Scorched Treachery (Imdalind, #3)(18)

I heard Cail and Edmund laugh at his words only moments before Timothy pushed my hand into the blade, my scream breaking through the air as my soul was sliced apart.





Chapter Five





I was floating.

I was gliding through mist and water. At least, I think that's what it was. I couldn't be sure. After all, I wasn't sure where I was, or who I was. My body felt disconnected. Not separated from me, but separate. I couldn't tell where my arm extended to or where my leg was. I saw white and dark, and memories that I knew did not belong to me. I felt happy and sad and scared and anxious, but none of the emotions were mine.

I was lost in a sea of everyone, a mist of white that gobbled everyone up and mashed us together into the confusion I now felt.

The dungeon was gone. The pain in my body was gone. It was just me, floating through the endless mist.

The last thing I remembered was the feeling of the blade plunging through my hand, the blade of souls. Is that where I was, trapped within the blade, just another nameless face to all those already killed by the dark weapon?

Yes, I suppose I was.

I floated and let the bits of souls wash over me, my body of smoke and cloud taking it all in, my cares gone.

I floated. I was, and yet, I wasn’t. I was nothing and everything. It didn’t make sense, but I didn’t care that it didn’t. I didn’t care that everything was gone.

"Sain?" A voice cut through the cloud of white. I was sure it was Ryland's, but it seemed younger somehow.

I would like to say I turned toward the sound, but I am not sure I could. I was too lost in the fog, swimming in sea foam.

"I’m here." My consciousness perked at the voice, my awareness clicking into place. "They brought Wynifred here too, Ryland." That voice, it wasn't familiar, and yet, I still felt like it should be.

"Of course they did," Ryland replied, his voice floating to me through the damp, white cloud. "She is their bargaining chip now."

"Wynifred?" Sain’s voice called out to me. "Don't be scared child, you are safe here."

I would have loved to respond to him, but I still couldn't figure out how to speak, what to say, or even if I had a mouth to use.

"You need to focus, Wynifred. Think about where your body should be, and it should appear for you."

I gaped at Sain's words, the instructions foreign and awkward. I wasn't a body. I was mist. I was bits of everyone, and at the same time, nothing. How could I focus on a body if none existed for me? I heard Sain sigh and Ryland laugh, the sounds rippling through me. Why did they seem so normal? Weren't they screaming only moments before?

"She's more stubborn than you were Ryland," Sain laughed, an impatient clip in his voice.

"I'm just lucky you were here, old man, or I would have stayed a floating blob of other people's emotions forever. Well, until Cail forced me out, anyway."

Is that what I was, a floating mass of other people's lives? Yes, I was. I had known this before.

"I don't know why you count centuries of torture as 'luck', but I suppose I will take your word for it."

"Did you feel that?" Ryland interrupted, his tone deep and panicked.

"Is Joclyn falling asleep?" Sain’s voice was just as worried. "Is he here?"

"No, it's something else."

I heard their words. I liked the way they floated through me. It was not their words that I felt now; however, it was small fingers on my cheek. A cheek.

Once I felt my cheek, my body fell into place, my mind detaching itself from the mist and the group memories that had plagued it. I felt my legs connect and step onto something hard, my weight dropping to the ground as my legs chose not to support me.

My vision circled and flowed as colors took over the white, a forest floor crackling under my fingers. I had barely registered the pine needles before Sain rushed up to me, his hands moving to my shoulders as he inspected me for injuries.

"Are you all right?" I looked up to face Sain, his face clean shaven, his hair short, and everything about him clean and well taken care of. I wouldn't have recognized him if it wasn't for his eyes.

I nodded once.

“You will be safe,” Sain said, and I couldn’t help but hear the heavy infliction in his voice, the way his tone dipped and wavered into something deeper.

“So it is you?” I asked, the normalcy of my voice taking me off guard.

“Yes, I could tell you my life story, but we simply don’t have time for it, nor do I think you want to hear my depressing tale right now.”

He smiled sadly, his kind eyes still searching mine. I couldn’t return the smile. I just couldn’t. I was far too confused.

“Can you stand?” Sain asked, his hands wrapping around mine and pulling me up before I had a chance to respond.

“It can be disorienting at first, so don’t try to make too much of it. We are only here for a few minutes.”

“Where are we?” I asked.

“This is where we wait,” Sain said as he steadied me. “He doesn’t know we are able to materialize. He makes us wait before he uses us as his pawns.”

“He?”

“Your brother.” I winced at Sain’s words. I tried not to, but I did. The memories of what had so recently happened to me were still fresh.