Chapter 41: CHAPTER 41

Lucidity hit Jalice with painful vividness. A scream already burned in her lungs, and she convulsed on the floor as it ripped free. A pool of black liquid flowed from her throat. Hands and legs slipped against it as she jerked upright and whimpered in disgust. The fluid slathered the side of her face that had been pressed to the floor, and glued strands of her hair together.

Thunder crackled in the air, sounding from the hall around the bend. She crawled through the slime to peer into the unfamiliar space. Several yards away, two figures faced each other in confrontation. One had its back to her, draped in a cloak she recognized as belonging to Elothel. A pair of goggles lay discarded a few yards off, and some of the mirajin’s bandaging trailed across the length of the corridor. Streaks of multi-colored flames webbed across faer exposed translucent skin, the rainbow colors bursting in the surrounding darkness.

She caught glimpses of the mirajin’s opponent, a sight she instantly wished she hadn’t recognized. It was the creature with no lower half—the torso that held a head and two limbs that bubbled with the same black liquid that pooled around Jalice. Its half-decayed face snarled up at Elothel from its lowered position on the ground, clapping gangly arms together in an unrefined manner.

The clap sent a shower of white sparks at the mirajin, who flourished faer hands within seconds of the attack. Tendrils of colored energy sprang up to douse the sparks.

Jalice gaped in awe at the brilliant result of wielded aether. Somehow, she could see the energy here, although it stretched the bounds of description and conceptual understanding. It took on tangible form and shape, unlike in the Terrestrial Realm, where it remained invisible and vague.

Her eyes latched onto the disfigured form shrieking up at Elothel. The dokojin—the parasite that had been blocking her memories. She watched in horror as the entity used its arms to fling itself up at the mirajin. Both went sailing through the air and, careening across the smooth surface of the floor, landed a few yards closer to Jalice. Aether energy continued to explode around them, mixing with noises of the struggle for victory.

Jalice scrambled back out of sight of the brawl, crossing the bend back into the original corridor. I have to get out of here. Her feet shifted erratically as she stood, slipping in the black pool of liquid. She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of boots thudding on the metal panels lining the floor. Dread washed over her as she glimpsed the briefest flash of giant wings protruding from an offshoot room of the corridor before they slipped out of sight, disappearing within.

Seconds passed, and her mind quickly offered up denial. Surely she’d imagined those black-feathered wings. A hallucinatory side effect of this dreadful place. Or perhaps another memory beginning.

As if dragged by unseen tethers, she took tentative steps in the direction of the room, careful not to slip. She could still hear Elothel and the dokojin battling in the perpendicular hallway around the corner.

Something wasn’t right about this memory, if it indeed was one. If she didn’t know better, she’d assume she was lucid—like she was in control rather than the memory. Uneasiness seeped into her as she chalked this illusion of control up to the vibrations and to the fact she’d somehow translated like Elothel had suggested.

You must do this, she reminded herself. She owed it to herself and Hydrim to find out what lay in wait.

Jalice turned into the room. She froze in the doorframe. No doubt remained. This was a memory, and if intution could be trusted, she believed it would be the darkest one she had yet to experience.

***

Jalice gripped her skirt to keep her hands from trembling. Hydrim stood a few feet in front of her, staring at the caged creature. She was torn between which of the two to observe.

Hydrim had been different since she’d snuck the poison into his drink days earlier. The change had happened nearly overnight, and yet had been rather subtle. He was still his confident self, and nothing in his appearance had changed. But the way he addressed her, the decisions he made to ensure he could spend all his time with Jalice—that was different. He’d even arranged to stay longer in Vekuuv after the end of the Star Alignment Feast to be with her.

He practically ignored Kerothan now. Jalice wasn’t sure if her brother had taken the hint yet, but surely Hydrim’s newfound affection for her would curb her brother’s interests. From what she could tell, the poison had worked.

“Why didn’t you tell us about this?” Hydrim sounded cautious, and his tone lacked his typical confidence. He circled the glass confinement, never taking his eyes off the creature that silently returned his stare with bloodshot eyes.

“I was scared at first,” said Jalice. “But it’s not evil like I first thought. It’s just lonely and trapped. It wants out of this horrible cage.”

“He is unworthy, like you, but mighty,” a guttural voice said. “His soul is strong. I will last long in this vessel.”

Jalice jumped at the sudden voice in her head and glanced at Hydrim. The boy stared at her expectantly, and she realized he had asked her something.

