Chapter 7 #2
Her knees bumped into something hard and with all of her effort, muscles straining for control, she looked down.
The wraith had led her right to the edge of the ship.
Stars filled her vision, her senses coming back to her but a wash of serenity calmed her frantically beating heart and all she could focus on again was listening to the voice.
“Step up.” The wraith tugged her hand and the foreign sharp feeling of bone in her palm stirred something in her.
Wake up, Aesira! She had defeated monsters before. Had slain unimaginable creatures, stopping them before they got too close to the walls of both Novaria and Vargah.
This was different, even in her semi-conscious state, she knew this was nothing like any of the creatures she’d fought before. She had lost control of her body and some sick part of her was glad.
“You’ll be someone else’s problem.”
Her foot hit the railing. Then, her other foot.
Wake up!
“Let go, Aesira. We’ll catch you.” The voice that brought her so much comfort, so much ease, quickly shifted. And now it rattled her down to her bones. It hissed and clawed at her mind. It pulled at her hair and tugged at her skin.
“No.” She clung to the nearest rigging, fingers wrapped tight around the cable.
Another push to her back forced her forward so she was barely balancing on the edge of the ship, forced to look down.
A tear slipped down her cheek as the voices, many now, cried out around her again and again.
Yelling out all her most shameful thoughts. All of her darkest truths and secrets.
“The girl with evil in her eyes.”
“Who only sees after herself.”
“You let him die, Aesira.”
A scream burned in her throat, stamped out by fear. She hadn’t let him die. She didn’t–
“No,” she said, but the wraith that guided her slammed its bony hand against her mouth. Dark, bottomless eyes bore into her, making her squirm beneath its touch, deep lines etched across her skin from its jagged nails.
“Let. Go.”
She fought against control of her own body. Her limbs shook, her brow slick with sweat, but no matter how hard she tried, the wraith was stronger.
Her fingers slipped free from the cable, her legs weak, she couldn’t stop what was coming.
Couldn’t fight against her foot dangling over the edge, miles above the ground.
Soulless eyes and pale faces of hundreds of others watched her.
Waited. Their desperation was thick in the air but it was their appreciation for her that caressed her skin.
They wanted her. She would be helping them. They needed her to fall.
To let go.
“Save us like you couldn’t save him.” The wraith moved its hand away, coaxing her forward again.
“I–” Her mouth snapped shut when a strong hand landed on her shoulder and flung her backwards onto the deck. The back of her head met the ground with a loud crack. “Shit,” she cursed, gripping her head. She tried to sit up, but her vision crossed, a deep ache pulsing behind her eyes.
Steel tore through bone and endless screams rang out around her. A burst of light and then an all-consuming darkness.
And somewhere among the chaos was that voice, farther away now.
“We know what you did, Aesira. We know what you are. No better than the monsters you slay.”
When silence fell over the deck, she opened her eyes again, trying to catch her breath, her vision sharpening like the pain in her head. The first thing she saw was the cable she’d clung to with everything she had. The second thing she saw was him.
Stone Odega
His hair was disheveled, his chest and feet bare, as if he’d run there from sleep. Black liquid dripped from his skin, smattered across his face, collecting in the deep rivers of the scars that lined his shoulders and chest.
“Are you alright?” He extended his hand to help her up.
She swayed on her feet when she stood, a sharpness blooming behind her eyes. “I think so.” A flush of embarrassment washed over her. She hadn’t even been here a full day and she was already in need of saving.
Some warrior, she thought.
“What were those things?” She pulled her hand from Stone’s, not realizing she was still holding it. “They knew my name. They knew–” She bit her tongue. Did he hear what they said about her? The secrets they spilled?
“Crawlers.” Stone passed by her without a second glance to pick up a towel from a crate. He wiped the black from his face, then his hands and chest. “Was a matter of time before they showed up. Curious little creatures.”
“What do they want?” The ache in her skull blurred her vision and she didn’t remember wobbling but she must have because when her vision refocused, Stone was there, holding her up. His scarred hands were rough against her bare arms.
“We need to get you back to bed.” It wasn’t a question, but an order, and if there was one thing true about Aesira, it was that she knew when to follow an order.
“They dwell in the deep desert,” Stone said as they walked to her room.
“They feed–” He glanced her way so quickly she thought she’d imagined it.
“What do they feed on?”
He cleared his throat and she looked away from his well defined frame where lines and lines of scars marred his skin.
“They are in constant search of a soul to claim, to split amongst their hive.” Her mind raced to the row of black eyes and jagged teeth waiting for her on the desert floor.
“They feed off fear,” he said. “Or at least that’s what I’ve been told. ”
It was shameful to admit she was afraid. Her whole life, her whole career, was based on the virtue of bravery. And yet one night crossing the desert had left her cowering on the floor.
“The first time I saw one,” Stone continued, as they crept their way down the dark corridor to her room, “Patch barely saved me in time. The crawler told me things I’d never admitted to anyone. They told me how to make my pain go away.” He whispered the last part, maybe hoping she didn’t hear him.
“And what did you hear tonight?” She wondered if he could hear the real question she was asking.
What did you hear about me?
There was a long stretch of silence before they got to her door.
Stone opened it and then stepped aside. “I didn’t hear a thing.
” He crossed his arms over his chest. “It wasn’t after me.
At least not this time.” He pushed the door open further.
“Get some sleep, Commander. Frightful as crawlers are, they’re just the beginning. ”