All I hear is the soft hum of the silver thread, a melody that gently lifts my heart, singing to me of hope and…terrible desperation.
I’m frozen in uncertainty, still leaning forward, my thumb pressed down onto the dress, my mind trying to reconcile what I see with what I feel.
Antony begins crawling toward me, dragging himself across the floor, one clearly painful inch at a time.
His voice finally reaches me, but it’s as faint as a breath of air.
“Thyra. Let it go.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Stellen
Awhisper breaks through the darkness, seizing my mind.
The voices of my mother’s people are calling me home.
Calling me with a melody I haven’t heard since I was a boy. When I ran freely through the snow, reveling in the cold powder, enraptured by the sparkling beauty.
A time before ice filled my heart.
As the song tugs at my mind, awareness of my body comes slowly back to me.
I’m lying on the floor beside my desk, right where I fell. I don’t know how much time has passed, but I haven’t moved from this spot. The assassin’s knife is on the floor, barely brushing my fingertips.
I must have pulled the knife out at some point.
My blood has stopped flowing. Maybe. I’m not sure.
The smallest glimpse of my surroundings tells me that, at some point, my frost power must have exploded again because the walls are covered with ice so cold they’ve turned a deep blue, and frozen air wafts off every surface aroundme. I’m certain my power will have reached the door and blocked off any entry into the catacombs.
Nobody will have been able to get inside.
Despite the cold, I’m shaking, and I can’t control it. Sweat covers my brow. I’m slick with it.
Possibly, I’m burning up.
But it can only be a false feeling. A deceitful sensation.
My body is preparing for death, tricking me into believing I’m warm.
Finally warm.
Finally ready to let go of life.
I prepare to sink back into oblivion. Only to flinch.
The song shrieks within my mind, sudden and demanding, a desperate melody grating back and forth, back and forth, scraping within my hearing until it’s a scream.
A terrible scream that wrenches at me like a physical force.
My eyes fly open.
For a moment, I imagine an icy blue thread stretches out from my heart again, the same thread that sprang up between the Oracle and me, floating once more in the air in front of me like a fucking apparition.
Taunting me before it fades again.
Again, I prepare to let go of life, but the song only grows louder.
