Me and Arlowe.
It’s surreal, yet also somehow familiar.
Familiar because it matches Arlowe’s power. And Zeph’s.
I turn to my friend, her expression confused and pensive as I ask, “What… what is this place?”
She frowns. “A place I’ve only ever been to alone. Until now.” A small shake of her head before she gestures behind me with her chin, and I turn to find Zephyr there not far in the distance, hovering above the ground, his dark power swirling and licking his form.
“Zephyr!” I run to him, but he doesn’t acknowledge me, his floating form so very still. When I’m right beside him, I call his name again. This time, he turns cold, black eyes on me, not even turning his head.
He regards me as something insignificant.
Something my Zeph would never do.
When a familiar whirring sound blooms at my side, I hear Arlowe’s “Shit!” a blink before I’m taken almost a hundred feet away in her arms.
I don’t have to ask why she moved me. I can see it.
Where I’d been standing, there’s now a black hole.
One of Zephyr’s black holes.
There is no way.
“We need to snap him out of it.” Lowe’s anger matches the level of my confusion. “We may need to use force.”
“That could just make him more angry.”
Arlowe’s gaze narrows on Zeph, his body finally twisting to turn toward us.
“I don’t know how he got in here, but this is my turf. No one holds more power than me in this place.”
Her tone is so sure, any questions I have die before Lowe grumbles another curse and moves us again, one blink and we’re far to the left of where we’d been, another gravity orb staring back at us.
“He’s slow.”
“Maybe he isn’t really trying to kill us.”
She shoots me an incredulous look.
“No, I mean it. He could just drop those orbs right on us and that would be it. He’s been doing it all night with doors and soldiers.”
Lowe turns thoughtful. “We need to incapacitate him. Maybe see if you can talk sense into him. Use some of that pack bond voodoo magic crap.” She huffs, and we’re moved behind Zeph, but his body snaps to face our direction immediately.
“Plan?”
“So, like, don’t get mad…”
As soon as the words leave Arlowe’s mouth, Zeph roars with rage, and I whip around to see the ground beneath him has warped and wrapped itself around his body like some kind of cocoon. It’s as if reality itself has bent, turning the ground, rocks, and even nearby trees into some melded together blanket that’s wrapped tightly around Zephyr’s body, from his toes up to his neck.
It’s an absolute spectacle, and I will be questioning Lowe about all of this later.
Once I get my Zeph back.
“I’ll keep watch.”
I take a breath and begin walking toward Zephyr’s growling form, my brows drawn so tight my forehead aches. When I circle around to face him, he snarls down at me before his nostrils flare, the anger in his black eyes at last subsiding, but only a touch.
