“Who’s there?” I called out, but my voice came out more shakily than I would have liked.
The eyes blinked again, drifting toward the floor with an unsettling fluidity. I couldn’t hear footsteps or any sign of movement, but the eyes now watched me from lower to the ground, their unblinking gaze sending chills down my spine.
“I can see you. Show yourself!” I demanded, trying to steady my voice as a knot of dread tightened in my stomach.
A faint scuttling noise echoed off the stone walls, the sound of tiny feet moving in a grotesque rhythm. The eyes inched forward in the darkness, and I stepped back, my heart pounding so loudly I was sure it would burst from my chest.
“Hello, pretty thing.” The voice was low and gravelly, yet also high-pitched and feminine. It didn’t echo in the room; it echoed in my mind.
I jumped, clutching at my head. “Get out of my head!” I shouted, my eyes widening in fear.
“I was hoping to see you,” it seemed to sing the words rather than say them.
“Who are you? What do you want?” I asked shakily.
The eyes drifted backward, the pattering of too many feet echoing again as they floated up the wall to the ceiling.
“I want many things, but you are running out of time,” it purred, its voice ancient and dripping with malice. “Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…”
“Stop!” I screamed, the echo of its voice ripping through my mind in a maddening wave.
It stopped, but the laughter that followed was sharp, cruel—sending a shiver down my spine.
“Let me show you,” it whispered, and suddenly, my vision went dark.
“What did you do?” I cried out, but the darkness swirled, and an image began to form. I fell to the floor to my knees, paralyzed by my fear.
I was looking down at a body—the broad tan back of a man, his muscles tensing as he seemed to hover over somebody on a bed. My eyes widened as I recognized Xavier’s tattoo swirling over the shoulder, and I watched as he seemed to thrust, a feminine leg wrapping around him as he moved. I tried to look away, but I couldn’t. I was held captive by this creature, forced to watch. A face appeared underneath him, and I gasped as I recognized my face, twisted in undeniable pleasure as he kissed down my naked body.
The image swirled, and Xavier and I were in a carriage, his head between my legs as I cried out his name as my hands held onto his smooth dark, inky hair. A tattoo similar to Xavier’s on my left arm.
“Queen,” the creature hissed, and I shook my head.
“No,” I breathed.
The image swirled again. Xavier was on a battlefield, sword swinging as he decapitated enemies. Power rippled off him, lightning striking down bodies in his path as he charged across a bloody field. His body blurred, then seemed to double as he transformed into a large, winged creature. The scales on his body shimmered against the darkened night sky as he roared into it, flying toward me, his eyes blazing with fury as shadowy mist speared toward him.
“Destroyer.”
The image shifted to show me looking down at bodies—too many bodies. Xavier, Jaxon, Dedra, Julian, and Theo lay torn apart in the most grotesque way imaginable. Cynthia, my father, and many others I recognized from home lay dead beside them. My stomach turned as a foot crashed down onto the bodies—her face blurred in the vision, but she was smiling wickedly at me,a dark crown atop her head, her hand held out toward me in offering. Morgana.
“Stop, please stop.”
The creature only hissed, and the image swirled again.
It showed me on the battlefield, though I looked different—stronger, clad in battle attire like Dedra’s. Twin daggers were in my hands as I sliced at attackers. Shadows seeped from my body, encircling and dissolving enemies like acid—light shot from my palms, cutting through bodies like blades.
“You have many fates,” the creature purred.
Images swirled in my mind relentlessly. I straddled Jaxon in a dark, damp room; I was in a dungeon, bleeding on the floor and malnourished; I held Cynthia in my arms, blood escaping her lips as a blade stuck out of her chest; My hands were bloody as I tore my blade from Julian's throat, Jaxon’s headless body behind him; I lay on the ground, reaching toward Xavier whose eyes were still as they stared up at nothing, unmoving.
I had to hold back the bile rising in my throat. “Please!” I shouted, unable to bear seeing anymore.
“But what will you choose? What will you decide?” the creature purred, and I felt like I was being pulled, tugged in endless different directions, being ripped and torn apart.
“The fates of so many hang in the balance…” the creature rumbled. “As do our own.” It croaked and then hissed, “We will be watching…”
Its voice seemed to fade, and an echoing pop sounded as my vision returned. My hands still clutched at my head as I panted heavily from the madness that had just occurred. I spun around, searching for the creature, but it was no longer there.
