Page 63 of Winterfall Destiny

He snorts. "Like you haven't tried that over and over recently?"

"Everything the argument brought up in me today intensified the magic inside and the energy between us locked into a stronger connection than we've had in a while."

"Something in your mind or magic triggered her," says Tobias quietly.

I take Maeve's hand and rub the back, the world spinning. As Maeve looked at me, thoughts and images of the future I worry will happen filled my mind. Did those thoughts and worries about death and division match some of Maeve's own and we fed off each other to trigger a vision?

Or have I finally pushed Maeve into taking control?

24

MAEVE

I've never welcomed a vision, but a small elation follows me into this one—elation that doesn't last long. Everything's unclear and echoes faintly behind a fog. Have my skills lessened and I'm back to the early days where my mind couldn't clearly see events?

No. Because those visions were fleeting, and with only sound and sight. This time, the fog touches my skin and a dank smell wraps around me, too. I shove my way forward, as if waving smoke out of the way.

Not smoke. Shadows circling my arms and creating a cloud around me.

My surroundings. I need to know the surroundings.

A glance to my right. A crumbling brick wall arching above us, exposed pipes running alongside. The left—the same, adorned with graffiti. Dim light filters from a darkness ahead of me, and I'm standing on uneven ground strewn with broken bricks and piled refuse; the modern meeting the past. A derelict factory? A tunnel?

I squint, trying to make out more, but the shadows obscure my view, leaving the rest of the area shrouded in darkness.

There's no noise. I focus on the graffitied wall, looking for clues, but there's nothing out of the ordinary daubed amongst the multi-coloured sprayed names and tags.

No. There's something. A black symbol created by spray paint. A rune? Memorise the image, Maeve. Circular. Intersecting lines crossing the circle. Something smaller in the centre. I'm jerked away from my scrutiny by a crash echoing.

I'm somewhere large.

"Maeve!" shouts a voice, and I spin around.

Andrei. His hair is mussed, and face filled with panic, dressed in only a black T-shirt and jeans. Can I touch him through the shadows as I could in the last vision where we interacted? Speak to him?

"What's happening?" I ask as he rushes to me, stopping short at the edge of the misty barrier. "Where are we?" He drags hair from his face, and my heart dives into my mouth as I see his fingers. "Whose blood is that?"

"I tried," he whispers. "I don't know what else to do."

"Who's here?" I say, mind as big a blur as the shadows surrounding me. "All of us?"

In the corner of that mind, something colder than the icy fingers from the shadows creeps through my body to bury into my soul. "Who's here with us?" I yell again.

"Maeve. Just tell me what I should do. I don't have time."

The creeping sensation claws into my body, tearing at my heart. "It's Jamie, isn't it?" I clutch at Andrei's wrist. "What happened?"

Andrei stares at me in disbelief. "Have the shadows switched off your brain?" he shouts. "What the fuck do I do? Have you ever discussed what he'd want?"

No.

Oh, god, no.

I plead with the shadows not to clear and reveal more. I don't want to witness who else might be with Andrei. The shadows coil, soaking up the power, urging me onwards towards information I need but can't bear to confront.

I stumble backwards as if something crashes through a rib, pulling at my sternum, ripping it away from me. A mind-aching desire to destroy takes hold, as the shadows build.

"Jamie died," I say to Andrei, a statement, not a question.

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