He closed his hand around mine, then all thoughts vanished from my mind when writhing shadows rippled around his form and his face took on a skeletal shape.
Shadows twisted around him like snakes until a shroud of darkness surrounded him. Wings like smoke unfurled from hisback, looking nothing like they had when they’d wrapped around my body, cocooning me on the beach.
He’d turned into a monster.
But… I could feel him. Feel his hand in mine. And something more.
Something that sparked inside my heart, beyond the void.
“My Lady.” He motioned for me to follow.
I did.
We stepped forward. And the house began to fade away.
Chapter 16
Elariya
“Leaving The Land of The Dead”
The walls dissolved like watercolors bleeding into rain.
The windows became hollow eyes that blinked once and vanished.
The floorboards beneath our feet turned translucent, then gossamer-thin, melting into shadow and mist.
Wood and stone became smoke, drifting apart until they were nothing more than whispers of what had been.
Fearing I’d either fall into the depths of some abyss or fade away, I gripped Wolfe’s hand tighter and moved closer, pressing myself against him.
But we were still on solid ground. It was just that everything else around us was moving.
Within moments, the room where we’d stood and the house were gone, leaving only the memory of it behind.
Gods, it had been an illusion. All of it.
The smoke surrounding us cleared, revealing a baren wasteland surrounded by the still dead waters of the sea. Gone was the green forest, the sandy beach, and the brightening sky that was still lit by the twin suns. It didn’t look much different from Morgäven.
I gripped Wolfe's hand. His ghostly, skeletal face loomed above me, all sharp bone and hollow shadows where his eyes should have been.
My stomach lurched, every instinct screaming at me to flee, but it was better to trust the devil I knew than the one we were about to meet.
Movement across from us caught my eye. I turned, and it was only then I realized Arielle and the others were with us.
Arielle smiled at me and pointed ahead.
I looked and spotted a beautiful ship with white sails approaching a wooden dock that hadn’t been there before.
My gaze drifted back to the ship. It was the one I’d described in my journal—Wolfe’s ship. I’d been on it before. That was how I’d gotten to Galaythia last time.
My spirits lifted as the ship drew closer, but the feeling was short-lived. A thick black mass appeared paces away from us, unfolding like smoke given malevolent form. From within the darkness, a giant figure cloaked in black emerged, his face a grotesque marriage of bone and corrupted moon-white flesh.
The Reaper.
I needed no introduction. He stood before us, staring with eye sockets like twin voids that seemed to drink in the meagre light around us.
Gods above, I could scarcely breathe. He was a nightmare given form.
