Page 37 of The Edge of Dawn

She almost passed out there and then.

A scream erupted from her throat.

Make. It. Stop.

Please.

Thud.

Something dropped. She saw with her eyes. It was the man who’d come after her.

She also saw with something else—an extension of her senses similar to what he’d used when he was inside her consciousness—but unlike his crystal-clear mind-map, her vision or sixth sense or whatever the hell it was… felt jumbled and chaotic and utterly overwhelming.

I’m not going crazy. I’m not mad. This is all real.

But if it was real… maybe that was worse.

The pressure in her head was almost unbearable. She feared she’d pass out at any moment. If she didn’t get relief right now…

Her very essence would be torn apart.

She truly felt like she was about to die.

Dragek, you bastard. What did you do to me?

Figment of her imagination or not, she was angry—at him or herself, she wasn’t sure—for the false hope.

Her anger grew, twisting in on itself, turning into a swirling vortex.

Slumped to the ground, the man put his hands to the sides of his head and screamed. And she could feel it; a weird sort of energy snapping and crackling all around her, wild and unfettered, like wind in a cyclone.

He isn’t coming.

He doesn’t exist.

What she wouldn’t give to see him again. To be taken away by the very aliens that were the biggest threat to humanity’s very existence.

Visions of death and bloodshed swirled through her fractured mind, and she caught a glimpse of something so vast and horrifying her mind instinctively closed in on itself.

The end of the world.

The destruction of the entire Universe.

A black hole threatening to swallow everything.

I need to get out of here.

The MWA guy was down. She didn’t know how or why, but he was writhing on the ground, clutching his head.

Pain shot through her arms as she backed away, scooting her ass across the rough ground. Her heart was beating like crazy. Adrenaline coursed through her, swamping the agony.

Shaking, she rose to her feet.

Excruciating pain shot through her right foot, but the storm in her mind dampened it a little. She didn’t know anything anymore—only that she wanted to get away from here.

The underground mine was a labyrinth, with narrow tunnels stretching far underground. Some of them probably hadn’t been used in decades. It would be dangerous, but if she could just hide out until…

Until what?

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