“Brogan!” Lu warned.
Two things happened at once: every muscle in my body froze, and the entire chamber lit with a soft blue glow.
Mother Hush swayed out of the shadows, stones and leaves clattering as she moved, glowing lichen casting her face in watery luminescence.
Her eyes were enormous, endless pools of ink glittering with gold that gathered and extinguished, stars drowning in the long night.
“Here you have come to me, broken dreamer, BroGan Gaayge.”
I wanted to run. I wanted to pull Lu behind me. But here, in the center of this hill, I was caught tighter than a fly in a web.
“Here is the key, so near her heart, Lulaaah, Lulaaah.”
Mother Hush was close now, larger than life, larger than my dream, easily ten feet tall. She bent toward me to look down upon us, her prey.
“Have you found the book? Have you found our Strange weave?” Her eyes flooded with gold that drained away, leaving behind glassy voids. “No, un-mortal, you have not.”
Eyes and teeth flashed in the shadows. Danube might be nearby, but I couldn’t turn my head to see him.
“This task, you have failed.” Too many long fingers on one hand wriggled like worms, sticky gloss hanging from each digit.
“Now, you suffer.”
My mind raced, the memories of her words in the dream swamped me. She would hurt Lu. She would eat her heart.
No, no, no!
“Watch her pain,” Mother Hush cooed. “Watch her life devoured.”
I yelled, but not a sound passed my lips. I fought, but not a muscle moved.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted Danube. He was a big wolf, and in the uncertain light, the lighter patch on his chest and one foot shone.
He was locked in a frozen stance, ears back, teeth bared, tail stiff.
Lula, in front of me looked unafraid. Her eyes were narrowed, her stance loose, the dagger in her hand radiating a soft red light.
She was just as frozen as I was, and I wondered if she was screaming inside her mind. I wondered if she was terrified.
If so, it did not show.
Mother Hush bent lower, gliding forward on hidden feet toward Lu, until her huge head, her enormous eyes were only inches from Lu’s face.
“Devour your heart?” Mother Hush sang. “So sour, so small, so hard. But there are other ways to heat myself with your blood.” Her other hand lifted, the claw heavy and black, tapered to razor pincers. She rested those pincers against Lu’s chest, and pressed.
I roared. I raged. But was silenced by stone.
There was no blood, and Lu’s expression hadn’t changed.
Why wasn’t she bleeding?
Mother Hush sank her claw into Lu’s chest, all the way in, up to her elbow. It should have skewered her, should have shoved all the way through to exit her back.
But somehow, Mother Hush pressed closer and closer to Lu, folding down, compacting. As she became smaller, stones and leaves shed off of her, pinging against the rocky floor like hail in a forest.
She wasn’t trying to cut Lu open. It was worse. Much worse.
She was steppingintoher, possessing her like a ghost.
