“I can thin the veil,” she said. “You’ll be able to walk through it, Brodin. I’ll maintain the opening for as long as I can. But don’t lose sight of its location or you’ll wander inside forever and may never find a way out. Your souls will thin and if they snap, you’ll remain there with no hope of returning here or moving on from there to the great beyond. Losing yourself to necromancy is not true death.”
“This is part of the test,” I said, nudging my head to where Akimi lay on the ground with the remains of her spirit floating above her. Assuming some of the tests are repeated, how many Darkwater prisoners had made it this far only to fail this final challenge? Even if they understood the mechanics, few would be able to tap necromancy to save someone, even a good friend. There were stories about those who’d entered the middle world and never returned.
Bixby would know this.
Dread spread through me, making me wonder if anyone had made it past this point or if everyone else had stalled here, unable to go farther. Because…I was beginning to believe there were a limited number of trials. Or that everyone took the same test.
Also…
What if the Reformatory didn’t exist? We’d spend eternity drifting through the catacombs, completing one trial after another without ever finding our way free. How could someone break out of a world that didn’t truly exist?
No one ever came back. Rumors flew around about one person or another entering the Challenge, but had anyone but Jacey taken it?
I needed to stop doing this to myself because I’d soon be freaking out. Maintain focus. Brodin and I would bring Akimi back from the middle world. We’d move onto the next trial. Or this could be it and we’d find ourselves in the Reformatory as soon as we’d returned her spirit to her body.
The rumors were true. Prisoners took the Challenge and went onto the Reformatory. I needed to trust that.
My skin clammy, I fisted the fur on the back of Brodin’s neck. I’m ready. I lifted my voice as Brodin’s muscles bunched beneath me. “Slice through the veil, Jacey, and show us the doorway.”
“Not so fast,” she said. “No necromancer goes into this without some education first.”
“We don’t have time!”
“Two seconds. Just basic knowledge. After that, you’ll have to trust yourselves to figure the rest out.” A click and she’d secured the lock on the cage door. She strode over to stand beside us. Her gaze fell on Akimi and she couldn’t hold back her soft keen of pain. “Your time there must be limited. If you remain too long, you may not be allowed to leave. The middle world masters cling to those who step inside, especially those who do so on their own.”
I nodded.
“Don’t give in to anyone’s call. I mean it. The masters will trick you in ways Bixby couldn’t begin to imagine.”
“Anything else?” I asked.
“Finding her will be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.” Urgency came through in her voice, but she patted Brodin’s shoulder. “But you’re doing this together. I never…” She shook her head again. “Why didn’t I see who Brodin could be?”
“Because he kept this part of himself hidden.”
Yet, he’d shared it with me back on the cliffs, on the day we’d arrived on the island. Had his Eerie spirit somehow sensed our future connection or that I could be trusted even when he hated me in wizard form? I’d ask him once we had made it through this.
“That’s all I can offer.” She rubbed my arm, one last touch. “Come back quickly and be safe!” Closing her eyes, she lifted her arms. Magic much like my sketar mist encased her, building to a tornado that lifted her hair and whipped it around her head. Lightning crackled across her fingertips. She mumbled a spell in a language I didn’t understand, her voice lifting to a roar. Bringing her hands together, she clapped once. When she pulled her hands apart, stepping backward while spreading her arms wide, a wavering oval opening appeared. Easing away from the torn veil, she nodded to me. “Go.”
I’d never forget the look of fear blazing on her face.
With one great bound, Brodin carried me through the torn veil. We were immediately eclipsed in darkness. No, grayness, a heavy fog thicker than sludge.
I sucked in air that tasted like dirt and sorrow.
A wail coming from our right made me jump but while the sound continued, it moved in another direction.
Brodin lumbered forward, the impact of his feet making no noise at all. He traveled up a gradual rise.
Doin’ okay? he asked.
Yeah. Do you know where you’re going?
Not really. I’m kinda hoping something will pop out at me. Or we’ll run into Akimi and can grab her and get back through the veil right away.
Do you think she’ll resist returning with us?
His shoulders lifted beneath me.
She hasn’t been here long, he said, but I do understand the lure of being able to walk through dreams.
What’s it like? Even I heard the longing in my voice.
It’s hard to say. He reached the top of the rise and continued down the other side. Eerie has been a part of me my entire life.
It came from your mother.
His pain washed through me and my regret mixed in, drowning me in the heavy feeling. If I hadn’t agreed to the Master Seeker’s plan, he would’ve found someone else to murder Brodin’s mother, but that didn’t make this easier. How could I not feel responsible? I’d run. When I could’ve helped her, I’d thought only about myself.
Don’t do that, he said. I can’t read your mind; only the thoughts you send me, but I can sense how you’re feeling.
You can’t.
Are you sure about that? Tria. I know you. You were scared and that’s only natural.
I ran! Closing my eyes, I gulped down my sob. I’d be stupid to risk drawing anyone to us.
I would’ve done the same.
Would you? Really? You seem so much stronger, braver than me.
We all have our fears.
Did Brodin fear his father? I refused to tell him his father had murdered his mother, that the man who’d given him life was just as eager to take it.
