Rushing to the door, I race along the corridor, barely registering the wide, glass windows all along one side of the hall—or the scorched, barren field that’s visible outside.
The door to Striker’s old room is open, but the space is empty. No bed, no desk. Nothing but moonlight.
“Striker! Daughter!” I race past Striker’s room, nearing the top of the stairs at the end of the corridor, when a figure steps out of the shadows.
With a gasp, I skid to a halt, my bare feet grazing on the rough wooden planks.
The newcomer has long, crimson hair and sharp, red claws. She’s dressed in a full black bodysuit while a golden snake twines around her waist like a belt. A russet-colored snake and a black snake meander through her hair.
Her features are my own.
Is she me?
A very different me?
“They don’t exist,” she says, her voice uncaring. “Striker. Your daughter. Your friends. They don’t exist in your life anymore.”
My heart pounds even harder in my chest. “What have you done to them?”
“Me?” Her eyebrows arch. “You chose your path. You turned away from love. You chose to live a life of vengeance. Never having tofeelanything again. I’m simply the product of your choices.”
“No.” I shake my head, my voice becoming a snarl as desperation rises within me. “I would never choose a life without them.”
“Wouldn’t you?” She moves away from the top of the staircase, no longer barring the way. “Go look for them, then. If you chose them, they would be waiting for you. If not…”
She shrugs and says no more.
I race past her, descending the steps as fast as I can. Reaching the next level, I cast my gaze along the empty corridors, the open doors leading into empty rooms. “Striker! Daughter!”
Down to the next level, I race, finding it also empty.
Down and down past level after level after level, I scream for them until I find myself—impossibly—bursting onto the top level again.
My own self leans against the wall there, her whip in her hands.
“No,” I whisper.
“You chose this,” she says.
“No.”
Please no.
I don’t want this.
I want love. I want a family. I want tofeel…
I stumble back from her, miss the top step, and then I’m falling.
Falling and falling until I crash against dusty ground, my head hits a rock, and darkness takes over me.
26. STRIKER DRAVEN
Isqueeze myself into the narrow pass of the fifth door, the wooden box jammed against my chest, my left arm extended at my side.
Inadvertently, the ends of my fingertips protrude through the opening, preventing the rock from closing over, and in that moment, I lose my calm.
The tunnel is dank and dark, and for a fucking awful second, the memories of all the nights I spent in the pit beneath the Academy return to me, stealing the breath from my chest and filling me with despair.
