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Another scream echoed through the palace halls, causing me to stagger back. It wasn’t just a scream. There were many. A terrifying chorus of them. Hundreds. Thousands of screams brimming with pure terror and desperation.
My heart hammered in my chest, threatening to break free of its cage. My wild gaze met Rhain’s. “You can’t hear them?”
“No. I don’t hear anything.” He said more, but the cacophony of guttural wails and agonized shrieks drowned him out. It was as if every tortured soul in existence had converged in…
Oh, my gods. It was in my head. And the screams were so loud, blending together to form a symphony of brutal terror. My hands flew to my ears in a futile attempt to dampen the sound. The screams felt as if they were tearing through my mind, sending sharp, pulsing pain between my temples and shooting down my spine. I doubled over, my fingernails digging into my scalp.
Rhain reached for me, grasping my arms. My knees went out. I didn’t even feel myself hit the shadowstone floor. I rocked forward as Rhain released me, rushing toward the door. His shout was muffled by the screams, each wave more gut-wrenching than the last. It was like the very realms themselves were crying out. There were shrill cries that sounded like nails on a chalkboard and low moans that evoked images of bodies writhing in pain. I slammed my hands against the sides of my head, but they still came. The intensity of the screams seemed to amplify, the sheer volume of suffering they conveyed becoming nearly unbearable as hundreds of them—thousands—wailed, pleading between gasps punctuated by sobs as they fell. And I felt them. I saw them. A mother’s cry when her child was torn from her arms. A guard’s anguished shout as an unseen enemy struck him down. A lover’s desperate sob as they clung to the lifeless body of their beloved. The sheer breadth of the pain was staggering until the screams were abruptly silenced. They all fell, one after another…
Eather throbbed in my chest, so intense that it stole my breath. The essence kept pulsing—as if I sensed death.
A warm hand cupped the back of my neck, startling me. I looked up to see Nektas crouched before me, fainter screams still causing me to flinch.
“Meyaah Liessa.” His rough, gravelly voice caused me to wince.
“Where is Nyktos?” Rhain demanded.
“He was summoned to the Pillars of Asphodel,” Rhahar said, his fisted hand at his chest.
His cousin stood beside him. “The souls can wait—”
“You don’t understand,” Rhahar interrupted. Nektas helped me stand. “He was pulled to the Pillars.”
Breathing raggedly, I felt my stomach hollow. I’d never seen the draken look so pale—so disturbed.
Rhain stumbled back and understanding dawned on his face. “No.”
Saion’s worried gaze darted between his cousin and Rhain. “What the fuck is happening?”
“As a Primal of Death, it is a summons he has no choice but to obey.” The corners of Nektas’s mouth were pinched white. “There are…” He looked away, his jaw clenching. He closed his eyes.
“Too many souls have arrived at the Pillars to be judged by them,” Rhain answered.
Saion stiffened. “What?”
“Souls,” I whispered, my hands trembling as I suddenly understood what had taken my legs out from under me. “Hundreds.” A shudder went through me. “Thousands of souls. So many I could hear them. I can still hear them. Can feel their deaths.”
“Fates,” Saion breathed. “What could’ve caused that?”
“A…a disaster in the environment?” Rhain suggested numbly. “Like a massive quake?”
“No,” I whispered, the nape of my neck tingling. “It wasn’t that. There was nothing natural about this. It was…” I inhaled sharply. “I have to go.”
Nektas’s stare snapped in my direction. “No, you do not.”
Shaking my head, I backed up, the essence thrumming. “I have to.”
Rhain’s eyes went wide. “Don’t—”
The part of me that still operated as if I were mortal simply clicked off. There was no hesitation, no overthinking anything.
Following the cries of the dying, I shadowstepped into the mortal realm—into a waking nightmare that had once been my home.
Lasania.