29 2
His club was a thing of terrible beauty, made of opaline. Terebell parried with her sword. Neither of them were as fluid as Arcturus, but they fought with murderous precision, driven by an old grudge. Terebell was the rightful Warden of the Sheratan, acknowledged by the Ranthen. Kornephoros was fixated on her, his eyes burning a clean yellow.
Cade lashed out. I tasted iron, but took my turn. This time, I pushed close enough to make contact with the edge of his dreamscape, only for him to do the same to me, twice as hard.
My defences strained. We continued in this way, bouncing off each other with the force of two bullets, until I was clammy and heaving. Each time Cade landed a hit on me, my skull rang like a bell, blood leaked from my nose, and the ?ther shuddered around us.
Gomeisa Sargas never took his eyes off the fight. Even the other Rephs stopped to look.
If I kept this up, I was going to pass out. I had taken knocks to my dreamscape from many spirits over the years, but these attacks were strategic, as if Cade was feeling along my barrier for weak points.
‘I expected more staying power,’ he said. ‘What was Arcturus doing with you in Oxford?’
‘You’re good. I’ll give you that.’ I spat blood on the sand. ‘Who trained you?’
‘My family.’
Cade had most likely been taught from childhood, then. It didn’t surprise me. My attacks hadn’t even made him break a sweat, while I was starting to feel as if I had run a marathon.
‘I first walked in the ?ther when I was eleven,’ he said. ‘I’ve polished that skill for thirteen years.’ He found a vulnerability again, driving into it with so much force it almost brought me to my knees. ‘Even if a Reph taught you, you’re still a novice, Paige. Arcturus Mesarthim was no dreamwalker. I’m sure he tried his best, but he didn’t understand our power. The power to be anyone. The power to rip life away.’
I struck him again, and again, he repelled me. When I landed back in my body, I got straight up, my resolve stiffening.
Even if I had only been able to skim his dreamscape, it had boosted my confidence. His barrier was thin with exhaustion. No doubt it was hard to sleep, living in the belly of the beast. He might have trained for years longer than I had, but I had breached his dreamscape before. I knew that it was possible.
He still broke me first.
It was the vision that did it: Kornephoros and Castor, carving Arcturus with swords, over and over. This wasn’t an imagined scene; it could only be this vivid because Cade had actually witnessed it. I saw the light of ectoplasm in the room. I saw Michael being hit by a Reph.
Cade was inside me before I could stop him.
All dreamscapes had defences, but mine had only dealt with this level of danger once before. Cade sprinted through my windflowers and vaulted into my secret room, my fortress, flowers trampled in his wake. Every footfall left a bruise. Before I could move, he made it to my sunlit zone. It paralysed me just to see another person in my dreamscape.
He seized my spirit. For the first time in my life, another human was touching the essence of me, the vulnerable quick at the core of my being. That touch might as well have stripped me naked, peeling layers of skin with it.
‘Your dreamscape wasn’t like this before,’ he observed. ‘There were only red flowers.’
His grip tightened, and it wasn’t my body he was crushing. It was me.
‘I’m going to make you kill Jaxon Hall,’ he whispered, so close I would have felt his breath if this had been the outside world. Against my will, I trembled. ‘And then you’re going to kill Nick. And then you’ll know how it feels to be me.’
‘Over my bones,’ I forced out.
He threw me out of my sunlit zone, into a darker circle of my consciousness. That careless act of violence – so easy for him – would have destroyed anyone but a dreamwalker. My silver cord stretched, as supple as ever, but the shock left me in a heap on the ground.
As Cade stepped into my rightful place, I had an overpowering urge to sleep, to relinquish control of my body. I would have welcomed it, in that moment. I felt as if his fingerprints were smeared all over me.
His dream-form grew still as he looked through my eyes. The sight of it jolted me back to my senses. I forced myself up and sprinted towards him. With all my strength, I dived at him, wrestling him for control of my body, trying to keep his attention on my dreamscape. I was no amaurotic – I could put up a good fight – but Cade had done this so many times, and I was battling the urge to let him take the wheel.
I could just see through my own eyes, though my vision faltered: Cade was pointing my revolver at Jaxon. With a supreme effort, I wrenched the gun to the left. Jaxon started as it went off, his eyebrows shooting up.
‘Really, darling?’
‘Paige.’ Nick gripped my shoulders. ‘Paige, is that you or him in there?’
