Riven (19 page)
Footsteps sounded near us, but I didn’t give a damn. I wanted to stay right here, lost in Kayden’s arms, caught between the dying need to have him take all of me, and the buried instinct to kill him before he could.
“Stay away from her,” Ari’s voice broke through the perfect melody singing in my head. White fire blasted past my face, smacking Kayden straight between the eyes. He screamed, shoving me back and exploding into his trademark black smoke, curling near the end of the isle before taking back his physical shape.
I spun around, furious. Ari and Rinae stood side-by-side, both open mouthed in shock. Fire twisted along Ari’s open hand, a white-leather book cradled in the other. His eyes blazed hotter than I had ever seen, rage shaking him where he stood.
“What the hell is your problem?” I shouted, only to double over, gasping. My vision swam, waving the room around me in a puddle of blending colors. I felt like I was going to be sick.
A rush of voices filled the air, clamoring around me to the point where I couldn’t tell which one was which.
“I’ve got her-”
“Don’t lay a hand on her.”
“You’re being childish, look at her, she’s dying dammit.”
“Because you’ve put her here, don’t pretend you’re innocent in this.”
“Jealous, much?”
I pressed my hands against my ears, closing my eyes as I felt my heart rocketing against my chest. Sweat poured over my skin, sticky and slick. More voices joined them, real and unreal, singing and shouting in a rising chorus that made my ears bleed. I let out a painful scream.
“Stop!”
Then all at once, it went quiet. I waited for the voices to begin, but when they didn’t, I opened my eyes. That’s when I saw the black.
It was endless, stretching into itself every which way, no light to guide me. Just an inky, never-ending pit of despair and vast emptiness. I stumbled backward, the sound of crunching under my feet. Quickly I dropped to my knees, feeling for the nearby object. Jagged, sharp pieces of glass sliced at my fingertips, telling me I had broken the only thing to keep me sane.
Holding the broken mirror in front of my face, I could barely make out the scene pictured below. Ari was carrying my lifeless form, Rinae and Kayden hot on his heels. For a second, I breathed a sigh of relief; if I was still unconscious in the real world, then Ebony hadn’t awoken to take over my body yet.
Ari laid me gently on one of the ornate, persian rugs, taking the book out from under his arm and flipping through the pages like madman. Rinae ran over to her Watcher, Tegen, embracing him as she stared back at my stilled body. Kayden had sat down beside me, moving his lips in a pattern, whispering the same set of words to me over and over. Ari snapped the book shut, shouting at Kayden, tearing his attention from me to argue back.
It was the perfect time for my body to open one of her eyes, wink, and close them again. A faint, evil laugh resounded in the dark around me. And that’s when I knew.
Ebony had taken over my body, only this time, it may be permanent.
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