Page 65 of Reap the Night
Fresh pain.
When I woke, Hemlock held me while I wept until the residue of the nightmare subsided.
The next night, I joined Ezekiel as he slowly froze in the grip of gnawing pain before his body went numb. I woke sobbing for relief, pressed up against Hemlock, desperate for his warmth and reprieve from the phantom chill.
But on the third night, something changed. I was no longer in Ezekiel’s body but outside. An invisible watcher as Loviator had him slowly flayed. Slivers of skin were peeled away until he was bloody and raw. His agonized screams bounced around my head, tearing at my soul and raking my insides as I attacked the bitch with my phantom arms, desperate to save him yet knowing there was no salvation here.
This was an echo.
A memory of atrocities already done, already experienced.
I watched through a veil of tears as she finished her work then healed him only to begin anew.
I hated her.
With every fiber of my being, I hated that bitch, and if I could pull her out of her prison and kill her myself, then I would.
I stayed, standing by his side, desperate to hold his hand as he endured.
“I’m here. You’re not alone. I’m here,” I whispered over and over. “Ezekiel. This is done. This is the past. You’re free. Come back to me. Please come back to me.”
Loviator hummed and began work on his torso.
The world dimmed.
I was about to wake up. “No!” I reached for him, wanting to hold on to him. Not wanting to leave, and in the moment before consciousness claimed me, I was certain he looked right at me.
Hemlock smoothed back my hair and held a glass of water to my lips. “You’re all right. You’re back.”
I gulped greedily.
“Easy. What did you see?”
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “It was different this time. I wasn’t in his body. I was a watcher. I didn’t feel the pain. I think…I think he pushed me out of his body. I think he’s protecting me. He looked at me, Hemlock. I swear a moment before I woke up, he looked right at me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. He’s there. He’s fighting. I can feel him.”
The door to the room opened, and Ordell entered. “I found her.”
“Who?” Hemlock asked.
“Ingrid. I know where she is.” He pressed his lips together, and I knew that whatever he was going to say wouldn’t be good. “She’s in the east wing.”
Chapter 24
We followed Ordell out of the safe room, into the corridor beyond, and up the steps to the main floor. He walked fast, his movements tense and agitated.
“How do you know Ingrid’s in the east wing?” Hemlock asked.
He stopped by the entrance to one of the many sitting rooms on this floor. “Because someone told me.”
The temperature dropped, and a figure materialized beside Ordell. Spectral, petite. Evil.
Daisy smirked at me. “Hello, Orina.” Her voice was all echoey and creepy.
The ghost bitch had tried to get me killed by tricking me into unbinding Ordell on a full moon. But Ingrid had assured me that she’d been put back in the east wing with all the other lost. “How did you get out of the east wing?”