Damn blood bond. Without it, I’d have a choice. Keeping the final details to myself was the only way I could protect him.
How did you become an Eerie? I asked.
The ability passed through her from my grandfather.
I… Just so you know, I think it’s awesome.
His soft huff came out like a laugh. I do like being awesome in your eyes.
My grin made my cheeks sore. My heart, too. You’re too damn cocky sometimes.
You love that about me.
I paused but then tightened my fingers on his ruff. I do.
Tria…
Brodin.
I…
Something leaped up from my left and landed on my upper back. While my heart slammed against my ribcage, trying to escape, the creature’s claws dug in deeply. I shrieked and writhed, trying to shake it off, but the talons bit in further.
Brodin bounded forward but shuddered to a stop. He spun, adding his body movement to mine, but whatever clung to me wouldn’t let go.
Teeth sunk into the side of my neck.
A slake. Or the spirit of one.
It would drain my magic. It would drain my very soul.
Smacking it, I shoved its face away from my neck, dragging its teeth from beneath my skin. The area burned. The slake tightened its claws and, while I flung myself back and forth and to each side, it grappled to sink its teeth into my neck again.
Brodin bucked and grunted. My fingers slipped, his fur sliding through my fingers. Legs tightening on his sides, I tried to hold on as he pivoted and spun. He started to drop to the ground, perhaps to roll, but must’ve decided he’d crush me in his attempt to dislodge the slake.
I swung my hand back, hitting it, but taking a hand off Brodin made my hold precarious.
When Brodin leaped up into the air and then slammed down, I was thrown forward. My teeth slammed together, and my head
jarred against his. While my brain spun, I reached back, determined to wrench the slake off me.
Another buck and I flew off Brodin. I tumbled onto what felt like a stone slab and rolled. The slake’s grip slackened and its claws were yanked from beneath my skin. A burning sensation sunk down my neck from my shoulder, but I shoved off the growing numbness and leaped to my feet. I kicked the slake and it flew away from me. Scrambling, it turned and fled.
Pale light drifted down from above me, revealing I stood in a small clearing in the middle of a ghostly forest. Wisps of fog drifted across the dead grass, bits of it coalescing into spires before scattering.
I spun in a circle.
I was alone.
No Brodin.
Twenty-Four
Tria
Brodin? I called in my mind.
Where are you? Tria!
I’m standing in a meadow in the middle of a forest.
Keep speaking to me. I’ll track you, find you.
Let me seek you.
Ah, yes. I’ll stay where I am. Use your Seeker ability to come to me.
While the magical threads I’d used my entire life to do magic appeared scarce here, they still lingered, fluttering through the air as if seeking someone—anyone—to hone in on. I called to them, coaxing them to come closer. A few paused and turned my way. Maybe like everyone else lingering in the middle world, they’d given up.
“Come on, babies,” I whispered. They perked up and drifted toward me, probably more curious than anything else. “I need you.”
That seemed to excite them. They gathered into thick rainbow bands and flowed in my direction. I sucked them down inside. I had no selection stone to store them; they’d taken that when I was arrested, but I’d already learned how to amass power using myself as the stone, with sketar magic.
When I felt as if I’d burst, I gathered the threads together and sent them out with the command. Seek Brodin.
As if I was attached to an invisible band of steel, I was yanked sideways. I rushed across the meadow and stepped onto a path weaving through spindly woods. Something crashed through the trees to my right, but it paused then fled in a different direction.
Magic pulled me deeper into the dark vegetation. The path thinned then disappeared but I kept going, tugged by the call of my magic.
Brodin? I called in my mind.
Here. I’m waiting.
I think I feel you. You must be close! Wait. I’ll be there soon.
I won’t go anywhere. Hurry, though.
My heart stalled though I kept running, crashing through prickly stalks of something that vaguely resembled raspberries but couldn’t be. No need to grow something no one could eat. What’s happening? I couldn’t tame the urgency in my voice.
Faster, Tria!
I bolted toward what I sought, and the threads of magic fueled my stride. Bursting through a wall of dense blue tree spires, I stumbled into another small meadow.
Brodin stood in the clearing.
As did a second Brodin.
While my jaw dropped and my eyes widened, a third appeared.
All of them watched me. Waited.
Brodin?
I’m here.
So are two more of you. Step forward so I know which one to choose.
All three paced toward me.
My breathing ragged, I reached toward them but snapped my hands back and pressed my palms against my thighs. Not sure why, but I knew if I chose the wrong Brodin, it would be over.
Damn this place for toying with my mind.
“Why did you hate me, Brodin?” I asked.
The saber-toothed ghostwalker on the right leaped forward. You killed my mother.
My shoulders loosened, though the place where the slake had sunk in its claws and teeth ached. My knees shook. Was its poison gliding through my veins this very moment? “Well that was ea—”
You stabbed her in the back and then you ran, the cat in the middle said.
The one on the left bowed its head which… If I was in this situation and I wanted to trick someone into thinking I was the right Tria, I’d be cleverer than the other two. I’d act differently.
But I couldn’t tell which was the real Eerie.
