That’s the future?
“Not for you, Theo. Never for you. But only if you come to me.”
An explosion rocks the dark place we’re in.
Red and black fire rushes past me, and I look up to see Janine opening her arms embracing the blaze. She throws her head back in ecstasy and cries out. “Tyrus! Yes!”
I don’t know what’s happening, but as I try to remember what a Tyrus is, my body convulses in a pain that is beyond description.
Fire floods my veins which quickly freezes and shatters into jagged, frozen shards, shredding me from the inside.
Janine is laughing. Why is she laughing?
“Because the power of the High Magus now belongs to me, poor Tyrus.”
I double over in pain as I feel a piece of me die. A patch of nothing forms in my core. Gone. Dead.
“But it appears to be different when one of your bonds is cut, poor Theo. But let them go, and then you’ll be free.”
Bonds?
Suddenly I’m aware of the fragile golden-filaments pulling from my chest. My heart. They don't lead to Janine, but instead travel out into the darkness.
I count the threads.
One.
I stroke the filament and suddenly I see Donovan. He’s shifted, sweat pouring down his torso as he fires arrow after arrow. —Dono…—
He doesn’t hear me.
The second strand leads to Alexis, unconscious on the floor in his human form, a pool of blood beneath his head. —Lex?—
Nothing
The third stretches taut, almost snapping out to Ludo. My Ludo. But I can’t quite see him, too much smoke… —Lu, please...—
Four.
—Max, I need you—He growls and swipes at a soldier, leaping across the room and away from my vision.
The fifth thread is scorched and blackened, drifting away into the darkness. A voice whispers,“One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so.”
Then I’ve nothing to hold on to.
Nothing to keep me here.
Wasn’t there a sixth connection?
“I’m right here, Theo.”
Who is that?
“Concentrate on me.”Janine smiles, showing her sharp teeth. Her crimson thread is the sixth. It doesn’t sit quite right but I’m so confused.
The doctor begins to tug me closer.
The golden wires try to anchor but they’re stretching thinner and thinner.
