoo on my nape, urging me forward. The thunder punctuated my growing fear. Far off on my right, one of the shadow creatures engulfed a person who lay motionless on the ground. The person was flickering with a gloomy shade of blue, but their aura was dimming. The creature was slurping the person’s radiance, its core shimmering the same blue before being devoured by the churning shadows of its silhouette. Its yellow eyes beamed brighter momentarily before it left the human husk, heading in our direction.

A green flash snapped my attention back. “Watch out!” Kaden yelled, pushing Breena and me to the left. The creature stalking us swooped past my right, missing me. It paused and turned toward Kaden, its smoke darkening.

Letti was to my left, running as fast as she could, screaming. Breena grabbed my hand, pulling me in that direction. Her body was burning red again—a look of determination set on her grim face. I glanced back at Kaden, his body now shimmering in the color of spring clovers.

“Run, Kaden! Don’t let it touch you!” I cried out.

With his lips set in a steely line, he feinted to the left and then pivoted to the right, catching the specter off guard. Kaden ran toward us, a flicker of his aura sticking to the shadow creature as he flew past it. The being’s eyes blinked brighter momentarily, its shadows imploding wildly. It pursued us without haste.

Fear was fueling us, propelling our bodies forward. Up ahead, there was a gigantic, grounded islet. Its jagged mass arched before the stormy horizon. A flare of light illuminated the skyline behind it, unveiling a passageway carved through its center.

We all rushed toward it, hoping it might offer us safety. As we got closer, a blinding light erupted from the arched opening, and a man came bursting forth, charging in our direction. This didn’t deter us as we ran. Whoever it was would be much easier to handle than the terrifying creature behind us.

As we neared the stony arch, a stunned gasp tore from me as the man’s determined features became recognizable.

Kaden bellowed, “Gavrel, get back!”

At full speed, Gavrel raced toward us, a sword in his clutches. A bright white glow emanated from his right hand, skittering along his weapon. Any living shadows in his path slinked away from the blade’s radiance. His brow furrowed, and his arms pumped in determination.

In my momentary surprise, my feet faltered, giving the shadow creature a chance to wrap its smoky tentacles around my slender waist. I lurched forward and fell. Landing on my knees, my scream carved the air as sharp pain bit into my skin. Kaden, Breena, and Letti spun toward my sound of distress but were well out of reach of me and my captor.

I tried to dislodge its suffocating grasp, my nails clawing and tearing through its form. It was of no use. My fingers slipped through the seething smog. It was cold and gummy. A buzzing sound rattled through my ears as if a swarm of bees surrounded me. The creature wrapped around me, muffling my cries and obscuring my vision with turbid fog. It probed my starburst scar with a clammy caress.

Spinning shadows zipped across my vision, but for moments at a time, there were choppy glimpses of the others. Gavrel reached us, his blazing sword keeping the other monsters at bay. There was muddled yelling, incomplete shouts, and enraged orders. The chaos of sounds and images disconcerted my senses.

“If you miss, you’ll stab?—”

Kaden held his brother back, their faces crunched inward in frantic worry.

“Get out of the?—”

Darkness cloaked my eyes.

“It’s kill?—”

Tears streamed down Letti’s face, Breena holding her sobbing form.

Sticky mist slapped me in the face, stinging my eyes shut again. I clung to my waning energy, but it still bled from me into the phantom. My very soul was being peeled from my body. Suddenly, the shadow beast clamped razor-sharp teeth into my nape, and my nerves burned as the flesh severed. I howled, thrashing around, but to no avail.

As the shadow creature consumed my essence, my body crumpled to the ground. This is it, I thought. This is how I die. Slinking blackness was creeping over my mind. My eyes sealed, recalling my nightmare about Mama just days ago. Was this what happened to her?

“Seryn!” Letti’s terror broke through the darkness. Gavrel ripped away from Kaden, his glowing sword swinging forward as he ran to me.

A blaze of flaming heat erupted through my muscles, from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes. From the dusty clay, my body arched like a scorching lightning bolt ripped from the stormy sky above. Energy zipped through me, my limbs tingling with its charge.

The being froze, its jaws releasing my neck, its smoke motionless. Then, all at once, a blast of iridescent, blinding beams burst from my body, disintegrating the shadow monster. The force of it hurled Gavrel backward, his sword flying out of his hand. I slumped back to the earth, my body exhausted once more.

“Seryn!” Lettie cried at the same time Breena shouted, “Fecking void! Are you alive?!”

Everything was a scrambled blur as Gavrel scooped me up and propped me against the nearest cobble. When my vision cleared, everyone stared at me, concern etched on their faces. Gavrel’s scowl was ever-present. His voice sounded defeated. “I’m very sorry, Seryn. I couldn’t get to you in time.” He looked into the distance, his eyes glassy.

My voice was gravelly, scraping up my throat. “It’s okay, Gav. There wasn’t anything anyone could do. I’m all right.” Letti was clinging to my side, rubbing my shoulder. Kaden leaned down to kiss the top of my head, then stood next to Gavrel. He put a hand on his brother’s tense shoulder, handing him his unlit sword. Gavrel took it, and I glimpsed a mark on top of his hand, in the curve between his thumb and forefinger. It was glowing under his skin.

“You gave us quite the scare,” Kaden said, blowing out a shaky gust of air.

Breena was crouching beside me and slapped her hands on the tops of her thighs, then rose. “Well, my little firefly friend. You definitely know how to put on a show!” She chortled. Letti glared at her, continuing to rub my shoulder.

Breena’s aura wasn’t shimmering any longer, nor was Kaden’s. I peered at my trembling hands, turning them palms up—no signs of glowing skimmed my grayish skin. Closing my fingers, I looked up in confusion. “What in the Nether Void is going on? Why are we all lighting up like bloody lanterns?!”

Kaden shifted awkwardly on his feet, and Breena pursed her lips, not meeting my gaze. When they remained silent, my narrowed eyes shifted to my sister as she shrugged, her nose scrunching.

Gavrel coughed as if his words were sticking to his windpipe. “The shadow creature that attacked you is a shade,” he informed us, sliding his sword into the scabbard on his back. “We’re in the Stygian Murk, a kind of limbo or portal realm. And whoever is … lighting up like a bloody lantern is a Druik.” His eyes surveyed our surroundings, chiseled jaw clenching.

A sharp squeak left me, my mouth gaping and eyes wide. Kaden’s eyes found something particularly interesting on the clay earth beneath his boots.

Breena started, “How do you?—”

Gavrel interrupted, his voice firm, “I’d love to delve further into all that, but it looks like there are more shades interested in us. We have to move. Follow me, everyone.” He turned without further delay, expecting us to follow him despite the astonished looks washing over our faces.

Kaden reached out his large, steady hands and pulled Letti and me to our feet. I rubbed my forehead, trying to rid myself of the lingering fog clouding my mind.

Kaden shifted my hair to one side. With concern, he whispered, “You’re bleeding, Ser.”

I gingerly touched my nape and let out a hiss. My fingers came away coated in congealed blood and clay dust. “It’s all right. I’ll take care of it when we get … wherever we’re going.”

My forced smile was not convincing as I had hoped it would be, and Kaden moved his head from side to side in reproach. But he moved on regardless, dropping my hair to my shoulder. A few tangled curls cascaded down my back when I wiped my hand on the stone beside me.

I packed my lingering questions and panic deep into the base of my spine, enforcing its bones and forbidding it to bow—refusing to allow it to break.

A putrid breeze caressed my face as another crack of thunder roared, reverberating through the soles of my feet. My weary legs carried me after Gavrel and the others, advancing to the looming arch ahead.