Page 139 of Riftborne
“Is it over?” I asked, looking at the devastation that had erupted through the valley.
Without answering, he grabbed my waist, pulling me toward him. In an instant, his mouth was on me, desperate, longing. Despite the pain still radiating from my shoulder, my hands flew into his hair as I savored the feeling of his body against mine once again.
I never wanted to let go.
His teeth caressed the swell of my lip—a silent request to invade. Our tongues clashed, my head tilting back with the force of it. He was devouring me, taking over all of my senses until once again, it was only us that existed. Need coursed through us, connecting our wills, and I thought this moment might last forever. I was begging it to last forever.
A scream broke through our walls, and the fantasy crumbled around us.
We tore apart, eyes scanning the lawn once again. Everyone was on alert, trying to figure out where the sound had come from.
Another scream tore through the night, and all of our headsshot left, to the fortress just as huge, double doors flew open and civilians began spilling out onto the lawn, running for their lives. A smog of shadows followed in their wake, enveloping the area in darkness. I caught a sliver of emerald in the mass of bodies and my heart stopped. Osta.
It was strategic. The Wraiths were using them as shields.
Fuck.
I stole one last glance at Laryk before taking off toward the commotion. By the look on his face, I knew that he couldn’t see me.
“Fia!” I heard him shout from behind, but there was no time.
Just as I reached the borders of the shadows, a group of Wraiths circled Osta and the Soleils.
Osta let out a blood-curdling scream.
Fury shot through my entire body as I felt myself falling into a place I hadn’t been in a long time. A place of no control. A place where sheer force erupted from me and took down anything in its path.
I couldn’t stop it.
A scream escaped from my chest and the shadows around the lawn came pummeling towards me at once, gathering at my feet and surrounding my entire being. My arms shot out to each side, palms open as the inky swells dove into my hands like a river.The weight of the darkness was so intense, my body dropped, and I was on my knees, shaking as it filtered into me. It surged through every vein, every pathway. I could see it, swirling in the corners of my view.
Soon enough, the darkness around me was gone, absorbed into my own body.
My legs trembled as I tried to hold it in, my mind screaming for a release. I didn’t know what was happening. How I was doing this. My grip on the energy inside was beginning to lessen, and I felt the structures of my mind snapping. It was like a caged beast trying to break out through my skin.
Clutching my head in my hands, I held back for as long as I could, allowing every ounce of my focus to expand, to try and overcome this foreign darkness. My mind was searing with pain, and I could feel the seams being ripped apart inside me, tearing holes in my mental sovereignty.
Silence erupted around me. And everything went black.
I was in a void.
My hair lifted off my shoulders, crackling with static.
The darkness had infected my blood and bones. In this instant between reality and the void, something wicked within me purred, as if an alignment had been made. A deal I had no part in.
I wasn’t in a void.
I was the void.
An intoxicating rush flew across my body, dying to be unleashed.
I let it out.
Shadows erupted from my fingertips, roaring through the valley, taking down everything in their wake.
Myshadows.
I was the void.
