Page 29 of Ecliptic

The Crypts were filled with the missing villagers from around Luneth. Innocents led here under the false pretense that Fou was their savior. Their terrified eyes glistened and pleaded for help.

I scanned the crowd for Rowen. Though I could barely see through the blood, sweat, and grime dripping down my face, I spotted him in an instant. He was lying on a luxurious four-poster bed, so out of place on the dais. He was shirtless and drenched in sweat, his arms and ankles bound to the posts. His mouth was gagged as he writhed and struggled to break free.

The false queen approached Rowen and trailed her fingertips along his inner thigh. “You have to choose,” Aliphoura said, wearing a blood-red gown that matched her plump lips. “You can only save one. Is it going to be Rowen, the innocents, or Indrasyl?”

My heart plummeted to the floor. I couldn’t save them all, especially not in my current state. I was wounded, barely able to walk, and my vision blurred in and out from my concussion.

Fou slithered her nails up Rowen’s torso and chest, his muscles tensing as he fought her touch. “Would you be selfish enough to save Rowen, condemning all these innocents to die? Or is his life worth sacrificing for the greater good?” she asked, removing his gag.

“Keira!” Rowen bellowed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him,” Fou said before tracing her tongue along his mouth.

“No,” I pleaded, running to rip her off him, but my broken leg couldn’t withstand the weight, and I collapsed to the throne room floor. No matter what choice I made, someone was going to get hurt. My limitations were sealing all our fates.

“Or you can choose the Sylvan Mother Tree, saving the world but murdering everyone in this room,” Erovos said, suddenly beside Indrasyl. He placed a palm on her split trunk, and with a swirl of his orange eyes, he began to drain her dry. As he pulled the life from her, from the earth, from us all, she withered and turned to blackened stone.

Desperation clawed at me. “Stop. Please,” I begged as Indrasyl’s leaves rained down on me like ash. In my periphery, Fou joined Rowen on the bed.

“You don’t have much time to choose,” Erovos hummed, his pale skin stark against his black cloak. “The Alcreon Light chose a worthless vessel. I told you your mortal body was dying all around you.”

I gazed down at myself, gasping in horror. My skin was rotting and decaying off my limbs.Death. I was death and dying. And there was no escaping it.

Caeryn, the red man who’d kidnapped and beat me, appeared in a gust of flames. “Choose quickly,” he said; the gash I’d given him across his face was bloody and raw. He stalked toward the crowd and grabbed the nearest innocent. He held the man flush against his front, and I realized he was dressed in Wyn clothing. My gut twisted in asickening knot. Though his hair fell in his face, I swore he was familiar, as if I knew him from a different life. But before I could recall who he was, Caeryn drove his ruby-red blade into his back.

“Stop!” I cried, my voice trembling with desperation. I willed the Light, the Elder Spirits, anyone, to help me. But there was nothing and no one. I was utterly alone, the impossible decision mine to make.

“Choose,” they all seemed to say in unison. “Choose."

“Stop. Stop. Stop!” I screamed, the Light in me building to a furious crescendo. I had no control as it shot out of me like a supernova. The explosion erupted with blinding force, splintering the stone above us.

The cave collapsed, its crushing weight plummeting down and destroying us all.

I woke with a jolt, my heart pounding.

I immediately checked Rowen by my side. Once I was sure he slept soundly with no gags or bindings holding him down, I frantically scanned myself. My skin was perfect, not a single blemish or spot of rot to be found.

I let out a relieved exhale, but the tightness in my chest remained. It wasn’t real, yet I couldn’t ignore the impending panic attack. My heart refused to slow down, as if in preparation for the oncoming storm.

Careful not to wake Rowen, I pushed off the covers, tiptoed across the floor, and slipped out of the dome. Once I quietly closed the door, I noticed a storm brewing overhead. I sprinted towards the field where I had once faced the giant Graem. The clearing offered a sense of safety. If I did strike the land with my Light, no one would get hurt.

I staggered through the village, my nightmare flashing through my mind like a carousel of death. The smell of blood, rot, and sweat clung to my skin as if the horrors of my dream had followed me into the waking world. Nausea coiled in my stomach and surged up my throat, gagging me.

Before I reached the center of the field, I doubled over and expelled everything in my stomach. Violent heaves wracked my body as bile burned my nose and throat, and tears stung my eyes.

I gasped for air and wiped my mouth.

It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real.

I wanted to focus on something tangible, but I had to ignore the grass beneath me—I couldn’t risk feeling it dying through the soles of my feet.

I finally stumbled to the heart of the clearing and fell to the ground. I curled into the fetal position and begged my spiraling thoughts to stop.

Suddenly, a shadow flashed in the distance—stealth, strong, and aware. I didn’t need to raise my head; I knew the gaze tracing over every inch of my skin like a night hawk. I buzzed with electrical awareness as the green eyes from the forest caressed my body.

Rowen’s presence reached out to me from the trees, as he had done long before I ever knew he was there. During my nightmares, he had been my silent guardian, protecting me from the sidelines. But now, I was intimately aware of his watchful eyes offering me strength from a distance, and a warmth pulsed in my chest. He must have sensed that I didn’t want him to get too close—in case I lost control.

And I did. I lost it all as lightning struck down around me.

---