Page 41 of The Erion Triad

She didn’t know if she was crying, or if it was the icy rain on her face. She could never stand up against such force. She’d never even stood up against Grant. She’d only run away from him. She’d never stayed to fight against any of her perpetrators. She was weak. A coward. Prey.

She shook her head, trembling from head to toe. How could she stand up to such an evil force when all she was too scared to move? “I could show you memories, but I can’t take four of us away from here. I... I’m not strong enough.”

“Yes, you can, Lucie. We have complete faith in you,” Juliran said.

Their faith was misplaced. She couldn’t do this. They were going to die, and it was all her fault. Her hands began to shake with the force of holding on to them.

“I won’t let you down. I will not give you up…”

Her eyes snapped open. “Wh… what?”

Was that Juliran… singing?

“All we have to do now, is take these lies and make them true…” Zaen spoke the words, but the tune was there in her head.

“You know this song? How?” They couldn’t know it. She’d never sung to them. Not since she’d been abducted.

“You sang it, Lucie. We watched you on stage in the diner. Freedom. I won’t let you down. Freedom. I will not give you up.”

Her mind spun. She’d been so confused, but she knew she had been on stage. Whether that was in her mind hadn’t mattered. They’d watched and now they repeated every word back she’d sung. They’dlistened. It was the only time where she felt like her true self, as though nothing in her life could touch her. That was why she loved singing so much. It took her away.

“Sing with us, Lucie. I would love to hear your voice again,” Kyel said.

They started to sing together, word for word. They’d not only listened to her. They’dheardher. They knew her. They understood her. They were all quarters of the same soul. How could they not?

And singing was the only thing that could make her forget about everything and had the power to take her away. Takethemaway.

More mouths formed the words as they quietly sang. A roll of thunder gathered in the distance and bore down towards them like a bomb waiting to explode. Ice hurled at them, cutting and blinding and ripping into them like skeletal fingers. A terrifying face made from the clouds itself raced towards them. It moved closer and larger and more terrifying with each passing second.

“We won the race. Got out of the place…”

She clung to them like a limpet in a storm. She was never going to let go. Never.

She sang with them, her voice getting louder and clearer. The wind gathered, bearing down on them, the bomb waiting to explode. She didn’t care if this was the last thing she would ever know. She was with her mates. She was singing. She’d found the kind of love she was seeking all her life. She’d discovered her place of peace that she only had when she sang, and now that place included them.

She opened her heart, accepted them. The bond pulsed between them. White and gold threads of light wrapped around them all. The light thread swelled and expanded around them, meeting the oncoming rush of thunder and cyclonic wind.

A massive detonation exploded around them. Her body shook with the power of the blast. She closed her eyes and tucked her face into Kyel’s chest. An intense white light encased them and then faded away.

The wind was gone. Her skin tingled with warmth. She could breathe again. Slowly, she opened her eyes. They stood in the middle of her bedroom in the palace. Curtains billowed at her open windows, letting in a warm breeze sweetened by the flowers of the garden outside. The chirps of small animals sounded in the background.

The entity was gone. They were safe.

“Have we… Are we...?” Lucie gasped.

“I don’t believe we are really in your bedroom,” Zaen said.

Lucie looked about. It seemed like they were. It seemed real enough. The floor was solid. The wind was soft. The smells were subtle. “Why?”

“Because in reality, we are standing over your body in the medi-bay and we are all holding the Erion crystal. If we were truly back, we would have woken there,” Zaen said.

“Then… why are we here?” Lucie said.

“I believe we are still trapped, Lucie. We are still in your mind and while we are here, the entity is stronger. It will never let us go,” Zaen said.

“Then how are we going to get out of here? How can we escape?” Lucie asked.

Kyel tucked his knuckle beneath her chin and lifted her head. His eyes glowed brighter. “We must become stronger than the entity. The only we way we can escape is to mate-sync, to join with you mind, body, and soul. Our connected souls will be no match for something as evil as that. Will you take the final step and accept us, Lucie? Will you complete our bond so that together we can fight this entity and escape?”

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