Page 102 of Cursed By the Dawn

Xander was sixth; from him burst spikes of iron.

Gong.

Theia was seventh. Despite her alliance with either Mithras or Raelion, she was equally as doomed as her fellow Weavers. Clear, crystalline light swirled from her pale lips, spewing into the sky in chaotic constellations.

Gong.

The eighth was Erebus. He rose at the center of the dais, eyes flashing from red to silver before shadows coursed from his powerful body. They spun around his arms, his waist, his legs. Searching for something to hurt. Tokill. But they eventually rose up to meet the other Weavers’ magic, creating a brilliant tapestry of power and glory.

Raelion and Estaroth roared in victory.

Elliot’s chains lifted from his limp body, darting toward me like snakes. They coiled around my ankles, bit hard against my wrists, and shoved me forward. Raelion stared down at me, mouth still lifted in that damnable smile. As if he’d won. As if he’d known the outcome all along.

He wrapped his claws around my throat, caressing it down the middle with the sharp tip of his thumb. Any deeper and he’d surely draw blood, but I couldn’t feel it. Instead, there was just his riotous power, sifting through my mind and trying to find a way to break it. My mouth worked open and shut as my lips quivered.

It was all for nothing, then. It all—fornothing.

I sent a frantic plea to the Maker, a desperate prayer for mercy. But there was no answer. Only a faint, wavering ripple and the sudden onslaught of peace.

As if everything would be fine.

My eyes welled with tears. Nothing was ever going to be fine again. Hope waslost.

“Welcome to eternity,” Raelion declared, commanding the chains to squeeze me tighter.

I screamed as Raelion propelled me high into the air, sobbing as I came to rest shoulder to shoulder with Erebus. His silver eyes werenothing but dark, roiling shadows, his mouth a riotous storm. Shadows began to pour from me, too, tearing from my body in painful waves. By the time they slid from my eyes, nose, and mouth, I was scarcely conscious.

We had lost.

We actually lost.

The well opened at the center of the arena, widening like the jaws of a monster, revealing at last the sounds and screams of thousands of agonized dreamers. Dreamers in demonic bodies—bodies they’d never be able to escape from.

“Let us out!” they shrieked.“Let us out!”

With the last of my strength, I focused on that well of dreamers and the pit opening up beneath them. The shadows parted just enough for me to see; it was a swath of endless dark and deep, howling misery.

The Beyond.

Just a glimpse of it made me recoil. My body screamed at me to run, to flee, to fly.

But if I could somehow use the darkness…

I managed to send a weak thread of shadow down that unfathomable hole, tethering it to the void that lurked at the bottom. For a moment, it seemed as though nothing was there. I had nothing to anchor myself to. Tears rolled down my face, streaming into my open mouth. It was too late.

Too late—

But then a faint, sluggish pull grabbed hold of my thread. I couldn’t see what it was, but it was beyond the pit of darkness. Or maybe it was somewherewithinthe pit of darkness. Quickly, desperately, I willed my shadows to wrap around Erebus. And then I followed the tug, letting my mind be gathered by its pull.

Raelion cocked his head.

Heknew.

“You cannot run from me, youwretched—”

His words snapped away, ripping from my mind and growing dull in my ears.

And then the world went dark.