Page 134 of He Who Ignites The Flame
What are you?—
If you hurry, you might be able to save them.
He didn’t respond, and I shared a glimpse of what I’d last seen of Barrett and Micah as the darklings attacked them during my retreat.
I mean, you could be too late already. Better be quick.
His panic flooded my mind.
Marc—
I severed the connection and let out a heavy breath, my mind heavy—too heavy.
Darkness stretched from the shadows around me, the walls and sky melting until they were swallowed up into the gloom, and I lifted my face as the lights winked out.
“Hello, Eris,” I muttered.
She emerged from the shadows, her onyx eyes gliding over me. “Have you found her yet?”
I let out a sigh and shook my head. “It wasn’t her.”
She clicked her tongue, her frustration crawling over me like hot waves tearing at my mind. “She will turn up. Keep searching.”
I rolled my eyes. “What makes you think it’ll do what you want?”
“It takes time. This is powerful magic we are dealing with,” she said, turning as she waved her hand through the air. A necklace appeared from the misty shadows around us. The pendant howled with the voices of the dead, lost souls trapped inside, waiting to be put to use.
“Perhaps it would help if you carried it,” she said, lifting it in front of her eyes. “Allow it to guide you to her soul, to whichever human it reawakens in.”
I stiffened as she drew closer, the necklace floating through the air as she guided it toward me. It fell into my hands, the metal icy to the touch, swarming with energy.
“Why does it matter?” I muttered.
“Shemustbe human,” she hissed. “It will only work if she’s human.”
The voices grew louder the longer I held the necklace. I’d hated the sound from the first moment I’d stolen it from Hade’s domain, had been desperate to discard it.
She turned from me, sweeping her hand across the darkness as Damien’s face appeared, stricken with fear as he rushed to the aid of those he loved. A part of me relished in the despair lighting his eyes, but another part of me, something deep down, pounded against a wall, a cage.
Pounding. Pounding. Pounding.
Eris tilted her head as she watched him. “He is so close to breaking, and when he finds himself facing the possibility of losing her again—” She slashed her fingers through his image, dark claws tearing at his face until the darkness claimed the vision— “he will fall at my feet.”
My eyes fell back to the necklace, the metal humming with the demand to be used, to claim souls and bend them to its will.
“Change your approach,” she said as the darkness climbed up her body, the shadows receding. “You are drawing too much attention to yourself. Hades has caught wind of the necklace’s presence in the Mortalrealm. Continue as you are and you’ll expose us both.”
The darkness slithered away from me, sinking back to the shadows as the distant lights of the city returned. I stood alone in the street, clutching the cursed necklace as Eris’ presence pressed against my consciousness once more.
“Find her, Marcus. I want Moira’s reincarnation.”
