Bringing with it nothing but blackness.
* * *
Lying on the cold metal table, Ash was finding it hard to breathe.
It had come at him suddenly, this gasping, as though the air was too thick to pull into his lungs. That, and an impression of darkness that persisted despite the bright lighting in the room.
He blinked and concentrated on drawing deep breaths. This time, they hadn’t removed him to the cliff by the ocean. He was still fastened to the table, but they needn’t have bothered with the restraints. Thanks to the parasites gnawing their way through Ash one cell at a time, he was far too weak to try escaping.
The energy from the gate swept over him. Rindek and Demeti had returned from their little outing. They entered the lab with an air of satisfaction. Ash’s stomach clenched as the hulking Dires they’d taken with them dragged in captives.
The newcomers were Dragons, writhing in agony and barely clinging to life. At a fraction the size of his dream Dragon, the Dires managed to haul them into the barred cells to each side of the main room. They chained them so they could barely move.
Rindek and both sons bustled around, rigging them up to transfusion equipment. It wasn’t putting fluids in—it was sucking them out.
Blood, infested with the new, more powerful parasite.
The Seer, John, hurried in, his expression anxious. Ash supposed that if his family’s lives rested on Rindek’s success, he’d look like that too.
“Did it work?” the Seer asked. Then he frowned at the Dragons. “They’re still alive.”
Rindek straightened from the network of catheters draining the Dragons’ lifeblood. Surprisingly, he answered. “These Dragons only have a basic dose of crystal dust in their bodies. It slowed the parasites’ effect, but they still did their jobs admirably. We will extract them and give them one final energy tweak. Their offspring should be exactly what we need.”
As Ash’s gut twisted, John nodded, looking relieved.
Demeti stepped away from the Dragons and approached Ash. His eyes gleamed.
“When are we giving him his final dose?”
Ash closed his eyes. A large part of him wanted to embrace the darkness. They no longer needed him. Rindek could’ve finished Ash in a moment if he injected the more advanced parasite into him.
But he hadn’t.
The Archmage loomed up beside his son. The Dragon glared up at him. That last hint of defiance was almost more than he could do now.
He read the truth in the Torshin’s crimson eyes a moment before Rindek confirmed it.
The familiar shark-toothed grin appeared. “There’s no rush,” Rindek said. “He deserves to suffer for a little longer. I like to make my traitors scream.”
Demeti snorted a laugh, but Ash thought he looked relieved. The son didn’t want to lose his favorite source of entertainment. Behind them, the Seer looked like he was going to be sick.
Rindek stroked his hand along Ash’s bound arm. “You just rest here, my pet. We have another collection to make. We’ll soon be back with an old friend.”
He turned and left the room with Demeti. A moment later, the electric tingle of gate energy passed over Ash—where had they gone?
John collapsed onto the room’s only chair. Sweat poured down his face.
Ash’s mind echoed with Rindek’s last words. An old friend? His heart pounded. He reached for the timelines, but only chaotic, disconnected images flitted through his brain as his talent surged and faded, totally beyond his ability to control it.
He attempted to anchor himself by reaching for the past. The past was easier than the future. He experienced, once more, the excruciating injections, the surges of power into the collar. Agony as the parasite chewed within him. It led him to other images, less distinct and more recent as they mixed past and present—a fortress in the mountains, built of red stone. Dragons being shot with Rindek’s darts. Screaming as they died. An explosion among the red-stone fortress—and a Dragon trapped within.
A Dragon that gleamed turquoise. Buried in the stone.
No.The pain that speared through him was of the soul this time. He would have known if his dream Dragon had died.
Buried alive.
Was that why Ash had been having trouble breathing?
