Page 31 of Cursed Shadows

“Fuck!” Dragan yells as he runs for the river’s edge and throws himself in. The river doesn’t part for him, as only one soul can travel the portal at a time and Eilish clearly hasn’t made it across. He’s swept into the current as surely as Eilish was.

CHAPTER NINE

EILISH

The River Of Souls

Shadow Realm

I feel myself sinking into the nothingness of the river. Even though it’s not made of water, I manage to float all the same. It feels like being surrounded by an incredibly strong wind that forces you forward, only this wind speaks and has faces that stare at me, some in shock and some in awe.

Below me, I can feel the souls of the river reaching out and latching onto my feet and legs as they try to pull me under. I try to fight by swimming upward, but their hold is strong and I feel myself yanked downward. And, strangely, it’s hard to breathe.

Even though I’m not drowning, when I try to inhale, the wind burns my lungs and makes me cough. I realize then that it’s not oxygen I’m inhaling—it’s spirit. It’s the essence of the hundreds of thousands of souls that invigorate this river.

Kick, Eilish!The woman’s voice inside of me yells.Kick harder!

I obey, kicking against the hands grabbing my legs and feet as I fight to swim back to the surface. I can’t see the bottom of the river, but whatever is down there is pitch black. The surface of the river is as white as the souls, themselves.

I start to sink deeper as the hands wrap around my legs and yank me downward.

Fight them!the voice screams.

Suddenly, I feel strong arms wrapping around my middle. I crank my head back to see Dragan gripping me, wings extended. They’re flapping madly as he forces himself upward, beating down the souls who wrap their limbs around his just as they do mine. But Dragan’s sheer power is stronger than mine and he’s making headway. That is, until it seems like all the souls in theriver converge on him, yanking him down again. He releases me, clearly not wanting to drag me down with him.

But the souls aren’t done with me. Even as they pull and yank at Dragan, they latch onto me and do the same. I kick against them, but my energy is waning. I can’t breathe, and I’m starting to get lightheaded.

***

BARON

I watch Dragan jump into the river and almost immediately, he’s submerged, sucked under the current of souls.

“Son of a bitch,” I grumble as I’m forced to make a decision.

Either I go in after the two of them or I don’t.

Do or don’t.

In general, I don’t get involved. I keep to myself. I like it that way.

I trust no one and no one trusts me. It’s how you keep things clean. It’s how you avoid chaos and drama. It’s the only way I’ve survived for the last one hundred years.

Yet, things are different now. Through Dragan and the others, I’ve been able to open a window into a life I know nothing about. Yes, it’s been difficult to trust and believe everything I’ve been told, but there’s something within me that wants to believe it, all the same.

And if I allow the River of Souls to claim both Eilish and Dragan, there’s more to my story that I’ll never know. Dragan’s aware of my history firsthand, and Eilish is something more than even she knows. I can’t explain why, but I feel as if she’s the answer to everything I’ve been searching for.

“Fuck,” I mumble, wading into the tide of spirits.

They immediately break for me, just as I knew they would. As an undead, I have no soul to speak of, so there’s nothing this river wants to take from me. Furthermore, I’m the harbinger ofdeath and shadow animates me. These spirits want nothing to do with death as they’ve spent their eternity trying to escape it, never realizing that death has already won.

The river, from the shore, appears to be perhaps ten feet deep. I walk down the steep embankment of dirt, parting the tide of souls, until I reach the deep valley and see Eilish lying on the dirt. She’s motionless. The river continues traveling above her, as though unaware that she’s caught beneath it. I hope I’m not too late.

Gripping around her waist, I pull her into my arms. She’s been in the river longer than Dragan has, so it follows that she’ll need to be rescued first. Her body is limp, and her head hangs as loosely as her arms and legs do. I carry her up the steep embankment and through the river, which remains parted. When we surface, I deposit her small, lithe body on the dirt bank hoping her soul remains intact.

Turning back to the river, I notice it’s filled in again and I can’t see Dragan. I run back into the souls and they immediately separate to grant me entrance. As I stand on the bottom of the valley of the river, looking up, I see him. He’s caught by the flow of the river, kicking and attempting to free himself from the souls who endeavor to drag him to the bottom, just as they did Eilish.

When he floats past me, I reach out and grip his arm. Then, I pull as hard as I can. While the river separates around my arm, it still has a strong grip on Dragan’s legs. He recognizes me and grasps onto my shoulders as I hold myself in place and allow the river to travel forward. As it does, the souls lose their grip on Dragan’s legs and a few seconds later, he collapses against the dirt of the river floor. He sits up and looks at me.

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