“I couldn’t kill myself.”
My lungs closed up as I watched the woman’s mouth disappear and then her eyes follow. I stared with fear clawing through me as her face began to dissolve, flesh-colored particles flying away. My hands shook as I grabbed the door handle in a tight grip.
A voice resounded in my head.
My voice.
“It’s time . . .”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
DEALING WITH MISTAKES
I woke with a start. My heart beat fast while a cold sweat covered my skin. I looked up at leaves and found that I was lying on the forest floor. The sun shone through the branches, and I blinked to adjust to the light.
What the woman had said flooded my mind, and I leaped to my feet. At this point, I believed it could all have been a dream. But how did I end up in the middle of the forest? I spun in a circle but saw nothing but trees.
Turmoil waged inside me, and I looked at the sun halfway across the sky. It had been later than this when I’d visited the woman’s shop. Did that mean I had lost a whole day?
The stars weren’t out so I couldn’t use The Star of Truth to direct me anywhere. I began to walk aimlessly through the forest while the woman’s words went through my head.
Time for you to die.
I shook my head. Thinking about that while I was alone in the forest probably wasn’t the best decision.
I couldn’t kill myself.
I shivered. I didn’t know how to interpret what happened. But I’d heard her voice in my head . . . and it was mine.
I walked for hours with her words running through my mind and creating more confusion than the first time I thought about them.
“How did you get away from him?”
I froze at the voice as my heart kicked into overdrive. I hadn’t even noticed the crystal growing red as I had been too consumed with my thoughts. It took me only a second before I took off running. I stopped short when the old Mage appeared before me. I tried to run around him, but he appeared in front of me again. I tried three more times before I gave up. He could move in the blink of an eye, and it was only a futile use of my energy.
“Good choice, dear.” He held out his hand. “Shall we go now?”
I reached for the knife in my sheath, but only grabbed air.
He shook his head reproachfully. “Do not make this difficult. Come with me now. I don’t want to have to use harsher methods.”
If this man took me, I believed I would never make it back alive. He was the embodiment of evil; I could feel it wafting off him in waves as though he had been bathing in it. The panic inside me twisted, and I couldn’t stop myself from turning to run. When he didn’t appear in front of me, I believed I would escape.
Until my heart stopped and so did my feet.
My grandmother used to threaten me with tales of creatures who would eat children if they didn’t do their chores. I could only imagine they were after me because I was doing a terrible job with Alyria’s future. They were the creatures of my every nightmare as a child, and they were now coming straight for me.
Thin, sickly limbs that were skeletal with bits of sagging flesh attached. Faces that were more mouth and teeth than anything else.
They ran towards me in an awkward ramble, switching from two legs to four and I backed up, my blood running cold. One made a screeching noise, and I spun around to run, but a hand latched onto my wrist and we disappeared.
* * *
I awakened to the screeching of a metal door. The stone floor was cold, and I shivered. The soft light of a wall torch shone only enough light for me to vaguely see the man entering the cell.
“How was your night?” the old Mage asked.
“The accommodations were wonderful, thank you,” I said sarcastically while shivering. All of a sudden, my lungs closed up, and I grabbed my throat. I struggled to breathe with panic assailing me. Air traveled back into my lungs, and I sucked in large breaths of air.