‘Me,’ I ground out, but the ventriloquist had my chin on a hinge. ‘It’s … me, Nick.’
I had never experienced a horror like not having control of my own jaw and tongue. His words in my mouth.
My hand on the knife.
He worked a blade from my holster, every inch he gained sending a bolt of pain along my fingers. My body, fighting back against the puppeteer.
Nick was concentrating on my face. He wouldn’t see the blade coming until it was too late. I looked into his eyes, hoping he could see my warning, sense the battle for control.
And then I had a sudden, desperate idea.
I only had one spectre in my dreamscape. One memory so harrowing that it had crawled free of the ground. It should have reacted to an intruder, but I went to great lengths, every hour of my life, to keep that memory from taking hold. I had pinned it in the hadal zone.
Now I focused on that memory with all my might. Arcturus had made it fresh, so it was easier to remember the tight grip of the manacles, the water filling my chest, the foul taste and the cold as it sliced down my throat. Suhail stood above me, his eyes turning red.
Perhaps the Underqueen would care for a drink.
The spectre moved. So did my hand, jolting closer to Nick. It shook as I resisted Cade.
You are nothing.
In my dreamscape, the spectre lifted Cade clean off the ground, distracting him from the physical world. He stared into its leaking eyes, and I knew that he was seeing my dark room, suffocating on my fear. His spirit went rigid, then limp. His silver cord gleamed once, and he vanished, leaving me to shudder.
The spectre retreated into the dark. I lurched back into my sunlit zone, and my eyes snapped open.
‘Paige,’ Nick said. His voice was muffled. ‘Paige, is that you?’
‘Get back. He almost—’ I shoved his chest. ‘Stay away from me, Nick. Help the Ranthen.’
‘What happened?’
Cade had fallen to one knee. The pain in my head when I dreamwalked was bad enough, but the agony of his intrusion was so much worse. My eyes watered.
He couldn’t have orders to kill me, or I would already be dead. That would be an unforgivable waste. He wanted me weak enough that the Rephs could collect me and carry me off.
For now, however, Cade was reeling. Jaxon scanned the battleground. Keeping my defences up, I followed his gaze.
Terebell executed a graceful spin and beheaded one of the Sargas loyalists, spraying ectoplasm. Considering the Ranthen were outnumbered, they were holding their own, all of them consummate fighters. More Buzzers were spidering in. A rumble filled the arena, and part of the Colosseum crumbled, causing an avalanche of stone. The rubble crashed and rolled down the stands and across the floor, scattering a few Buzzers, forcing the Rephs to divide to avoid it. Gomeisa raised a hand, and more came.
His gift was one of the most powerful I had encountered. At any moment, he could kill us all.
I could have sworn he heard the thought. His eyes flashed, and Nick was yanked off the ground.
In unison, Jaxon and I grabbed him. My mind went blank with fear as Nick fought the invisible force. With gritted teeth, Jaxon sent all of his poltergeists towards Gomeisa, breaking his grip. We collapsed to the ground, Nick pale in the face. His skin was icy, his lips dark.
That was the second time he had been singled out. The Sargas knew exactly who he was, and what he meant to me. I took off the pendant and fastened it around his neck, ignoring his weak protest.
‘Fuck.’ My gaze darted around the arena. ‘Where the hell is Cade?’
‘Underqueen,’ Mistry called as I rose. ‘Draghetti has been tracking the Buzzers. They’re all here, in the hypogeum. He’s giving us ten minutes before he detonates the Colosseum.’
‘What?’ Nick allowed me to bolster him up, panting. ‘He’s going to blow the whole place?’
‘I need longer,’ I told Mistry, glancing at my watch. ‘You have to give the Ranthen a chance to stop this.’
‘It’s a bloodbath. Hundreds of people are dead,’ Mistry shouted. ‘We don’t have time to—’
‘Suzanna,’ Jaxon barked.
I looked up, grasping Nick. Another hail of ancient stone was flying towards us. The poltergeist averted it, and it missed us by a foot, crashing along the floor instead. Sukie had died when some cruel boys threw rocks at her, and she definitely wasn’t letting Jaxon go that way.
Jaxon doubled over. He was turning as white as his shirt, both sleeves damp with blood. Even at the scrimmage, I had never seen him use his gift so much. I jerked him back as a Buzzer began to stalk the edge of our protective circle, its elongated teeth on full display.
