Color filled my vision. Deep blues and purples. Soft pinks. Vibrant seafoam greens. Mesmerizing pigments encircled me like a school of fish, the pappi now acting as one. Another light caught my attention, and I looked past the swirling colors to see stars—so many, it seemed as if the sky would surely falter in holding them up.
Tears streamed down my face.
I felt a light tingle and looked down to find clear tendrils had wrapped themselves around my legs. They pulsed in a steady rhythm, and the colors surrounding me yielded themselves to those fine threads, their pigments filtering into my veins through the silky lines that embraced me.
The shimmering light now radiated from me as if my body couldn’t contain all that had been offered.
I noticed it then—the darkness that didn’t belong—and I knew exactly where it was. Palms still facing the heavens, I willed every last drop of light to enter, to fill me to the brim with their beauty, their energy—leaving no room for the darkness.
If Amos’ wisp couldn’t be ripped, pried, or forced out, maybe I could make the environment unbearable, forcing the darkness to leave of its own volition, lest it be suffocated.
Light poured into me, through me, all around me as I focused on the darkness that hid within me.
Within heartbeats, I found it.
It was the size of an orange, slowly being squished between my rib cage and the light, as if it had decided to nest in my heart. The wisp had chosen to live in my source of love and life, not in my mind like I’d thought—and somehow it was a deeper violation.
Anger flared within me, and I pressed with all my might against it, asking the gods for as much light as they could spare.
A sliver of the wisp finally beached the surface of my skin, just past my sternum. Its hideous malice was palpable as it writhed from the exposure. I pushed harder, and a sickening slurping sound rasped from my chest as it finally exited my body.
The wisp floated in a perfect sphere before me, and I shuddered at the malignity that radiated from it, how it struggled against its invisible confines as if it were alive.
A thick, oily black substance dripped from the bottom of it onto my leg, hissing as it was devoured by whatever manner of magic filled me. Light surrounded the wisp as if placing a layer of protection around it.
I reached for the bubble of slithering darkness with my finger, curious.
“Nyleeria, no!” Caius yelled.
A loud crack split my ears.
Chapter 30
An Ephemeral Perspective
My lungs emptied as I slammed into Caius, the impact throwing him back. I braced myself to hit the ground, but it didn’t catch us.
Cold wind whipped across my face as I tumbled through never-ending darkness. I grappled for something, anything, to stop me from falling. Finding nothing, I frantically looked for any sign of Caius but came up empty. The light that’d emanated from us had been snuffed out.
“Caius!” I called out.
“Nyleeria!” His voice was panicked but close.
“Caius.” The word came out as a relieved sob.
“Nyleeria, I can’t valen you unless we’re touching,” he yelled into the abyss.
“I can’t see. I don’t know where you are.”
“I’m here. I’m here.”
I lunged toward the sound as best as I could while I continued to tumble through nothingness, feeling utter panic as my hands continued to come up empty.
“Caius!” I screamed. “Caius!”
“Nyleeria. I’m here. I’m here.”
“Cai—” I slammed into him, and he wrapped an arm around me.
