Page 59 of Ecliptic

I had meant to pull myself out of the cave, but instead, I’d pulled the cave right to Rowen.

“Rowen,” I screamed through the ether, sprinting toward him, but my body rammed into an invisible barrier. He jolted awake and immediately checked me by his side. When he noticed I was unconscious, his eyes darted up, widening in horror as he saw me within the dark cave.

I had opened an astral window, a two-way screen that allowed Rowen to glimpse into my projection—forcing him to watch as Erovos closed in behind me.

Rowen shot up, but what he was seeing was a projection and nothing more, and his hands zapped with electricity as he tried to reach me. “Keira, where are you?” he asked, fear shooting down our bond.

I placed my hand on the astral window. “I’m in . . .”

Before I could answer, Erovos hummed with delight. “So you’re bringing this lovely scene to your soul flame. How very talented of you. Yes, let the little lord watch.” I whipped around to face the Dark Spirit as he stepped within Rowen’s sight. “How did you like her gown? Did she tell you that my shadows caressed every inch of her skin as I dressed her in my darkness?”

Rowen’s face twisted in fury, and his fists pounded on the astral screen. “You sick fuck! I’ll kill you!”

The orange eyes that haunted me flickered across my face. “I told you I was working on something grand. Now that you’re here, would you like to see it?”

“How have you created anything in here?” I asked, his oppressive aura stretching my mind thin.

“I impregnated the earth within this crevice. Even now, my children grow.”

I gagged.

“Your powers in sealing this cave are quite impressive. You may have trapped me away from the physical world, but as you know, I’ve been amassing a great deal of energy for some time. When I’m not striving to tear this mountain apart, I take great pleasure in perfecting my creations,” Erovos said, gesturing to three dark figures slowly emerging from an even darker swatch of midnight. “Allow me to introduce my newest creation, the Voro-Kai.”

Huge, hulking creatures prowled toward me. Demons made in the likeness of a man but with the tusks and fur of a beast. Their enormous limbs rippled with unnatural muscle, and misted horns curled up from their boar-shaped heads. “Their bodies exist only astrally, but their wounds can cross planes, turning all they have bitten into Voro-Kai.”

The pit in my stomach crashed into my spine. I tried to wake up and snap back to my body, but as the demons stalked closer, my limbs went numb.

Was Erovos’ plan to get in my head, or could these Voro-kai truly hurt me in my astral form?

“What do you think will happen to her if she dies in this state?” Erovos asked, seeming to read my mind. Curiosity rippled across his face as he turned to Rowen. “I have my guesses, don’t you? Will her body slowly shut down beside you? Will she disappear all at once? Or will she be wracked with painful tremors as she dies from the inside out?”

I despised that he was speaking to Rowen, even dared to glance in his direction. He was deliberately antagonizing him to throw me off, to get so deep under my skin that I couldn’t thinkstraight. “Don’t you dare speak to him,” I seethed, clenching my fists so tight they ached. Every poisonous word he spoke to my soul flame fueled my fury.

“Or,” the Dark Spirit mused, ignoring me as he continued to speak to Rowen, “should we mentally torment her, ravage her astral body while you watch? See what’s left of her when she wakes?”

“You touch her and I will destroy you,” Rowen growled, his face a murderous snarl.

Erovos chuckled. “I know my creatures would love to have a taste, and they aren’t opposed to sharing.”

“Keira!” Rowen roared my name from across the cosmic field, and my frozen limbs rushed with molten rage.

I hated that Erovos’ plan was working, that my fury was all-encompassing as he dangled my life in front of Rowen—hated myself even more that I was projecting this scene to him at all. I would let my wrath carry me and do what needed to be done; if not, Rowen would watch me die as I silently laid beside him.

The first demon lunged, its monstrous arms barreling towards me, but I swirled away just in time. My physical body may not be here, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let these fuckers touch me in my astral state.

My peripheral caught Erovos’ orange eyes, observing with curiosity as his three Voro-Kai approached me. If I let them surround me, I was as good as dead.

I darted to the nearest cave wall to protect my back. My heartbeat galloped in my throat, and my fear bounced off my skin in a haze of light. There would be no hiding here. My body was lit up like a neon sign.

I reached for my weapon, but my hip was empty.

My heart lurched until I remembered I had other weapons.

The nearest Voro-Kai, a horrifying beast with three tusks, charged at me with a bellowing roar. I raised my palm, willingthe Alcreon Light to cooperate as I sent a push of power through my hand. The Light shot through the dark, freezing the beast within a beam of light. I held my arm out, keeping the creature in place as the largest of demons struck down upon my head.

On reflex, I threw my other arm up, creating a barrier of Light between myself and the second demon. Its razor-sharp claws hammered against my blinding shield.

The force from its blow knocked me off balance, causing my hold on the Voro-Kai with three tusks to loosen. The third beast joined in the assault as I held its pack-mate in a stupor of Light. My arms extended out on either side of me, shaking and lowering from the strain of holding back three astral demons.

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