My empath abilities.
I still can’t sense the emotions of anyone wearing mytherun, but I can sense Nivarrah. She’s still terrified and panicked about her new surroundings, but there’s something new. She’s filled with a nauseated kind of dread mixed with obedience and a slight sliver of hope.
I’ve felt something like this before, growing up. Usually, I got this feeling when I was about to do something my mother told me to do, even if I wasn’t sure if it was right. Even if it terrified me or if I hated it, because I was too scared not to do everything the Frosts told me to.
Then I feel another one of the sleepers wake up, but this one isn’t surprised, or frightened, or even confused. Instead, he feels vaguely satisfied.As if something he’s been expecting has finally been fulfilled. There’s slight relief from waking up, a glimmer of odd smugness toward Nivarrah, and an alarming dose of lust wafting in my direction.
But even as his emotions curl around me, there’s something stilted about them. They're not full emotions, but they're not muffled the way I now know siphons sometimes choose to feel.
They’re just…empty.
Lust without the fire. Relief without solace. Curious indifference.
The only thing real about his feelings is the sharp, sadistic malintent radiating off of him.
“Veld has awakened,” Athanis’s voice warns me. “You must release my friend from his slumber and then flee for your safety, Elise! Please!”
My eyes open as I take several steps away from the waking sleepers. Nivarrah is looking at Veld with unmistakable trepidation, but the winged, tailed incubus turns his attention on me.
And smiles, showing off all his pointed teeth.
"Sibin toilethas a'than. Thae,tam volutlathem,”he purrs over the distorted echoes of fae still shouting nearby.
I have no idea what he just said, but from context, I think he just hit on me because Nivarrah ispissed.Despite the reality-warping magic that makes my vision swim with what looks like millions of bees, the air swells with jealousy, hurt, rage, helplessness, and something that feels a lot like the feeling I have when it’s the last straw.
She’s murderous—but I can’t tell if it’s toward me or herfated one, as Athanis put it.
Either way, I’m not staying to find out.
Run,my inner animal agrees.
I will, but since all hell has broken loose anyway, I’m going to get Athanis’s friend out first. Veld hasn’t moved yet. I may not be much of a legacy, but I’m pretty sure siphons aren’t as fast as shifters—and I’m faster than most shifters. Nivarrah has only been using illusion magic to turn the others against each other. I can still hear screaming and shouting from the chaos she’s creating with the other fae at the warped excavation site, but so far, she hasn’t thrown any magic at me.
So if I’m fast enough to get away, maybe…
Darting forward despite my inner animal crying out for me to go the opposite way, I shove the lid off the top of the third sarcophagus. I’m expecting it to be hard to move for my not-particularly-strong shifter body.
But to my surprise, the lid slides smoothly away, dropping off the top of the distorted coffin. Everything else around me still doesn’t feel real—until the sleeper's scent hits me.
It’s surprisingly fresh and crisp, the untamed scent of pine and sunlight that reminds me of shifting to run through the woods around my home, wild and free.
That scent fills my inner animal with unexpected elation just before I turn and run for my life.
8
KAENON
Moments Ago
I have been adrift in never-ending dreams for so long that at times I wonder about this strange existence. This eternal sleep no longer feels real, nor do I.
Perhaps this is the Beyond, after all.
But no. Lately, the dreams within my head have changed. Now, only my last memories are repeating themselves, over and over. At the end of these dreamlike memories, I am left crying out within my own mind, pleading for help.
It is the work of the incubus, I am sure. I know not why he is harnessing my strange sea of sleeping visions in this cruel way, but it comes as no surprise. After all, Veld was known far and wide for his cruelty.
So once again, I dream of the end.
