“I need your help, Smudge. Can you help me find Julien?”
Empty sockets blink, once, twice… then it turns and slithers away.
My stomach dips. Shit. I’ve offended it.
Was it the nickname? I thought it was kinda cute…
But halfway across the path it stops, glances back, tongue flickering. Waiting.
It’s not sulking, it’sleading.
Smudge guides me along the narrow path of obsidian rock until we reach a wall of flames, and slips into them.
I stop dead.
The heat should’ve destroyedit.
But it pops back out, blinking up at me, darting back and forth between the flames like it’s encouraging me to copy. The sight is so bizarrely cute that I laugh.
Cautiously, I reach out, emboldened by my little friend. The red flames lick my fingers—no heat, no pain, just a strange, brushing warmth.
I step through, and my little creature races ahead, a streak of shadow weaving towards something unseen, when something white catches my eye. Two coffee cups on the ground, their contents bleeding across the stone. My chest tightens.
The further I move in, the more the room clears as the fire and smoke thins—
Ezekial.
Even thinking his name hollows me out.
There’s already something so wrong about seeing powerful beings this still, but when it’s your bond, and when you’re the reason…
The pain in my chest splits open, the same emptiness that swallowed me when Kane fell.
Smudge bumps Ezekial’s cheek, a soft nudge, but he doesn’t stir. The little creature looks up, empty eyes somehow pleading.
“He’s okay,” I say, but the words snag. I try for a smile. “I promise.”
It blinks, tail twitching, then glides to the next body.
Sai.
The same nudge, the same awful stillness. Even his markings are empty.
“Sai too,” I murmur, but it’s thinner now, my throat tight. “They’ll be fine.”
But seeing them like this, seeing what I’ve done to them… my knees almost give.
This is on me. I should’ve pressed harder, refused their denials, forced them to bring me here.
Too late now.
I have to shove this awful ache away because when they wake… I can’t even think about that. There’s no time.
Empty eyes blink up at me, sensing my turmoil, then Smudge turns and slides through another wall of fire.
This time, I follow without hesitation.
And—
