“Cas,” I whispered, running my fingers over his stubble. “Do you—?” A sudden and intense, red-hot echo of pain flared deep within my chest—pain that wasn’t mine.
Casteel immediately moved, grasping my shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” The ache thumped right beside my heart, stirring the essence. “I can feel—” I tore myself away from Casteel, stumbling to my feet as pain jabbed at my skin like a thousand burning needles.
Casteel was suddenly on his feet beside me. I breathed in deeply, trying to speak, but the pain slammed into me like a scorching wind. He shouted something, but I couldn’t focus on what he said as I looked down at my arms, half-expecting to find flames crawling up them. To see blood pouring from open wounds, but they were fine.
I was fine.
Butsomeonewasn’t.
Multiple someones.
And I didn’t only feel the pain.
Eather flooded my veins as scalding agony soaked the air, making it difficult to draw in even the thinnest of breaths. My legs shook as the taste of bitter panic and tart confusion joined the fear and icy terror. It settled over me, the weight oppressive. The sheer magnitude of it—the onslaught of their pain and confusion, their terror and uncertainty, was unbearable. I couldfeel myself caving under it and knew I would if I didn’t do something to stop it. And I had to. Ineededto—
Steady hands clasped the sides of my face, grounding me. “Talk to me, Poppy.” Cool amber eyes lit by a bright silver aura met mine. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”
“Pain. So much pain and panic,” I croaked, grasping his wrists with trembling hands. “I’ve never felt anything like it. It’s so vast. So intense—oh, gods, it has to be coming from hundreds—no,thousandsof people. Maybe more.”
His eyes widened. “You need to shut it out.”
“I can’t—”
“Yes, you can. You just need to picture a wall—the thickest Rise you can imagine,” he instructed. “Build it as tall as the skies—”
“You don’t understand. Ican’t.” The eather pushed against my skin, and I suddenly knew what I’d felt earlier. The unease. That was the first warning. But of what? I didn’t know as the need to go to those who were hurt bore down on me. “I have to find them.”
“Find who, Poppy? And where? Because the source of what you’re feeling can’t be from here.” His thumbs chased away tears I hadn’t realized had fallen. “If it were, we would hear something. We would be notified.”
“I know, but I have to find them. They’re scared and…and confused. Almost as if—”
I cried out as another outpouring of pain and terror seized every fiber of my being. It fell like a crimson shadow over the chamber, over us, painting the walls red and soaking the floor in blood.
Casteel was speaking, but I couldn’t understand his words as I stared at my arm. It was raised as if I had attempted to ward something off…or perhaps call upon something. Shadows appeared under my skin and swirled.
Casteel stiffened against me, and I knew. I knew without asking that he had also noticed what was happening beneath my skin. “Poppy.”
I wrenched myself free of him, turning as the eather swelled inside me. I had to do something. I had to stop this. Ineededto.
The essence of the Primals—ofme—seemed to understand the rushing, desperate thoughts and responded at once. The eather seized control. It was like an instinct buried deep within me, never touched before, had been unlocked from the furthest corners of my mind. I didn’t think. I didn’t hesitate.
I simply lifted my arm; fingers splayed wide. Shadowy silver wrapped in tendrils of gold sparked from my fingertips, and the air no more than a foot in front of me hissed and then split open. The tear crackled and spat as it grew and widened.
“Poppy!” Casteel shouted. “Don’t!”
My eyes locked with wide, wild amber ones when I glanced over my shoulder at him. I wanted to explain what I was doing, but I wasn’t even sure I could. Because my mind hadn’t caught up with this newly discovered instinct, and there was no time.
The pain called to me.
And so did death.
A strange scent drifted from the opening—an acrid and pungent aroma that reminded me of burnt oil but sharper, smokier. “I have to.”
Casteel’s flesh seemed to thin, causing the angles of his face to become stark. Panic filled his voice. “Don’t you dare, Poppy! Don’t—”
I walked through the opening, leaving one realm and stepping into another—
