Everything was closing in on me, the walls of Reform Hall pressing against me as I navigated the echoing hallways—needing a wayout. My black hair, the curtain I often hid behind, swayed behind me with each step.
As I turned a corner, my heart lurched. Voidfire was there with the shadow demon girl who had cut me at Odyssey Bluff when Dreadful tossed Nebula in the lake.
Her eyes locked onto mine with malice. “You got Dreadful’s hand cut off, and she was kicked out of nobility because ofyou!”
“That was because ofher,”I seethed, anger welling up inside me. “Actions have consequences. Has your soul healed from today yet?”
Her brown eyes narrowed into slits. “Shadeberry?”
The familiar shadow demon with brown hair and gray eyes smiled at me before a shadow tendril unfurled, striking me with the ferocity of a whip that caught me squarely in the throat.
Pain exploded in a white-hot burst, and I stumbled back, clutching my neck. The impact was enough to steal my breath, silencing my voice before I could fully form a protest.
Voidfire towered over me, her words dripping with venom. “You think you're so special, Pandora Gravesend? You'renothing. You should’ve never been able to kick Dreadful down so far!”
I tried to respond, but the pain in my larynx was overwhelming, a fierce reminder of the scars that marred my body, hidden beneath layers of clothing and wraps. My instinct to freeze kicked inagain.
Nightwind stepped in, coming out of nowhere. He gently but firmly pulled Voidfire away, his voice a soothing balm in the charged atmosphere. “Voidfire, that's enough,” he commanded, his tone leaving no room for argument. “Do you want her to suck out the rest of our souls?”
My brows furrowed. Hadn’t he just helped her cause issues in Serpentine Stadium today? Why would he stop her? Was he scared of me now?
“She wouldn’t,” Voidfire huffed but backed down under Nightwind's gaze, her anger retreating like the tide.
“Do you want to take that chance?” Nightwind turned to me, his eyes soft with apology and a flicker of fear. “I’m sorry, Gravesend. We won't bother you again,” he assured me, but the promise felt hollow against the throbbing in my throat.
I nodded, unable to voice anything as the familiar licking of magic healed my throat from the shadow tendril’s blow. The fear of being chained up again clawed at the edges of my mind.
“Stop,” I croaked at Voidfire. Her fear magic was funneling in on me.
I needed escape, needed air.
“Voidfire, what the fuck?” Nightwind pushed her back, and the magic released me.
I took that moment to slip away and run because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from devouring their souls.
I ran out of the building and off campus, my feet sinking in the sand with each pound of my flats against the soft grains, and I didn’t stop running until I made it to Odyssey Bluff.
This place would be my sanctuary, and those noble demons who had attacked me herewouldn’ttake it away from me. The wind tousled my hair, and I felt it cascade over my skin, the sensation areminder that I was here, I was alive, and I was free.
I lowered myself down to the sand next to the lake and wrapped my arms around my knees. The pain in my throat was just a steady memory now, each beat a reminder of the moments I had survived, of the abuse I had escaped. I breathed in the scent of the lake, and my fingers traced the scars on my thigh over the dressing.
I sat thereuntil the sun disappeared, and the full moon cast a spectral glow over the water, illuminating the colored rocks that lay tranquil at the bottom of the lake.
I’d survived my entire upbringing in pain, isolation, and despair. When would my pain and suffering be enough for the Fates?
The cold desert air wrapped around me like a frigid blanket, but it did nothing to quell the heat of my past scars, both physical and emotional.
A rustling in the darkness around me set my heart racing.
Panic, a familiar feeling as of late, clawed at my throat as shadows began to wither around me. Memories of my mother's scorching,dripping shadow tendrils slicing into my flesh flooded back with the force of a tidal wave. The past was a chain I could never seem to break, and tonight, it tightened its grip tighter than it ever had before.
I jumped to my feet andran, desperation making me faster than I ever thought was possible as I ascended the creaky, rickety bridge. It creaked and moaned under my weight, but I kept racing up it.
Shadow tendrils, dripping black like those that had once bound and tortured me daily, wrapped around my thigh, slicing to the bone with an imagined pain that was all too real.
Adrenaline pumped my legs faster. My throat burned as I tried to scream, a whisper of a yell the only sound I could make, the damage to my vocal cords a cruel reminder of the way Mother had stuffed her sharp tendrils down my throat.
Blood soaked me, warm and sticky, pouring out and down my leg, but as I reached the top of the bridge, I realized that I wasn’t bleeding. There was no blood at all. It was an illusion.
