Page 71 of Stone Temptation

“There will be none.”

“But you made me steal the ring.”

The ring whispered as if I were stuck in the realms of J. R. R. Tolkien.

Ice. Glass. Shadow.

I felt myself drifting into the vision again, the ice looming, the distant shadow a new addition.

“Leave me alone.”

The shadow whispered at me, making no sense.

“I flow. I flow. I flow. I can’t flow here. Not in this place. Never this place. It’s so cold. I’m so cold. You can’t… You can’t… You can’t…”

The shadow didn’t care. The shadow wanted me here.

“Luke?”

I punched another window, splitting my knuckles open. Five yellow snakes slithered free, landing at my feet. They thrashed on the icy floor, curling up dead, rapidly becoming husks.

The ice stole their venom.

Stole?

“Luke?”

Voices around me, clearer than the shadow’s. Closer.

“Leave me alone,” I said. “Leave me alone.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

Carissa?

“You tell me.”

Seth?

Why didn’t they just leave me alone? What did I do to deserve this? Why couldn’t they shut the hell up and let me figure this out?

“Never leave you alone,” the shadow spoke. “Never. Never. Never.”

It left me alone to face the bitter cold, the dead snakes, the unblinking eyes of the glass windows.

Poison stealing my light.

Stealing everything.

Someone said, “Let’s take him to Asher.”

Maybe Carissa.

I smashed another window, my hands a mess of glass shards and blood.

“Let me out! Let me out!” I collapsed to my knees, more snakes dying on the ice.

My veins ached.