Page 81 of Hidden By the Gargoyle
I’d just finished getting ready when it hit. The twisting inside me made me double over. I bit back a gasp, clutching my belly. Dear goddess, the pain was worse today than yesterday. The pressure eased off and I pulled myself up, using the counter to support my weight. When I straightened, I nearly stumbled back.
Sommerton’s image gazed back at me from the mirror above the sink, a smug smile on his face.
“It’s almost time,” he said. “You can feel it, can’t you?”
The magic inside me bubbled at his words, rising higher as though it was responding to his statement.
“It’s time for you to come to me, Ally,” he continued.
He leaned closer, his face coming further into the light. His eyes were pure black, shot through with violet light streaks. The black veins surrounding his eyes had branched out to encompass his cheeks, jawline, and down his neck to disappear behind his shirt. His body seemed leaner than before, almost gaunt.
“And to give you a little incentive, I have a special guest here to witness your manifestation.”
Sommerton stepped to the side, disappearing from the mirror as though he were stepping out of the frame of a camera. Behind him, her hands tied above her head to a metal hook jutting from a rock wall, was my aunt.
Her dark red hair was tangled and matted. A bruise marred her cheekbone just below her eye, the lid already turning such a dark purple it was almost black. Her eye was so swollen that she couldn’t open it.
Sommerton appeared again, this time next to her, kneeling on one knee. He clutched a knife in his hand, the tip of the blade pressing against her throat, denting her skin.
My heart stuttered when a thin stream of blood trickled from beneath the point of the blade.
“Come to me, Ally, or suffer the consequences.”
“Is this your way of convincing me that you’ll give me whatever I want if I just wake your brother?” I whispered.
The triumphant smile he wore faded. “You still don’t understand, I see.” His hand dropped away from Minerva’s neck as he got to his feet. Her one good eye focused on me and she shook her head violently, but I ignored her silent directive.
I wasn’t going to let anyone take the last living member of my family from me, not even if he was a god.
“I’m helping you make the right decision,” Sommerton said, bringing my attention back to him. “You’ll understand once Talant is among us.”
I leaned forward, my voice still a whisper as I said, “I want to help Talant. And I would help him willingly, but now you’ve pissed me off. So, when I wake him up, I promise I will do everything within my power to make you pay for this.”
My aggressive response must have taken him off guard because he flinched at my words.
“Come to me, Ally. Let’s finish this.” The smirk returned to his lips. “And then I’ll look forward to seeing how you intend to make me pay.”
At that moment, I was so angry that I would have been willing to sacrifice almost anything to have enough power to punish him for what he’d done to my aunt.
“I don’t know how,” I admitted.
“Think of your aunt. How much you love her. How much you want to help her. Magic is all about intention. Make your intention to be by her side and you will come here.”
For a moment, he sounded just like Talant. I could hear their similarities in his words.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and centered myself. I focused on Minerva, reaching out to her with my mind. I thought of how much I loved her and how much I needed her. How I needed to help her right now.
I felt a tugging sensation and then the air rushed around me as I fell through the floor, just as I had when I dreamwalked before.
This time, I couldn’t slow my descent. I landed on my hands and knees on a slab of rock, the breath knocked out of me at the impact.
The cave was dim, but even in the low light, I could see that it was Talant’s cave. The one I visited in my dreams. Only there wasn’t an enormous cushion and pillows in the center as there had been in my dreams. Instead, it was a thick slab of stone, like an altar. Or the top of a sarcophagus.
I struggled to catch my breath, but the pain in my chest returned. This time I didn’t fight it. I listened to my instincts and thought about my intention.
If the entity possessing Sommerton wanted me to wake Talant, I was going to make sure that I used enough power to be certain that it happened.
My arms couldn’t hold my weight anymore. I fell to my elbows as the pressure inside me grew. For the first time, I reached for it, grasped it with my thoughts.