Cade was still nearby, no doubt trying to shake off the terror of the memory. I could sense him somewhere in the stands, but I was already too drained to send my spirit after him. I would need to track him down myself. When I started to run, Sukie came with me.
‘Paige,’ Nick bellowed. ‘Don’t leave the circle!’
I stopped when sand blew across my face. An Italian military chopper was hovering over the ruin. Gomeisa stared it down, as if he was daring this mechanical toy to move against him.
He made a gesture. As more of the Colosseum tumbled, he lifted a slab of broken stone and hurled it towards the helicopter. The pilot had no time to react, but Lucida Sargas thrust up her own hand. The slab came to a gradual stop, a foot away from the helicopter.
She had the same gift.
The chopper banked away from us. Lucida threw the rubble back at Gomeisa, who retaliated. Stone crashed on stone with a sound like a thunderclap, scattering chips across the ground.
Cade emerged from the dust, two more Rephs in his wake. He must have recovered his strength, and now he was back to finish me off. Seeing me, he charged, his expression livid. My spirit reared. I sprinted to meet him.
And then the floor split, right under my boot.
The ground became a chasm. I tried to back up, but it was too late. I was already falling.
A hand grabbed mine. I hung over the underground tunnels, where scores of Buzzers were loping through a labyrinth of walls and arches. The last of the daylight filled it, and the creatures saw me, their screams growing louder. In moments, I had lost count of them.
I looked up to see Jaxon, holding my weight.
A Buzzer snapped at my boots. I hadn’t understood what was happening, but now I saw. The floor was retracting, exposing the warren of tunnels, and Jaxon Hall was all that stood between me and my doom. If he let go, the Buzzers would shred me. Our gazes locked, and I knew he was considering it, so nothing would stop him taking the Rose Crown.
Then he yanked me up to the floor. I crumpled into his arms, too shaken to speak.
‘Watch your step, darling,’ Jaxon said.
I had no time to question him. He pointed Jean towards another Buzzer, stopping it before it could reach us.
He carted me towards our circle as the floor slid farther back, taking us away from the battling Rephs. By the time it stopped, an insurmountable gap had opened between one side of the battleground and the other, revealing most of the hypogeum. All I could see down there were Buzzers. I couldn’t feel anything but the great oily mass of their dreamscapes.
‘I can’t overpower Cade,’ I said, breathing hard. ‘He’s too strong.’
Jaxon was the last person I wanted to ask for help, but I was desperate. His soft laugh chilled my spine.
‘You are a queen of thieves and scoundrels,’ he said, almost tenderly. ‘Not a hero, Paige.’
A peal of Gloss drew our attention. Lucida was pinned under an immense slab of stone. Seeing her position, Terebell tossed her sword to Pleione and ran to their ally, hefting the stone aside. It must have weighed at least a tonne, but Terebell raised it enough to free Lucida. She turned over, her arm bent in an awkward position.
Kornephoros was stalking towards them. I stopped him with a surge of pressure, but the mental skirmish with Cade had drained so much of my strength. If I had any hope of protecting the Ranthen, I would have to get closer. Terebell laid both hands on Lucida, and the ?ther vibrated around them.
‘Underqueen, we need to leave,’ Mistry said. ‘If we’re going to have a chance of getting clear—’
‘You go,’ I cut in. ‘Take the others with you. Jax, get out of here.’
‘With pleasure,’ Jaxon said. ‘I recommend you do the same, Underqueen.’
He shadowed Mistry to the entrance, beckoning his poltergeists. Sukie circled me once more before she raced after her binder. As I regained my breath, I tried again to search the ?ther. Ver?a and Maria were now on ground level, but Lesath was below, likely with Arcturus.
‘Paige.’ Nick gripped my arm. ‘Look.’
I looked. Cade was trapped on our side of the floor, without any Rephs to protect him, pouring another salt circle.
Our eyes met.
He tried to get the jump on me, cannoning his spirit out so hard the ?ther surged. Nick countered his attack with a vision, but Cade sent him crumpling to the ground. That sight was all I needed to spur me, even though the agony was hard to bear. I wrenched into the ?ther.
And I broke into Cade.
When I had seen his dreamscape in London, I hadn’t had any time to look, and that remained the case. Still, I glimpsed the trunks of trees, red leaves scattered on the ground, before I made towards the light.
