The connection immediately surged, a lightning strike of pain blasting through my head. I staggered back, clutching my skull.
“Ahhh!” My palms pressed harder, hoping to contain the radiating ache.
What the fuck was that?
Then, it happened again. Not just pain this time, but a flood of fear crashing in like a wave, suffocating.
Not yours . . .a voice seemed to say.
Then it clicked—this wasn’t my pain, my fear.
“Shit!” I swore, bolting through the tunnel, heart hammering. I ran as fast as I was able without snapping an ankle on a rock.
Something was after Pogue . . .
39
POGUE
Incompetent.Useless. Wretched.
I should have seen it. Should’vesensedit—something lurking in the dark.
But I didn’t .
Too distracted. Too mind-fucked just being near her.
She shouldn’t be here.
She shouldn’t be here.
Sheshouldn’tbe here.
This was my punishment. A curse I carved into myself long ago.
Crack!
The sound exploded through my skull, cleaving my eardrums. And with it, every memory came alive. The sting of sharp leather. The glisten of fresh blood pooling. The sound of that laughter. Deep. Grating.Ecstatic.
My eyes snapped shut.
And suddenly—I was that boy again. Sobbing so hard that thick, green snot dripped into my mouth, choking. Gagging.Vomiting.
“Mama!”I cried out, mentally grasping the image of her face. But it slipped through the cracks of my mind . . . as it always did.
The only word that ever brought me warmth was also the one thatbrandedme. Each time it past my lips, it was carved into my spine with strokes of scorching leather ink.
Another permanent tattoo as punishment.
40
CARWYNN
Pogue’s terror,his pain . . . Ifeltit.
A raw, agonizing emotion scalded my chest. It wasn’t mine, but it was vivid, nonetheless . . . and absolutely horrifying. A taste of reliving the worst moments of someone’s life, memories dragged from the deepest vaults of their mind, still throbbing with pain.
My Soulsayer pulled the connection between us, guiding me quicker through the cave. Hitting another diverging path, I immediately felt a pull and turned left.
