Page 59 of Once the Skies Fade (Immortal Reveries #2)

Chapter 59

Calla

A t first their voices were muffled, distant, but they faded away, leaving me with nothing but dark emptiness.

No pain. No anger. No loss. Nothing.

Peace.

Rest.

Was this what death would be like? Was this what death had been like for Brennan? For my parents?

I hoped so. On all counts.

Unlikely, though, given my misfortune. Nothing would ever be as I hoped.

Peace.

Rest.

Love.

These weren’t mine to have. This darkness was an illusion, a void to mirror my hollow chest.

I wasn’t destined for good things, only destruction and misery, blood and chaos.

I opened my palms, but my shadows had become light—wafting through the abyss around me, like smoke with no flame. It swirled and danced against the black backdrop, circling around me, caressing my cheek, and then seeking something apart from me, drifting further and further away, though illuminating nothing.

I was about to follow it when a sharp pain in my right hand recalled the light, pulling it back to me. The light wrapped around me as if to shield me, but it couldn’t stop the blood that welled up in my palm or the panic the sight triggered in my heart. What were they doing to me? What was happening to me while I was here? Why wasn’t Isa stopping this? Where was Matthias?

Surely he would ensure I survived this.