Page 84 of Shadows of Ruin

But Ifelthim. Those talons clawed at my mind. Using every last ounce of magic and strength left within me, I fortified the walls the talons so desperately tried to break down.

A sharp prick dug into me. Whether it was my mind or my body, I couldn’t be sure, but the pain radiated outward as I muffled my cry.

Andras laughed. “Not long now.”

A darkness developed around my vision. I had to fight this. Figure out a way to fight him. Separating myself from thephysical pain was useless, because the pain was everywhere. The harder I tried to block out the physical pain, the more the talons pried, attempting to get into my mind.

Suddenly, just as had happened once before, someone else joined me behind the walls I so painfully constructed.

A female voice inside my head screamed.

“What’s happening?”The voice startled me, and I twitched. Andras still smiled, his focus not at all deterred by the voice I heard.

What the fuck? At least I hadn’t been wrong, and the presence I’d felt before wasn’t Andras and his mind magic.

Knowing that did nothing to calm my aching body and mind or understand how someone else managed to be inside of my head.

Perhaps the voice was merely my imagination, a response to the absolute agony my body endured this afternoon, or maybe I’d completely lost my mind.

“Ian?”

No, I hadn’t lost my mind yet. There was a distinct somethingelsepresent. A female voice, by the sound of it. One I didn’t recognize. Someone was talking to me inside my head. Andras still didn’t seem any wiser as he continued to scratch at my mind, grinning his twisted smile.

That’s me,I answered, thinking it instead of speaking the words, because how else would one speak to someone within their fucking mind?

The scratch from the talon made the female voice groan.“What’s happening to you?”

I’m currently being tortured by an asshole. Apologies if it’s uncomfortable for you, whoever you are. Had I known you would be joining, I would’ve attempted to make this more hospitable for you.

Whoever was in here with me remained silent, but I could sense their indignant attitude. It almost made me smile.

She cursed as Andras managed to chip away at my mental wall, slowly crumbling the bricks I’d so carefully laid.

“Fight back,”she demanded.

Right, how stupid of me. Fight back. What do you think I’m doing? I don’t know how to stop mind magic.

She huffed, muttering under her breath.

A cooling sensation wrapped around my mind and the imminent threat of the talons lessened.

Stop it,I shouted at the female.What are you doing to me?

“Helping, you ungrateful prick,”she snapped.

Excuse me?

“Fates, I haven’t even met you and I already don’t like you.”The voice sounded annoyed but calm. Somehow reassuring, even through the insults. “That’s a first. Usually, I have to see a person before I automatically dislike them.”

Maybe I had lost my mind after all. Arguing with a voice in my head didn’t seem the best indicator for sanity. Although the strain against Andras’s attempts to access my mind had all but halted. I blinked, watching the look on his face fade from a smile to unadulterated rage.

He shoved the blade deeper into my side, and I cried out again.

“There’s a darkness seeping into your mind. He’s using something to make it easier to gain access.”

Yes, well, he’s currently digging a fucking knife into my side.

She stayed quiet, but the cooling sensation morphed into an overall numbness, as if Andras lost his pathway to gain entry into my head.“What I did should help for a little while, but you have to keep fighting. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to help you again.”

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