Page 76 of Gothikana

His arm tightened. ‘I will take all your lasts, too, Miss Clemm. Mark my words.’

A clock ticked by somewhere in the silence, sounds of raindrops hitting the glass windows a white noise in the background. And in thedark with her devil behind her, Corvina fell asleep, feeling safe and cherished and not alone, for the first time in her life.

CHAPTER 21

Corvina

The girl withlong, dark hair lay face down in the water, her tresses floating over it ethereally, her skin ghostly pale in the moonlight. Corvina looked around, knowing the place but not knowing the time, just that she needed to get to the girl. She took a step forward, her ankle dipping in the icy water, disappearing under the blackness.

Heart pounding, she took another step, just as something cold and slimy gripped her ankles, locking her in place. Corvina struggled in place trying to get to her, but the movements caused ripples. Whatever gripped her ankles dragged her down in the black water, taking her under.

‘We know you hear us.’ The feminine voice came from around her, bringing that scent of decay underwater.

Corvina looked around frantically, trying to see where the voice came from, trying to see anything in the utter blackness.

Slowly, something started to appear in the line of her vision, something that seemed to be drifting toward her very, very slowly. Corvina squinted, trying to see.

And then she saw.

Bodies.

Suspended in the water.

Floating toward her.

‘Help,’ the voice said again. ‘Find. He will anchor you down.’

Corvina looked down to see Vad gripping her ankles, holding her under the surface. She struggled to get free, but he didn’t let her go, the movement causing ripples across the still water.

The girl who had been floating before on top of the surface drowned, her black hair dancing in the ripples, and stopped right in front of Corvina.

It was Corvina.

Corvina blinked, trying to understand what she was seeing.

The floating version of her suddenly opened her eyes, fully black as the raven had been in the mirror, just as the other bodies surrounded her and began to scream, their slimy limbs enclosing her underwater.

‘Join us. Join us. There is no other way.’

‘Corvina!’

She woke with a gasp, her eyes flying everywhere around her, her hands trying to get the sensation of the slimy things off her skin.

A body came on top of her, hands pinning hers down, arresting her horizontally on the bed.

‘You’re safe. It was a bad dream. Calm down.’

The deep, gravel voice speaking in that heavy tone caught her attention. Corvina blinked up, trying to focus, and saw Vad’s mildly concerned face above hers, his eyes glinting even in the dark of the room.

Corvina gulped in a lungful of air, trying to get her heart to calm down as visions from the dreams still assaulted her mind.

‘They’re in the lake.’

He frowned slightly. ‘Who are?’

‘The bodies,’ she whispered to him. ‘That’s what they showed me. How is that even possible? Am I going crazy, Vad?’

He lay down on his side, pulling her in. ‘Tell me what you saw.’

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