Page 30 of Realm of Nightmares
The storm relented, barely, yet Tiernan continued to implode.
“You wouldknow,” Merrick repeated.
“Aed!” Tiernan clutched the railing, the last plumeria all but forgotten. “Show yourself, you fucking bastard!”
His chest rose and fell with each rapid breath as his heart continued to race.
But this time, the god of death did not answer.
ChapterTen
Maeve couldn’t scream.
A frozen hand that reeked of sulfur and rancid earth smothered her mouth. Specters swarmed her. Their eyes were black, fathomless pits, their jaws slack and gaping. Wisps of shadows shrouded their forms, barely disguising bodies covered in graying, translucent skin. Skeletal faces swam in front of her, filling her with harrowing dread.
The wandering souls had found her.
They grabbed and groped her, clawing at her dress, shredding it into thin ribbons. Sharpened nails sank into her scalp, jerking her head back with so much force that tears sprang to her eyes. Phantom hands pinned her arms to her sides, making it impossible for Maeve to reach the hilt of her Aurastone. She thrashed in their hold, but the damned beings were far stronger than she would’ve thought possible.
Alarm fired through her as the hand covering her mouth slid to her throat and squeezed. A garbled yelp pealed from her lips.
Air.
She needed air. She was drowning in the darkness, too overcome with terror to save herself. Severely outnumbered, there was no way out, no way she could fend them off. The souls were all over her, terrorizing her. Her lungs were on fire, her skin was like ice. The grip strangling her only tightened. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe.
Maeve had never feared death.
Until now.
Fevered magic coursed through her, violent and swift. Flames ignited around her, coupled with cloying smoke. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. The hand choking her released and she gasped, swallowing down a gulp of foul air.
But her reprieve was only temporary. They continued to attack her, yanking her limbs until she thought her body would be ripped apart, piece by piece. Her shoulder snapped and she shrieked.
Something hard rammed into her stomach and she keeled over, ribs cracking. Pain ravaged her, and she wheezed as the metallic tang of blood coated her tongue. Something sharp like a dagger sank into her finger, nearly detaching it.
Her scream would haunt her.
Voices filled her ears, incoherent words repeated over and over, until it became a chant. They bled together in her mind like a hypnotic murmur as she was shoved to her knees.
“Brachan lé.”
The dawn.
The wails of the wandering souls increased, growing more frenzied. More vicious. With the noise, their fervor intensified.
Fingers tangled in her hair, yanking it taut. Slammed against the ground, her cheek scraped along the rough, damp cobblestone. Maeve bit down on a cry as something snatched her ankles, dragging her along the ground, pulling her further into the shadows of the night.
Panic bubbled up inside of her, rendering her numb. Useless. Spots danced in front of her vision as her mind emptied. Every skill she learned, every lesson she committed to memory, simply evaporated. Years spent on the training field with Casimir were gone. Time spent mastering her magic with Tiernan became nothing but a blur of images she couldn’t recall.
Grappling for purchase, her nails broke against the stone, splintering as she tried to escape. She was no queen. No warrior.
Maeve was nothing but a specter, a soul lost to the eternal darkness, caught in a plane of nonexistence.
Magic swirled, overtaking her. It consumed her blood, rising to the surface in a powerful swell. Her restraint slipped as the soul of the goddess dominated her. Energy simmered along her skin and her tattoos glowed as radiant light emanated from her body.
The magic once belonging to her had taken on a life force of its own, bending her to its will. Maeve’s control quivered before it fractured completely. She spiraled as power exploded around her in an earth-shattering crack.
Above her, a mass of perpetual darkness emerged, splitting time and space. Chills raked down her spine while her magic, hercreation, seethed. Maeve stared up at it in horror.
