Chapter 4 #2
“Run!” I tell Dane, pushing him out the back of the hollow tree. “Run and don’t look back!”
He does, disappearing into the underbrush. I turn to face the hunters, a child ready to die to give her brother time to escape.
Except this time, my wolf doesn’t shift free, fierce and angry, killing them all despite her lack of training and experience.
Instead, they catch Dane. I hear his screams, his pleas for help.
“Lithia!” he cries. “Lithia, help me!”
I run toward his voice, but no matter how fast I move, I can’t reach him. His screams grow weaker, then abruptly stop.
NO!
I break through the trees, and I find him. Not the child Dane, but the adult, my twin, my other half. Dead. Eyes open and unseeing, throat torn out.
Around him, other bodies. Ryker. Kitara. Elias. Levi. All the wolves I’ve sworn to protect, all dead because I failed them.
“No,” I whisper, dropping to my knees beside them. “No, please.”
“This is your future,” Jim says, somehow part of this nightmare. “This is what happens when you resist us. Everyone you love dies.”
The scene shifts. I’m in Shadowmist’s main hall. Thaddeus sits in Ryker’s chair, blood staining the stones beneath it. Zella stands at his right hand, smiling coldly.
“You could have prevented this,” Zella tells me. “Could have saved them all by simply cooperating.”
“Fuck off,” I growl. “This isn’t real.”
The scene wavers, then resolidifies. Now I’m in my cell again, but there’s someone else there too—a man I’ve never seen before but somehow know is Kier. He’s on his knees before Jim, silver blade at his throat.
“Tell us what we want to know,” Jim says, “or he dies too.”
“Listen to them,” Kier says, his golden eyes pleading. “Save me. Please.”
The blade slices across his throat, blood spraying across the stone floor.
I scream, lunging forward. Grasping for Kier’s falling body. A howl rips from my throat and I—
I crash into the wall of my cell, gasping and panting as reality snaps back into place. Prudence’s hand hovers near my face, her eyes black and fathomless. Tears stream down her cheeks, mixing with the blood streaming from her nose.
Is this another vision?
I’m shaking, unable to control the tremors that rack my body. The visions felt so real—the blood, the screams, the death of everyone I’ve ever cared about.
“That’s enough for today,” Jim says, nodding to Bob. “We’ll continue tomorrow.”
Bob smiles cruelly, but Prudence just looks devastated. As they turn to leave, she whispers something only I can hear.
“I’m so sorry.”
Then they’re gone, the door slamming shut behind them, leaving me alone with the aftershocks of visions that still feel more real than the cell around me.
I curl into myself, trying to separate reality from the nightmare Prudence forced into my mind. Dane isn’t dead. Ryker isn’t dead. They’re alive, somewhere far from here, probably searching for me.
And Kier. I saw his face in the vision, a face I’ve never seen before. Golden eyes in a lean, scarred face. How could I see someone I’ve never met?
“Lithia?” Kier’s voice comes through the wall, urgent and concerned. “Lithia, talk to me.”
I can’t respond. Can’t form words past the horror still gripping me.
“Dammit, woman, answer me!” His voice is sharp now, almost angry. “I know you’re there. I can hear you breathing.”
The edge in his tone cuts through my paralysis. “I’m here,” I manage, my voice barely a whisper.
“I heard your screaming. What did the fear-seer show you?”
I close my eyes, the images still fresh and vivid. Fear-seer. The title is appropriate. “She… she showed me things… I…” I draw in a shuddering breath.
“Shit.” There’s real fear in his voice now. “What kind of things?”
“Everyone is dead. Everyone I care about.” I swallow hard. “And you. She showed me you.”
“Me? You don’t know what I look like.”
“I saw you anyway. Golden eyes. Lean face. Scars.”
There’s a long silence. “Ruggedly good- looking though, right?”
A choked sound escapes me—part sob, part laugh. I snort, the sound ragged in my throat. I wipe at my eyes, shame and grief still clinging to me like a second skin. “Gods,” I whisper. “I get it now.”
“Get what?”
“Why you didn’t believe I was real when we first spoke.” My fingers twitch against the stone. “Why you thought I was just another hallucination.”
“Yeah,” he says. “It’s hard to tell what’s real when good old Prudence can make anything seem possible. Though, to be fair to her, I was already fucked up before they dragged her in here a few months back.”
I press my palm to the wall between us, desperate to cling to something solid. “I don’t know if I’m awake, or dreaming, or somewhere in between. I can still see it—Dane bleeding out. Ryker broken. You…”
His voice cuts in, low and steady. “You’re awake, Lithia. You’re here. And so am I.”
I hear him move.
“Slide your hand over here. Touch me. Let me show you how real this is.”
I stick my hand in the opening, desperate for anything to anchor me. His touch is solid, the contact electric, a lifeline in the dark.
“I’m here,” he says firmly. “You’re not alone.”
I press my finger against his, anchoring myself to the feeling. My breathing evens out slowly, the aftershocks of the vision beginning to settle.
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. Prudence is some kind of fear-seer. I’d always heard rumors about supernaturals who can do this kind of thing.” He shifts, and I hear chains rattle.
“She knows about you. What if she tells them we’ve been talking.”
“They’re not stupid.” His finger grazes gently against mine. “If she tells them then they’ll use it against you now. Threaten me to make you talk. Don’t let them.”
“I’m not going to be responsible for you being hurt.”
His laugh is bitter. “They’ve been hurting me for three years, Lithia. What’s a little more torture between friends?”
Despite everything, I feel the ghost of a smile touch my lips. “Are we friends?”
“We’re whatever we need to be to survive this place.” His finger presses more firmly against mine. “The important thing is that we don’t break.”
I focus on the warmth of his touch. Who would have thought the press of a fingertip would be the thing holding me together?
“That woman, Prudence,” I say after a moment. “She’s a prisoner too, isn’t she?”
“Yes. Another captive they’re using.”
“She apologized. Before. And after.”
“Don’t mistake that for kindness.” His voice turns hard. “She’ll do exactly what they tell her to do to stay alive. No one is your friend here.”
“Except you?”
He snorts. “I have ulterior motives.”
“And those are?”
“I need you to keep me sane.”
I’m quiet for a minute, fighting the pain that still rages through my body.
“She was terrified.”
“We all are. If you’re not, it means you’re already dead.” He shifts position but doesn’t let his finger slip from mine. “Get some rest. Tomorrow will be worse.”
“How could it possibly be worse?”
“Now they know your fears. And they’ll use them against you in any way they can think of.”
I close my eyes, the exhaustion of the day finally catching up to me. “Kier?”
“What?”
“Stay with me?” I twitch my finger against his, hating that I sound so vulnerable.
“Not going anywhere, Shadowmist.” His voice is gruff but gentle. “Just try to sleep.”
I sigh a silent breath of relief and close my eyes.