There was his dream-form, waiting for me, larger and more imposing than his physical self. It resembled a Reph, down to its eyes. I shunted it out of place, into the gloom beyond his sunlit zone. Before he could recover, I was in control of his body, fighting his resistance. I took one drunken step in his skin, walking him out of the salt circle. A Buzzer smelled fresh meat and came rushing towards him.
Cade kicked me out with frightening ease. Back in my own body, I watched him bowl a spool past the Buzzer, distracting it. As soon as it turned its back, I leapt up and ran at him.
The sheer madness of the sprint must have shocked him. I hurled a fistful of sand into his eyes, making him shout in pain, and then I was in his circle of salt, taking him to the ground. I drove my fist into his face, but I already knew I was no match for him. He must have been training in body as well, protecting the cradle of his gift.
As I knocked one of his back teeth loose, he rolled me over and trapped my arms above my head, the way they had been on the waterboard. My chest tightened.
Cade was too weak to dreamwalk now. In spite of all of his training, our fight had pushed him to the limit. I slammed a knee between his legs. As his grip slackened, I tried and failed to project my spirit one more time. Our tanks were both empty, but Cade was incensed. Before I could stop him, he let go of my right hand and tore the brace off the left one. I knew what he was going to do, and what I couldn’t stop.
When he twisted my wrist, I knew I was finished.
A gut-wrenching scream escaped me. The pain was blinding, beyond anything I had ever felt. My left hand was in boiling oil. As tears streaked my cheeks, the golden cord rang.
‘You know what this is, the feeling we have?’ Cade asked, blood on his lips. Nick let out a groan and reached for me, nearly unconscious. ‘That longing to join with the ?ther?’
That impossible we . I remembered the first time Jaxon had said it, inviting me to belong among voyants.
‘It’s the call of the void,’ Cade ground out. ‘Some amaurotics claim to feel it. That urge to jump from a high place. The belief that you can soar, even though you have no wings.’ I inched my hand towards my boot, trying to ignore the agony that seared along every bone, every finger. ‘But that isn’t the call we hear. You and I have known the void, and we are part of it.’ I sensed his spirit dislocating again. ‘I wish I didn’t have to do this. I don’t want to be alone in the world. But the void is calling, and it’s time for you to answer, Paige.’
He used both hands to grip my throat. That was when I drove my boot knife into his neck, using the wrist he had thought was too weak, the fractured bone that had already died.
‘Not just yet,’ I hissed.
Cade hadn’t been expecting that. It took him a long moment to understand that I had stabbed him. That I had used such an amaurotic ploy in the midst of the spiritual conflict he wanted.
‘I’m not just a dreamwalker,’ I said, my voice straining. ‘I’m a professional fucking lowlife.’
I twisted the knife deeper, wringing a choked gargle from Cade. His spirit might be powerful, but his mortal body could still betray him. Before I could pass out from the pain, I wrenched the blade from his neck and brought it up to finish the job. I could not flinch this time.
An unseen force knocked the knife from my grip. I looked up to see Gomeisa, his gaze set on us.
Cade was yanked towards the pit. I lunged after him, but he levitated over the edge, pulled by the same apport that had disarmed me. He drifted over the battleground, blood dripping in his wake, whipping the Buzzers into a frenzy. I drew my revolver and fired, missing twice before I heard a hollow click. Not even these dire straits could turn me into a sharpshooter. A Reph caught him and carried him away.
I threw away the gun and shoved the knife into my boot. Even if I hadn’t killed Cade outright, I had aimed for the jugular. He would die. And then I would be alone in the world.
Across the Colosseum, the Rephs were at war, clashing with blades and spools alike. Terebell ducked a blow from Castor, who wielded some kind of spear. Kornephoros was still circling them. None of them had a clue that Gilberto Draghetti was about to blow us all into the ?ther.
I checked my watch. Five minutes left. If I didn’t leave now, I wouldn’t make it.
‘Terebell,’ I shouted. ‘Terebell, we have to go!’
She was too far away, unable to hear.
Nick was now out cold. Without a Reph to help, I wasn’t likely to be able to get him away in time. I towed him into our circle before I returned to where the floor ended.
As I watched, two figures emerged from the subterranean maze. Arcturus and Lesath were climbing one of the arches, the latter with the blade on his back, both of them slashed all over. My heart leapt into my throat.
Kornephoros was battling Pleione, who sailed around him, weaving spools. Gomeisa clenched a fist, shaking the column that Arcturus and Lesath were scaling.
