Page 77 of The Cruel Dawn
A teardrop rolls back to the redhead’s hairline. “Sub…Sub…Sublime.”
I nod. “A lovely name.”Please don’t…
Her color shifts from the darkest amber to cornsilk.
I feel that tugging sensation again, like a fish on a line, but stronger and sharper this time. My heart beats sluggishly—healing Philia has taken something out of me that’ll be slow to replenish.
I’ll soon need all of me to fight Danar Rrivae. How will I make up this deficit?
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The world turns dull and gray, and all light becomes pinpricks in the gloom. Shadows stretch longer and deeper, and the air grows musty and stale. Eerie, dense silence surrounds us, like we’ve been covered by a thick layer of dust.
The horses neigh and buck—but they don’t leave us.
I jump to my feet, as if I haven’t just drained myself healing Philia. “Now what?” My mouth tastes of corroding metal.
It sounds like the foundations of the realm are rearranging themselves beneath us, stone by stone.
Separi gasps. “This place isn’t stable.”
“Isn’t it just…an earth-shake?” Philia asks, struggling to sit up.
“No,” Separi whispers.
The ruins of Fihel ring with growling. Red lightning flashes through the sky and a man—no, abeingas tall as the marble arch, with white hair as long as a river, stalks toward us. He wears a red loincloth, and smoke wafts from his nose. Blood drips from his lips, sprinkling the ground like scarlet rain. He wears black paint beneath his eyes. His long, pale arms end in blood-soaked hands.
“You aren’t real,” I say, my voice shaking. “I’m dreaming.”
The giant’s form shimmers like he’s caught between the immortal and mortal planes. The edges of his form flicker, but each step he takes is sure and solid, leaving craters in the earth.
If I’m dreaming, why is the world splitting open under my feet, and beneath Separi and Philia, too?
The giant raises his massive blade and drives it into the earth. The shock wave sends me flying backward, and I land hard on my left arm. My breath is knocked from my lungs, and I taste blood on my lips.
Philia clutches at her leg, which looks inflamed and discolored. The burnu’s disease is spreading through her veins like dirty water.
Shit.I wasn’t done healing her.
“This is not your place,” the pale giant says, his voice as full as woodsmoke and as heavy as the world.
Pressure builds inside my head, and I close my eyes before they explode.
“Look and see,” the giant demands.
“Whoareyou?” I whisper, peeking at him. “Answer me.”
“Look andsee,” he repeats.
I open my eyes and look up.
TheLibrum Esotericais burning away my leather satchel. It shines on the bloody ground, but the book shrieks as if there’s something terrible caught inside it, piercing as metal twisted until it screams.
The sound vibrates deep in my chest and scrapes at my ribs.
The ground beneath the book warps and trembles as if the dirt itself recoils from its presence. Violet fire licks at the ground in ragged arcs. Where the flames touch, the ground melts, not into magma, but into a pulsing black hole.
The scream from the book grows louder, seemingly echoing from all directions at once. I press my hands over my ears, but the sound echoes through my bones.
