"Talia wishes you luck," the girl called as Caden mounted.
Caden didn't respond as he focused on a point between Sebastian's ears, his fear of heights no longer a concern in the face of Eva's situation.
Sebastian didn't wait for Caden to fully settle before launching himself into the air. He swooped over the battlefield, dodging stray arrows from the enemy's side as he gained altitude.
A bank of mist swirled over the mountains, heading straight for them.
Caden flattened himself to Sebastian's back and held on. He squinted as wind and small dots of precipitations lashed his face.
Into the storm once again,Caden thought.
Only this time the fury wasn't a product of humans but rather something much more dangerous.
twenty-five
Itwashardnotto act like prey when Eva's instincts screamed at her to get away from the man in front of her. One of the first lessons she'd learned from both the herd and mythologicals was not to make yourself seem like an easy target.
Fear was the ultimate killer. It drew attention.
Right now, Eva could sense the pleasure the Whisperer took in her terror. He soaked it in, using it to grow stronger.
With effort, Eva tamped down on her emotions. Her breathing slowed as she forced her pulse to steady.
Maybe she'd die in the next few seconds, but she definitely would if she didn't get a hold of herself.
It was hard—especially when the puppet and his master no longer read as quite human in her senses. They were a hybrid: mythological and man. But that wasn't quite it either.
The darkness inside was too big. Like standing in front of a galaxy, unable to pinpoint the star you needed.
She'd never sensed anything quite like it. Old didn't cover it. This felt like something that had crawled out of the birth of this world.
There was a physical repulsion that made Eva want to run and not stop until she found a safe place to hide.
Darkness forced itself against her barrier, threatening to crack it. Eva's stomach revolted as she bent to dry heave.
When she got control of herself again, she chanced a look up and wished she hadn't.
Darkness had spread to cover the puppet's entire body, blurring his face until all Eva saw was a figure created from shadow. Lights speckled his torso. Radiant and bright. Millions of them. A glowing red stream ran from where his heart should be and down his center.
Humanity had always been attracted to light and what it represented. Warmth and life. Without it there would be nothing.
Yet the shimmers of light inside him radiated a sense of wrongness that made Eva wish she was a little girl, able to hide from the monster at her door by pulling her covers over her head.
"Ahh—you see me. Am I not beautiful?"
Eva heard the voice with both her mind and ears as she stumbled back.
"What are you doing to Neil?"
"He wanted to be special, so I made him special. I make them all special."
"You made himmyein." Eva swallowed against the knot in her throat, forcing herself not to back away.
"Is that what they're calling it in this age?"
Your bargains are poison. They always have been.
"Quiet, Kyren. You have no place here."The Whisperer's darkness frothed as Orion lapsed back into silence.