Lucida sprang into action. She stretched a hand towards the arch, calming it, allowing Lesath to crane himself higher – but Gomeisa kept pushing, and both Rephs slid back down. Terebell called to the other Ranthen. Pleione and Errai made for the stands, pursued by the Sargas loyalists. Lesath clambered over the top of the wall, even as it quaked.
‘Lesath.’ I beckoned him. ‘Can you take Nick?’
Arcturus spoke to him in Gloss, voice stifled by his mask. Lesath threw his sword to Terebell and came to my side.
‘Sala is going to bomb this place,’ I told him as he lifted Nick. ‘Unless Rephs can survive an explosion, everyone needs to leave.’
‘I will take Nicklas and return for the others,’ Lesath said. ‘Warn them, Underqueen.’
I had expected Arcturus to come straight after him, but when there was no sign, I looked back down. Arcturus was no longer moving. Some part of his body must have seized up, so all he could do was hang on to the wall. I started forward, preparing to climb to him.
Terebell had seen as well. With her blade in hand, she took a running jump off her side of the arena, on to the ruins. That was when my whole body prickled.
Gomeisa’s gaze was fixed on me, and there was nowhere left to hide.
A moment passed. My skin turned numb. The ?ther pulled taut between us, seeming to resist his will. Then he lifted a hand again, as if to physically wrench me towards him, breaking whatever force had protected me. All at once, I was airborne, soaring over the hypogeum. Even as the Buzzers roared up at me from the pit, I fought his influence with everything I had, knowing he would condemn me to death. When I broke free and hit the floor, the landing slammed the breath from me.
My right arm shook as I pushed myself up. I was cold and stiff, as if a poltergeist had touched me. Now I understood how the Sargas family had dominated the other Rephs for so long.
Some way above, Pleione reached Gomeisa, distracting him from the rest of the battleground. Lucida was doing her best to steady the column so Arcturus could get higher.
And Kornephoros Sheratan was closing in on me.
My breath came in white gusts. The levitation had shaken me to the core, turning my limbs to stone. As Kornephoros approached, I pointed my bloody knife in defiance.
‘You never give up,’ he observed. ‘I will enjoy breaking you, fleshworm.’
‘You saved me,’ I rasped. ‘You let me go.’
‘For Arcturus, not for you.’ His grip on the club tightened. ‘And now the debt is paid.’
He raised the weapon. The thing was almost as long as me, and the top of it was spiked, like quartz.
A blade sliced above me, stopping it. Terebell was back for her cousin, spirits rushing to her aid. I looked across the pit to see Arcturus, still on the lower ruins.
She had chosen me over him.
As Terebell fought Kornephoros, she stayed in front of me, not letting him close. I crawled away from them with no idea where I was going, trying to get out of the way. When a frisson passed through the ?ther, I turned, just in time to see the blade go flying towards Gomeisa. He seemed to draw strength from a bottomless well.
Kornephoros spoke in Gloss. I might not understand the language, but I knew a taunt when I heard it. Terebell was now empty-handed, and Pleione had the second blade.
The club slammed into Terebell, sending her to the floor. I made towards her, only to buckle to my knees, my legs too weak to hold me. Still, I kept fighting, knowing only I was left to hold Kornephoros at bay. Every spool I made bounced off his ironclad dreamscape.
‘Get up, Terebell,’ I urged. ‘Come on!’
She planted a hand on the ground. Her side was misshapen, the ribs staved in.
In desperation, I tried to leap into the ?ther, but my broken wrist was excruciating, the pain chaining me to my body. Even if I had succeeded, Kornephoros was a Reph, and I was exhausted.
‘Terebell.’ My voice trembled. ‘Please, Terebell. We have to leave—’
‘I will hold the line,’ she said. ‘Get away.’
‘No. Witness the price of a shattered oath,’ Kornephoros said. ‘I cannot kill you. That pleasure is reserved for the Suzerain. But what happens next is on your head, Underqueen.’
His shadow fell across us both. Terebell threw me out of his reach, almost off the edge of the floor. I turned around in time to see the club arc down.
I heard the crunch of Rephaite bone, which should have been unbreakable.
My blood roared in my ears; my vision blurred. I was rooted to the spot, unable to look away, or to breathe, as Kornephoros laid into Terebell. The club rose and came down, over and over.
No.
Now Lucida charged into the fray. She tried to wrest the club from Kornephoros, but she was outflanked and poorly armed, as the Ranthen always were. Kornephoros seized her arm, and she let out a high-pitched keen as his power entered her bones, flooding her with agony.
