Page 94 of Possession

Maybe hours have passed, or mere seconds or days, but the screeching starts to make sense.

“Hello, Mary.”

I can’t respond. I don’t understand; I have forgotten how—not just how to speak, but language itself. And then the knowledge shoots at me as suddenly as it left.

Mary. That’s me. It said my name; it knows me.

Me, with my useless existence.

I have no idea what to say. I don’t want it to notice me. I am an irritant, a bug, and it will swat me aside once it hears me buzz. But it has noticed me already; it’s too late.

There is more rumbling, vibrating. “Aris never showed you his true form?” it says. “Curious.”

Aris. Aris. Aris. Something flashes through me at the name, and I grip something. My… necklace.

My necklace, that’s right.

The edges cut into my hand, offering brief, but grounding, pain.

“Look,” the voice says. It is a demand. “See.”

My eyes open, and I see a man before me, observing him in flashes. Seven feet tall. Shirtless. Muscular. I blink faster, force my mind to work quicker, and more detailed observations come, slowly but surely. The epitome of strength. Magnificently humongous and all-encompassing, I will never see anything better.

“I am Jaegen.”

I avert my gaze, eyes pinching with concentration. There is the faint feeling that I should know him from somewhere—have I seen him, heard his name?—but the thought slips from my hands like they’re coated with oil.

“Talk!” he snaps.

My mouth opens against my will. “What may I offer you?” I ask. The words aren’t my own; my body is not entirely mine. The feeling is all too familiar, but I’m too afraid to feel angry about it.

How is he doing this? What is he?

“Tell me, where is the Great Dark?” the being demands.

“Aris?” I say quickly and on my own now, terrified that he will force me to speak again. I can’t let my shock slow me again.

“Yes. The Dark.”

“I don’t know. I-I really don’t.”

He tilts his head to the side. The act is so… human that it briefly astounds me.

“He isn’t in me anymore,” I stutter. “I swear.”

“Peace. You need not fear me. What is he planning?”

“I don’t know.”

I feel something digging in my head, like a bored student flipping through a book. “Ah,” he says. “He continues his games.”

Jaegen stares down at me from his daunting height. Even in this form he’s taken, he’s barely less terrifying than when he was a blot in the sky. Now, I’m able to comprehend him, whereas, before, the idea of him scorched me from the inside out.

“I am not what you supposed. Am I, Mary?”

I shut my eyes and take a shaky breath. Silva mentioned Jaegen. I remember that, but it was eons ago.

“What do you want?” I whisper. This is a safe enough question.

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