“What did you say?” she asked.

Hydrim eyed her strangely. “I asked how you knew it was lonely and wanted out. It spoke to you?”

Jalice glanced up at the creature, which still watched Hydrim. An eerie comparison of a raptor perched over its prey sprang to mind.

“It spoke just now,” she said. “Didn’t you hear it?”

Hydrim cocked his head. “No.”

“It is time to let me out, Unworthy Bones,” the creature growled.

Worry blistered Jalice as she wondered why Hydrim couldn’t hear the voice.

“Let me out!” it howled.

“Jalice, what’s wrong?” asked Hydrim.

She blinked and looked at him. “Nothing. We should go.”

“Unworthy Bones! Unworthy Bones! Unworthy Bones!”

Jalice darted forward to grasp Hydrim by the hand, and pulled him towards the corridor. “We need to leave.”

The sound of glass shattering drew their attention back. Jalice screamed. Black wings unfurled to full length, casting half the room in darkness. The starry lights of the panels illuminated the creature’s figure as it leered over them.

It launched at Hydrim with unfathomable speed, bolting the boy to the floor with its massive girth.

Jalice stumbled back with fear. “Stop! Let him go!”

The creature paid her no heed. It wrangled Hydrim in its arms as if to cradle him, drew him close, and let out a deafening howl in the boy’s face. Hydrim’s eyes bulged before rolling back into his head, arms and legs falling limp like a doll’s.

“What’s happening?” Jalice screamed. “What are you doing to him?”

Still without answering, the creature reared its head and drove its face down into Hydrim’s neck. The muscled jaw opened at the last moment to sink blade-sharp teeth into skin. Blood spurted like a fountain as it bit deeper, eliciting more screams from Jalice. Releasing the clenched bite, its head hovered a few inches above the boy’s face as red liquid poured from its chin.

“Dardajah is free.”

Jalice gasped as the name scraped across her like a fingernail.

No, that couldn’t be right. Dardajah had been banished—that dokojin had been sealed in a dungeon at the end of the Last Great War . . .

The creature dropped its face back into the wound on Hydrim’s neck. Like an insect burrowing into the ground, it nuzzled its way beneath his skin. Jalice watched in horror, unable to move as her mind locked in a paralysis that negated the urge to save Hydrim. What could she do? It would kill her.

Despite its enormity, the creature slipped into the open crevice of the wound. Somehow, Hydrim’s body refrained from bursting as the new organism pushed into it. The last of its wing tips grazed the edges of the wound until nothing was left of the creature. Hydrim lay motionless as blood ran from his neck.

Jalice wasn’t sure how long she sat there stunned. It was too long regardless. When she did get up, it wasn’t to rush to Hydrim’s side. She never even looked back at the boy after she got to her feet. Sprinting out the door with tears streaking her face, she staggered to the shaft that would take her out of the Black House. Away from her dead friend. Away from the creature.

Away from her sins.

***

From the recesses of her mind, Jalice realized the memory would end here. She’d fled and left Hydrim to die alone on the floor. In utter shame, she abandoned the boy she’d so desperately wanted. The same shame rolled over her now as she bore witness to her own crimes as if for the first time. Her younger self dashed past her into the corridor. Jalice waited for the memory to repeat, in similar fashion as all the previous flashbacks.

Yet it didn’t. The scenery remained still and intact.

Confused, she turned back to Hydrim, expecting him to be gone. Her heart jumped, and she became light-headed. Hydrim’s open eyes stared back at her. This wasn’t part of her memory. It couldn’t be. She hadn’t stayed—she’d fled, and the last recollection she had was of Hydrim’s shut eyes.

Terrified shock once again rooted her in place as Hydrim rose to his feet in the puddle of his blood. His gaze never left hers, and a foreboding darkness crept over his face. Under the dim lights, his features shifted like a mirage. His youthfulness weathered into a worn maturity while the bite on his neck evolved within seconds into a pale scar. His face was worn and his skin scarred where the creature had bitten. Thick muscles rippled into existence and tore clothes meant for a much smaller body.

This isn’t possible. I know that I left. I remember running away to find Annilasia to tell her what I’d done.

Her head swam when he spoke, unprepared to hear anything but Hydrim’s voice. Instead, she recognized it as belonging to the grotesque depravity that had slithered under his skin. If a voice could imprison souls and suspend them in eternal torment, it would still not rival the noise that escaped his lips.

“So, Jalice—this is where you ran off to?”