“It’s probably from the dead guy by the door,” I assure him. “There’s no one else in this room with us. I found Asmodeus and he can move. Can you move?”
It’s so strange how I can move around in the depths of the darkness, but out here in the real world, I’m not moving at all. It’s like everything I’m doing is just in my very own mind.
I switch my attention back to Asmodeus. “How are you moving?”
“The darkness isn’t the real world. Don’t bother moving there. You have to pull your mind from the depths.” He says it like this is something simple to do. “The only issue is that I still can’t seem to see.”
“But I can,” I say a second before I see August and Lex go flying back.
I dash to help and realize that Landon has thrown the table at them as chairs and food go flying. Unable to stabilize themselves, they fall and hit the ground on their backs, but still, they don’t move or react.
“Landon, stop!” I shout, throwing all of my attention back to the me in the darkness just as I see the man who’d been cut in half rush Landon. It’s like what is happening out in the real world is completely different from what’s happening in this darkness. In here, Landon is trying to fend off a villain, but in the real world, there’s no one there and the people he’s attacking are his own.
“Landon, stop! There’s no one there,” I say. “Whoever is controlling this power is making you see things so you’ll attack the others.”
He freezes. “What do you mean? Did I hurt someone?”
“No, they’re fine… but just… don’t fight back.”
Landon looks nervous as the man nears us, and I immediately realizewhyhe chose to fight back. I would have too. Anxiety eats at me that I’m wrong and that Landon is going to get hurt if he doesn’t defend himself.
I slip in front of Landon in case I’m wrong but when he slams into me… nothing happens. Nothing at all.
I drop into my illusion just in time to see August pummel me to the ground. I use the illusion to shove him back.
“August, it’s not real! It’s not real!” I shout, but he doesn’t seem to hear me as he punches me in the face. Thankfully, it’s the illusion he hits because if it wasn’t, with his strength, I’m afraid he’d have broken something. But it doesn’t keep him from going at Landon again.
I send out more illusions with the hope of keeping everyone away from each other before I grab on to Asmodeus.
“We need to stop them.”
“I can hear their thoughts,” a voice behind me says.
I look back at Nolan, who continues, “She’s struggling to fuck with my mind. The drugs I’m on are keeping me slightly in control. I’ll do my best to keep our group from attacking each other. I don’t think I can stop her, but I know that she’s in the west wing. I can hear her words.”
“Asmodeus… do you need your eyes to fight?”
“I once wore a blindfold for a week while five assassins were sent after me,” Asmodeus says. “No one attacked me for the first four days, driving paranoia into me until I began to doubt every sound, but they didn’t get the best of me.”
“Why?” I ask.
“In case something like this happened, of course,” he says as he gives me a thumbs-up. “Come, be my eyes.”
I anxiously look back at the others, a bit worried about leaving them, but having to trust that the faster we end this, the faster they’ll find safety.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
DEUS
The darkness creeps around me. I can hearherblaming me for her death as she does every night, and I push it back. She wants to lead me deeper into it. I know she does. She wouldn’t mind if I destroyed myself.
A hand slides into mine. I can’t see it, but I can feel it. I can feel the way it wraps around my skin, drawing me away from the darkness and away fromher.
I sure hate being a monster.
“Don’t stop. Why are you stopping?” Ellison asks as his hand tightens. “You need to stay focused or you’re going to slide right back into that darkness.”
“I’m focused,” I lie.
