A spike of dread punched through my chest.
Nelle’s riotous emotions skittered beneath my skin. Terror had ensnared her, and she was on the verge of a full-blown panic attack.
Calm, calm, calm—kept rolling around in my head like a mantra because that strange, feral part of me was hissing at me to turn around and run back to the Keep and—Save her, save her, save her…
I was torn in two.
I needed to work with Mela to trap Yezekael, but Nelle needed me more.
Yet, there was nothing I could do for her.
Apart from this.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated hard, willing those moonlit strands of dark magic that connected us as one to infuse Nelle with my strength. To lend her courage. To fill her with warmth and blinding sunshine.
43
Nelle
The flashlight trembled in my hand, its beam skittering across the last steps in nervous, broken flashes. I reached the final step…
…and stumbled.
A shriek tore from my throat as my foot slipped out from underneath me. I lurched off balance. The flashlight flew from my hand, clattering against stone as it rolled away, its beam spinning in wild, dizzy arcs.
No, no, no…
One flicker.
Another.
Then the light died.
An ocean of darkness rose up and swallowed me whole, its jet-black waves of nothingness submerging my being.
My heartbeat fluttered like a frantic bird trying to escape flesh and bone. I gasped for breath, unable to pull enough air into mylungs. It felt as if I stood on the summit of a mountain, eternal snow caressing its craggy peak. Too high up. The air too thin.
I swayed where I stood, shaking, staring into the pitch-black landscape as my past stalked me like an old foe. My mind collapsed inward, and I was gone, dragged back into the memory I feared most.
My mother’s fingernails dug crescents into my arm, and she ignored my wails,“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…”as my feet tripped along the flagstone path that cut through the twisted trees, their limbs thrawn and skeletal, trunks misshapen and sickly looking as if the darkness of the tithe prison had leached into the ground and corrupted its roots.
Momma’s grip on my arm was fierce, but her other hand clutching the round, flat stone shook. She tugged me along, staring dead ahead, unmindful of my ashamed sobs or my sister chasing after us.
“Momma! Momma!” Evvie cried out. “Stop. Stop!”
Evvie whirled in front of us, pretty ballet shoes filthy from running across the muddy lawn. “It’s just a stupid Barbie doll. She didn’t mean to hurt Lise!”
I’d wanted the doll, but Lise wouldn’t give it to me.
Lise had held the Barbie high above her head, out of reach, laughing spitefully as she teased me. A plague of fury surfaced. I’d stamped a foot, unleashing an ear-shattering scream. And heard the crunch of bone as the Barbie doll fell from Lise’s limp grip, her scream joining mine. But hers was one of pain.
“She fractured Lise’s wrist. She wasn’t even touching her!” Momma cried back.
Evvie struck out at Momma’s hand on my upper arm, trying to free me. Both of us knew exactly where she was taking me.
“Get out of my way.” Momma thrust an elbow into her, hard. Evvie stumbled backward, her arms flinging wide to right herbalance, but her ankle rolled as she tripped over a jutting root. She fell beneath an oak with a strangled cry.
I struggled in my mother’s tight grip, digging in my heels and reaching a hand toward my older sister. “Evvie! Evvie!”