Terebell somehow lifted her face. Tears stung my eyes as our gazes met.
‘Get up,’ I whispered.
She was a healer. Surely she could mend her own bones. At least, that was what I believed, in that final moment of denial, when I thought Terebell Sheratan would find her strength and rise.
‘Go,’ she said to me, her voice barely there. ‘End this for me, Paige.’
Her gaze strayed towards Arcturus, right as Kornephoros brought the club down on her skull.
My entire body was numb.
Kornephoros threw her broken form into the hypogeum. His club dripped with her ectoplasm. I pushed myself backwards, face soaked, chest heaving. The telltale cold stole over my skin as Gomeisa prepared to lift me again. He would take me away to be executed.
You will only have moments to break his line of sight.
There was nothing for it. I turned and jumped into the pit.
A lifetime seemed to pass before I hit the ground. My old instincts kicked in, and I rolled to soften the landing. Even then, pain flared in my heels, sharp on the right. A fall from that height could have broken my legs, but even if they shook as I got up again, they held.
I had eluded Gomeisa, but now I was among the hungry Buzzers. The hypogeum rang with their screams. I limped along its main passage, following a trail of ectoplasm. Terebell was being pulled far away, out of the ruins, preoccupying the Buzzers. That was the only reason I wasn’t dead.
Down here, I might as well have been wading through deep water. Even if I hadn’t been injured, I would have been slower than usual, and the Buzzers were already on to me. More than one of them was on fire, making unearthly sounds. A scythe raked across my back, then another, but I hardly felt it, even when the cold hit my wounds, because Arcturus was suddenly there, scooping me up with one arm.
He had come for me.
‘Arcturus,’ I gasped out, ‘she’s gone. The Buzzers—’
‘Did they hurt you?’
I nodded, light-headed from the pain, the exhaustion. We backed away from the creatures, but their presence was overpowering.
‘I will hold them off while you climb,’ Arcturus said. ‘You must go quickly, before the wounds incapacitate you.’
‘No.’
‘Paige—’
‘I am not going without you.’ My throat burned. ‘I’d rather die right here.’
Now the Buzzers were surrounding us. I pushed them back with a surge of pressure. Before I knew it, the swarm was too thick for us to penetrate, blocking our way to the walls. I looked at the darkening sky, which seemed impossibly far away, down here in the pit. I was sure I could see those strange lights again, forming a crown over the Colosseum.
Arcturus took the Buzzers in. I stared up at him, hoping against hope that he might have a plan.
‘I will not leave you,’ he said, his voice soft. ‘Forgive me, little dreamer.’
The Buzzers were howling, held off by the last of my willpower. Soon I would be ripped apart. Arcturus might even be the one to devour me, once he turned. Perhaps we could hold out just long enough for the explosion. It would be clean and quick that way. I hoped that it would take him; that he wouldn’t be left with pieces of me.
‘I’m still glad we met.’ I shut my eyes. ‘And I would do it all again.’
Arcturus gathered me to his chest, shielding as much of me as he could. I pressed the last of my knives into his grasp.
‘You have to do it,’ I whispered. He gripped the back of my head. ‘Don’t let them eat me alive.’
He said nothing, but kept hold of the blade.
The Buzzers pushed closer, fighting the invisible resistance from my dreamscape. The small circle of space I had carved out for us was closing.
I remembered this feeling of hope being lost, the night I thought Arcturus had betrayed me. A fear that I was abandoned. As I risked a glance at the Buzzers, I felt it once more, stronger than ever.
And then an echo of it. As if something had seen and understood my pain.
Help us.
Arcturus looked down at me. The golden cord was moving like it never had before. It encircled the two of us, binding us even closer together, before it suddenly went taut. His eyes burst into flame. My spirit ignited with them, lighting up my entire dreamscape.
An exquisite agony gripped my skull. My hair crackled. I drew a deep breath. The walls of my dreamscape seemed to break down, and as I screamed through my teeth, power erupted – power beyond my control, a pressure so impossibly strong it seemed to swallow my whole being before it burst its banks. It slammed into the Buzzers with the torrenting force of the whole Tiber. Arcturus was still holding me, but if he said a word, I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t even hear the Buzzers any longer. I was thousands of years away from myself.
I could not say exactly what happened next. I know I tasted blood again, and then the world just disappeared.