Page 123 of Wraithwound

Lena held back a sob as she took in the severity of his injuries.

“Let me in Lena. If it’s the warrior you want, I can save him,” the voice slithered in from her mind, and she realized she’d loosened her focus on the shift. She drew the darkness all the way back in, silencing Runa.

Lena dumped out her pack, picking through the medicinal herbs and remedies that she’d brought. Nothing. There was nothing useful in her pack. Not for this. She’d managed to get back to Cross while he was still alive, but she couldn’t help him. Panic began to creep in again, and with it, Runa’s voice.

“Let me in. Or watch him die.”

Panic swirled deeper in her gut as she contemplated her options. Black tendrils began to appear in his aura, and she knew the time to decide was now. But she couldn’t trust Runa to save him.

“You would let your aenigma die?” Runa asked.

Lena had no idea what that meant, but she refused to take the bait.

“Your kind cannot comprehend what you’re up against. The Goddess isn’t a docile maiden intent on aiding humans. The very idea of humanity was conceived by the spark that is her existence. The very planets you’ve glimpsed reside in her embrace. The fact that you haven’t even considered who or what could have trapped a Goddess in the first place implies that you are woefully ignorant and unprepared for what you might face in the temple.”

“I don’t care about the gods-damned temple right now!” Her voice echoed in the cave. As if in response, Cross’s arm twitched.

“Let me in, or it won’t be your subpar healing skills or inexperience with riddles that kills him. It will be your obduracy.”

But Lena was no longer listening to Runa’s taunts. Cross’s arm had twitched a second time. She took his wrist in her hands and examined his gauntlet. It was empty after removing the last two bottles, the other potions having been used in previous fights. She tried to remember which potions he’d used when, but she couldn’t get her brain to sift through the last day.

If only he had a healing crystal or some other potion to counteract—Lena froze. There was one more potion in this gauntlet; she knew there was. Cross had reached for it when she’d been attacked by the Nychtyra and that was before they’d reached Lythara where he’d received more. Lena studied it closely, inspecting the empty slots that usually held the larger bottles.

There!

At the top of the gauntlet was a small button that Lena had mistaken for a rivet. She pushed on it, and out popped a long, thin vial. Upon closer examination, Lena realized it was actually two vials. One of them was for pain, that she knew, but the other . . . Lena wasn’t sure what it did. She stared at the vials, considering their size, the lengths whoever designed the contraption went through to conceal the button, and the fact that it was paired with a pain medicine, she had to believe it was some sort of last resort for severe injuries.

Before she could dwell on it any further, Lena pulled the vials apart and poured the contents into his mouth. The wait was eternal, the moment stretching out before her. Just when she thought she might have guessed incorrectly, his breathing shifted, becoming deeper, and some of the color returned to his face. Lena released a shaky breath, waiting to see what else the potion would accomplish, but the wounds in his stomach, although improved, were still severe.

Cross groaned, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

“Not enough,” the voice hissed. “Pity, especially when you have exactly what you need nearby.”

“What?”

Lena glanced at her medical supplies, but then she heard a clicking noise toward the entrance of the cave.

Runa laughed.

The panic that gripped her then threatened to devour her whole. The thought of facing another one of those creatures inside this cave with Cross in such grave condition made her stomach lurch.

But Lena cut it short.

She would not panic; she couldn’t. Not if she had any hope of saving Cross.

Her brother had told her once that her power lay in the parts of herself that she kept hidden. Lena had been many things, selfish, irresponsible and self-absorbed, only concerned with her own grief, but she was also clever, persistent, and angry.

She was hardly the woman she used to be. Now, she was something different.

Lena was a monster too.

And it was time she started acting like it.

She tilted her head to listen, her ears able to pick up noises that her human hearing could never attune to. Lena made her way to the cave entrance and peered out. There, above her on the cliff face was another creature, albeit smaller than the last. It clicked its large pincers together several times, the noise much sharper, likely searching for any vibrations.

Lena held her breath, hoping the creature would retreat, but it didn’t. Instead, it began inching down the cliff face. She couldn’t risk letting the creature inside the cave. Luckily, she’d been paying attention when Runa had summoned her power before and felt innately that her body would remember too, like a path carved through her understanding.

Imitating what Runa had done when she killed the first creature, Lena sought to draw forth energy from the wraith that had helped herself to Lena’s body. Surely, if Runa could use Lena, Lena could use her too.