“How did we first meet?” I asked.
I slammed you to the floor of the courthouse and would’ve bitten you if they hadn’t pulled me off, the one on the left said.
I broke free from the guards and followed your scent to the courtroom, the one on the right said. I wasn’t tenna’d.
Not yet, the one on the middle said.
The cat on the left growled. I tracked you there and knew I’d find you flustered and vulnerable after your conviction. I saw it as my chance to get revenge, even though it meant they’d still send me to prison. Turning, it snapped at the one in the middle. You most definitely were tenna’d. They’d never let a prisoner roam free.
“What nickname did I give you?” I shouted. My skin crawled as things crept closer in the woods. I had to decide who was Brodin and get us out of here fast.
Feral, all three said in unison.
One was the real Brodin and the others were not. My body slumped, threatening to crash to the ground. The slake’s poison…
How was I going to find the real Brodin? My Seeker skills wouldn’t work here.
Behind me, something shrieked, a high-pitched, mournful wail that shot through me like a flaming arrow. Rapid stomps told me whatever it was rushed closer.
Could the cats read my memories? All three were not the boy I’d come to know so well. I had to pick the right one!
“When was the first time we connected?” I asked.
At the prison, when I knew you hadn’t done it, the one on the right said.
The middle cat shifted its paws. When I saw you didn’t have the same scar as the murderer.
Both correct answers, but…
When I wraith-walked, the one on the left said. We were together, on the plain.
Yes, on the plain, the right one said.
The middle one echoed it.
When rustling grass behind told me the creature from the woods crept closer, it was clear I had to make a choice. But I’d already decided.
I ran forward and leaped onto the cat on the left. Only the true Eerie would remember because our short time together hadn’t taken place in the fae world. We’d lived it for one brief moment, in a world separate from everything else.
He huffed. Tria. My name came out in a sigh.
This voice matched the song in my mind.
The other two cats exploded, sending rank cords of smoke blasting around them. Their wails ate at my skin like battery acid.
Go, I shrieked in my mind as thuds in the woods grew louder. Whatever it was might be invisible, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t tear us to shreds.
Pivoting on his rear legs, Brodin raced away from the circular depressions in the grass that rushed toward us. He darted into the woods, not following any trail I could see, but bounding faster than he’d ever run before.
My hands shook as the slake’s poison sought out my will to survive.
I need healing, I said.
Tell me.
The slake.
Tria…
The creature kept pace, its heavy compressions on the ground crushing everything beneath it. Stomps to my right told me it was eager to get ahead, to either drive us left or wait and chomp us.
More stomps from the left told me others gave chase. My heart rose up into my throat, and I clung to Brodin, fearing this would be the last time we’d be together.
I can’t heal you in this form. And not here.
I’ll hold on. Somehow.
Brodin couldn’t run forever and my fingers were weakening, their grip on his ruff growing slack. My spine shuddered as the poison took over my nervous system. What were we going to do?
He approached a mass of inky black liquid flowing across the hard stone forest and, muscles bunching, jumped over it. He landed roughly on the far si
de, and I jolted forward, smacking my chest on his head.
Hold on, he said. I’ll get us away from them. I’ll save you!
There wasn’t time.
While Brodin scrambled forward with as much energy as when we’d started, he couldn’t keep up this pace. He’d wear out and falter, and they’d drag us to the ground. I wouldn’t be able to gather enough energy to rise.
We’d never escape.
Gathering threads—no yanking them to me—I built them inside me until an enormous rainbow mass seethed in my gut. Then I thrust it out.
Seek Akimi.
A pale green light lit up to our right. Yes, it was her!
Spent, I slumped forward, onto Brodin’s back. I panted, barely able to catch my breath.
See it? I whispered to Brodin. Follow the light. It’s…her.
He pivoted and raced in that direction with me bobbing around on his back, barely finding the strength to hold on.
But the stomping creatures gathered ahead of us, determined to get between us and Akimi. Even here, something watched and knew our goals. They stole the thoughts from our minds.
As Brodin rushed forward, the ground compressed ahead of us as if a thousand stomping creatures waited. We’d never get past them.
My fingers tightened on Brodin’s ruff, and I leaned forward, my head drooped on his shoulders. I couldn’t lift it. I’m sorry, I said. If only…
Hold on! His body bunching, he roared up into the air, and we sailed over the flattened ground and landed roughly a short distance from that area.
Somehow, I didn’t slide off. My thighs tightened around his sides, and I forced my remaining energy into my hands clenched on his ruff.
Brodin kept running, aiming for the light, with the creatures massing behind us. Their wails filled the air, and they tore through the world around them, determined to reach us before we got to Akimi.
We burst from the trees, emerging into yet another meadow, this one covered in clipped grass coated with a carpet of purple flowers.
The gorgeous light wavered, a slender wisp of spirit planted in the grass. Even here, my friend sought a place to call home.
“Akimi,” I cried as Brodin rushed closer.
She turned, and the sweetest, saddest expression appeared on her face before it smoothed. For now, she knew who we were. In a few moments, we would lose her forever.
Wicked Challenge (Darkwater Reformatory Book 2) Page 19
