Then, one voice rose, hollow and commanding.
“Go on, Kaelia. Join her.”
Another voice followed. And another. Until the words came in a chorus, hundreds of voices threading together in a chant that scraped raw against my skull.
“Join her. Join her. Join her.”
The chant shifted, darkened and warped.
“Traitor. Traitor.”
I covered my ears and blinked, and then, Talon was there.
He was on his knees before her, his massive frame heaving, his ink-black hair matted with gore. The shadows that usually sang at his command were limp, graying at the edges as they bled into the mud. The woman reached out, her fingers ghosting over his jaw with a tenderness that made my stomach turn.
In her other hand, she held a silver dagger, its blade etched with runes that pulsed with a foul, emerald light. With a slow grace, she drove the point into the hollow of his neck.
“No!” I screamed, but the sound was swallowed by the roar of the wind.
Talon did not cry out. He only looked at me, his navy eyes filling with a dark apology as the silver steel disappeared intohis flesh. Dark, ink-like blood spilled over the woman’s ivory fingers, staining her green gown until it turned black.
“Come, Kaelia,” she said, her voice cutting through the shrieks of the dying. “Join me.”
“Join her, Kaelia. Join her.”
My knees buckled and I collapsed onto the blood-slick soil, my fingers inching out to clasp Talon’s limp hand.
A rumble shot through the earth, tipping me sideways and away from Talon. I reached out for him, but his body rolled away from me and into a gaping hole that opened up at the feet of the woman.
I shrieked as his body disappeared, my eyes widening as his form got lost in the vacuum.
She laughed hysterically, her hands lifting above her head before slamming down with a squeal.
The ground heaved beneath me, lungs of earth gasping in fury. Fissures split open, bleeding that same eerie green light, and the woman’s form began to flicker, her features warping and melting.
I gripped onto the ledge, a cry tearing from me at the feeling of no ground beneath my feet.
Forcing my head up, my gaze latched onto the woman. But she was no longer the woman with white hair.
Where she had stood, a stranger now remained. His hair was disheveled, falling in dark streaks across a face etched with exhaustion, and his garments were torn to ribbons.
“Kaelia. You must awaken. This is not your time.”
The world around us groaned, splitting wider. Figures began to blur and vanish, voices thinning to a hiss, but his voice remained steady, rooted in the collapsing scene.
“They are coming to Umbral,” he warned. “And they are after you.”
The battlefield fractured, crumbling into nothing. The earth swallowed itself whole, and I fell with it, gasping as the last of the dream tore me apart.
36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Iwoke with a gasped breath. My body jolted upright with such violence that the pillow was sent tumbling to the floor.
Leona turned from the incubator, her brow furrowing with concern. “What is it, Kaelia?”
I could only click my tongue against the roof of my mouth, the bitter, oily taste of smoke lingering there. I rolled my neck to ease the sharp ringing in my ears, my eyes scanning the room. The lights were still dimmed and the infirmary was empty of everyone save the two of us.