Kalix snarls, “Don’t you grow tired of him. He’s always ruining our fun. Typical of his kind.”
“He wakes me from the dreams—the nightmares—you cast in my mind. How can he do that?”
“Magic,” she quips, waving her hands sarcastically, and smiles.
“What is he?” I ask, my voice demanding an answer.
“He’s a pain in my ass. That’s what he is.” She lowers her gaze, looking up through her black lashes. “And he’s going to be the first person I kill when I fully take over your body.”
Briar? Can you hear me?
“Why do you hate him?” I stumble back, creating distance. “Is it because he helps me? Is it because he can pull me out of this?”
“I’m stunned you haven’t put it together yet. He rips you from my grasp every time, as they all have in the past.” Anger flashes in her soulless eyes. “Bothersome fucking things.”
I narrow my eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“You choose not to, Briar. You know these aren’t nightmares.” She laughs, coldly. ”You can feel it. You continue to fear me instead of using me. Let us become one.”
I stare, confusion and anger filling my chest like wildfire, accompanied by the harsh reality of what’s happening.
Briar! Fuck.
I feel myself fading. The nightmare swirling around me begins to lessen. I hear Silas’s call as a beacon of light in the darkest nights.
I squint my eyes, ignoring the pull, fighting with everything I have to stay.
Here.
In my own mind, I shout, “Stop, I need to hear what she has to say.”
Kalix narrows her large eyes, observing my internal struggle with a satisfied expression on her face. “You want to stay? You want to know the truth, don’t you?”
I clench my fists and say, "Keep going.”
“You can shift wherever you wish, my child. The world is yours. The realms are yours—past or present, never future. That’s why you are my perfect vessel.” She stalks forward, and I backpedal.
“With you, I could achieve so much. But that man—he’s thetetherpulling you back from where I can reach you. Fate always brings a vessel and tether together to protect the cosmos." She pets the crow on her shoulder, savoring my shock. “It’s unnatural possessing this power, and there must be a balance. He is your balance. Your tether of realms. He will always guide you home.” She laughs cooly. “That is, until he’s gone.”
The memories of before crash into my mind. All the nights I was lost, and he found me.
He’s kept me safe for years without ever truly knowing me, designed to protect and ground me. I felt stuck in that wasteland for what seemed like years while Silas was so severely injured that he couldn’t come after me. I traveled so far without realizing it and had no way back. The morning I woke up on the ship, Silas had found me. He had healed and desperately searched through the shadows of all the realms to find me.
Kalix continues, “See, the thing is, Briar, you want me to take over. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have traveled here. You are the reason you continue to see me—because you want to.” She steps forward. “I didn’t force you here. I can’t. You came willingly.”
I shake my head.
Stop ignoring me.Silas’s voice shouts.
My chest throbs in pain, and I clutch my shirt.
“He’s calling. Better run home, now. I’ll see you soon. That tattoo won’t keep me away for long.”
Kalix fades into a haze with a wicked grin painted on her terrifying face.
I drop to my knees, my chest feeling like it’s about to explode. The heat shines down on me before swiftly turning ice cold. Iclose my eyes and let the words guide me, taking me home—to Silas.
My bloodshot eyes rip open, and Silas hovers above me, his hands on my chest. His panicked face tells me all I need to know. They thought they lost me, and maybe they almost did. I can feel my eyes still heavy with darkness, unable to shake from her grasp just yet.
