“You cannot will your body to do something it has no strength to do.” Stephan watched me from the top of the hill, his face bloodied and clothes torn. “You are finished.” He walked toward me.
The locket throbbed around my neck as he neared and I reached up instinctively to pull it away. He was quick, however, and lifted it up for me, running his thumb along the polished silver surface again. He studied it like it was an artefact, turning it over and over.
“This…” he started but didn’t finish. The red flecks of his eyes bled outwards like a thousand bursting blood vessels and he looked at me. “It’s impossible. Who gave this to you?”
I stared back at him, feeling exposed by the intensity of those eyes. Whether it was delirium that made me do it or one last act of defiance, I stared him down and spat in his face. “None of your damned business.”
He wiped his cheek and snarled. Without further warning, he struck me across the face and sent me tumbling into the sharp rocks on the side of the road. My head cracked against them with such force that it took my vision. When I came to, I faded in and out of the events unfolding around me.
Stephan charged but was thrown sideways by a larger man. I couldn’t tell who. Then a blurred figure appeared in front of me.
“-va,” it mumbled. Everyone’s voices were muffled. An entire world suddenly underwater as I faded down – down – down. I reached back and put a hand on my head, trying to stifle the terrible headache that sprung up suddenly. “Ava, stay with me.”
I turned my head to the man in front of me. “Ethan?” I reached out to touch his face with a bloodied hand. My eyes were too heavy.
“No, come on.” He ran his thumb across my cheek and gently patted it. “Stay awake.”
“I can’t run anymore,” I mumbled.
“You don’t have to run,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. I screeched as he came in contact with my injured ribs and he flinched. “I want you to put your arms around my neck and hold tight, okay?” I nodded and did as he said.
Ethan lifted me and held me close. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I should have paid closer attention.”
“Ethan,” a familiar voice shouted, “they’re gone. They got away.”
“How?”
“I’m sorry, I was distracted-”
“Gather the others, we need to leave,” Ethan said firmly. “They could have allies nearby.”
I held on for as long as I possibly could before my strength faded and darkness pressed on me. My hands fell limply from his shoulders and I felt his attention shift.
“She’s not-”
Ethan was still for a moment. I felt his eyes on me, watching carefully before he turned back to the woodland. “It’s not safe to leave her here.”
“Can we bring her back? She might not make it past the barrier-”
“She’ll die anyway if we leave her behind.”
“No doctor will see her here I bet, from what I saw earlier.” The other man lowered his voice. “We’ll have to keep Alistair at bay, you know that.”
“She can leave again when it’s safe. I’ll deal with Alistair.”
A sharp pain ran through my body, forcing a whimper from me.
“Ava?” Ethan’s deep tone washed over my ears and soothed my passing as I finally lost consciousness.
CHAPTER TEN
THE DARKNESS WAS strange, full of absent memories and tangled thoughts. Gabriel’s face floated in and out of my dreams as a thousand distant voices whispered to me. I was lost. The line between good and bad, or trustworthy and doubtful was blurred in my mind. I didn’t know what else to believe. Occasionally something cold pressed against my forehead and damp strands of hair would be brushed back from my eyes, but then the pain would wrap its stringy hands around me once more and drag me back down into nothing.
I opened my eyes and stared up at the sky. The diamond stars twinkled above me as they always did and I reached out to touch them. My hand caught on their shrapnel edges, only this time the pain was instantaneous and I held it close. Rather than clotting it continued in a thick stream, running freely across my palm and up my forearm. I tried to stifle the bleeding but it flowed furiously and soaked into my nightgown. My chest stiffened as a low growl rumbled from somewhere in the surrounding night. The creature neared the edge of the trees and silence fell. There were no songs from the owls or whispers of wind, only the quickening thud-thud of my heart.
“Worthless creature,” a ghostly familiar voice carried on the air, “I’ll make you suffer before I’m through with you.” Gabriel emerged from the trees into the iridescent light of the moon. The cold grip of fear forced its way through my body and nausea wrenched at my innards. I felt lame as he advanced, unable to run or fight or scream. The brilliant red of his eyes poured into mine and he extended his hand, cupping my cheek.
“Oh, my lady.” Gabriel’s expression was soft and he dragged his nails across my jaw. “Your death will be beautiful.” He licked his bloodied fingernails and kissed my cheek, leaving a crimson stain behind. It took no longer than a laboured breath for him to turn into the beast I knew him as.
He crouched in the grass, splaying his fingers out as his nails grew thick like talons. Everything was still for that moment, like the world was holding its breath. Gabriel arched his back and leapt at me, his teeth bared and ready to sink into my neck. My scream rang out and I threw my hands up against him-
“No!” My sudden action threw me sideways and onto a cold, wooden floor.
The harsh chill that pressed against my body made me shiver and quake. With a sharp inhale I pushed myself to my knees and recoiled when the pressure I put on my left arm sent a wave of fresh agony through me. Breathing was frustrating. I cursed my ribs and I felt my back for any bandages. When I came away without answers I brought my hands back up to my face and flinched as my fingers stumbled over several scabbed grooves in my cheek. My mind flicked back to my previous dream and my hand tingled sickly as my fingers remembered the sensation of plunging the dagger into Gabriel’s flesh, slicing through sinew, bone and cartilage. I shuddered and looked around, suddenly aware that I…recognised nothing.
Where was I?
The room was large but simple. The carved wooden bedframe of the grand bed was dusty and its sheets were pale blue and strewn from my tumble. I eyed the edge of the sheet menacingly as it continued clinging to my leg. Shaking it off, I placed any weight on my right arm before pushing up to my feet with an uncertain wobble. Though I was a little dizzy I sighed, pressing my aching toes into the cool, misshapen floorboards, and slowly stumbled towards the window.