Page 135 of The Songs of Fate (War of Fate)

After we each took turns shooting and retrieving, we decided to have some fun, and Lana named moving targets, even further into the distance—a weird lizard creature, an odd flying insect that she promised stung with its wings, and a rodent-like creature that would pop its head in and out of the hallow of the tree. I hit every single beast, fast or slow, winged or not, dead in the eye.

We were both laughing and enjoying the afternoon we could finally spend together as we gathered the remainder of the arrows. One was stuck on the nasty flying insect that was no bigger than a fingernail. It was my best shot so far.

As I pulled the arrow from the tree trunk, a feeling of dread washed over me. It came so suddenly I dropped the arrow and clenched my chest.

The thick wave felt unbelievably cold. It washed through my mind, sending chills down my arms. I thought I could almost see my breath as I leaned into the solid trunk of the towering tree.

The dread began to ease away. I took slow, deep breaths, looking around, trying to see if Lana was hurt. She was ten feet away, yanking an arrow from a giant tree. Searching the forest again, I saw the sunlight filter through the canopy, birds flitting from limb to limb, singing as little possum creatures frolicked over the dropped leaves. No reason for the sense of something… dark.

The connection…

It had been brief. Not near enough for them to be close, but still concerning. I buried the aether deeper, attempting to shield it with the blend of mortality. I needed to find the others and let them know. The Raiders were testing the connection, searching for my aether.

We only had a few arrows left to find before being done for the day. I jogged away from Lana to collect the last two, high on a distant tree. As I started to climb the few feet off the ground, the wave of darkness came again, forceful and consuming.

I fell to the ground, landing on my side. The surge made my stomach roll.

The feeling wasn’t just dread. It was darkness. It was terror. Cold, black, unyielding fear.

I swallowed the bile in my throat. It tasted like tar—thick, bitter, and sickening, coating my mouth and lungs. I gagged at the taste as I bent over to suck in clean air.

They are connecting…

The next wave came, more repulsive than the last. It threw me to my knees as cool sweat beaded my neck and my body began shaking. Digging into the forest ground, I screamed in pain, piercing through the forest and in my mind.

“Ales!”

I tried to push into his mind, away from the link to the Raiders. I found his connection, and then poured everything I could into it, portraying the fear, the dread, the complete darkness.

Lana came running, dropping to the dirt beside me. She trailed her hands over my face, pushing back my sweaty hair.

I couldn’t stop screaming in my mind. “Ales, Ales.” I tried to focus as the darkness ebbed back for a moment.

A blinding pain fractured into my head, combining with the taste of ash on my tongue. It was truly repulsive, shredding any bright spot in my mind.

I heard Ales before I saw him. “Where are you?”

My thoughts forced pictures of the plants and trees next to me through the connection, through anything that I could grab onto, any tether, any link to strength that my mind could forge away from the abyss strangling me.

I reached for any warmth I could find away from the never-ending shadows.

Ales’ mind tried to soothe me, fighting against the Raiders’ connection. Other male voices shouted.

Lana kept yelling, “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie,” while shaking me.

I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate on blocking out what rolled over me. The amount of pain and dread was crushing me, consuming my thoughts, devouring everything.

Ales got to me before I could explain the images. He picked me up off the ground to stand in front of him, but I staggered and collapsed into him.

He was yelling at the other men behind him to grab Lana, to see if she was hurt.

“What is it, what is wrong, elskan mín?” The words echoed in my mind beside the dark curtain.

I sent Ales the descriptions of what I was feeling—how it tasted and smelled, how it consumed. Linking to him was easier than speaking. After last night, it was as if our connection was memorized, inherently… easy.

Then I summoned every ounce of will, of light, and blocked it out.

I shut everything out, hard, including Ales—closing the connection to everything as swiftly as slamming a door. Then, mentally, I barred the door with iron bolts.

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