Lightbringer (Empirium #3) - Claire Legrand Page 0,76

get her back?

She stirred from a deep sleep and opened her eyes to a thick white fog. Her tongue was dry and fat, her limbs heavy. She wanted to walk, but she could not stand.

So she crawled.

• • •

She reached a courtyard, then a clean hallway padded with a thick blue carpet. Sunlight streamed through arched windows bordered with colored glass, and Eliana found the strength to rise. At the end of the hallway stood a door, and through it, Simon’s office.

Her palms tingled at the sight of it.

Inside, she found him beside the open windows, dozing on a chaise with an open book on his chest. A breeze ruffled the pages.

Eliana moved the book aside with a grin, climbed atop him, reached for his face—and then went very still, her hands hovering over his skin.

He had opened his eyes and now gazed up at her with a sleepy smile. “What a sight to awaken to,” he said softly.

She scrambled away and fled the room, her heart pounding. She clenched her hands into fists, ordered her buzzing palms to quiet. Around her hands, the chains of her castings shivered and sparked.

Not here. She formed the thought and pushed it down her arms. Not ever again.

• • •

Eliana opened her eyes.

Will you hurt me to get her back?

“I don’t know who you are!” she cried. “Who are you?”

No one answered.

She stood at the edge of a strange leafless forest. She did not like the look of it, but there was no choice but to enter.

Moving through the trees, she realized too late that they weren’t trees at all. They were bodies in all colors and sizes, naked and staring. Their eyes were black and lidless.

Angels, waiting for her to save them.

The empirium had punished them, had stripped magic from the world.

“Only you can bring it back,” one of the bodies whispered, and though it did not move, Eliana felt its fingers clutch at her skirts. “Only you can bring her back.”

“Save us,” another wailed. “Help us see.”

“We are ravenous.”

“We are thirsty.”

One shivered as she passed. “Touch me. Make me feel again.”

“Find her.”

Eliana clapped her hands over her ears and ran, the angels’ cries chasing after her. Heat from her palms scorched her skin, and her lips were wet with blood, but she kept her hands pressed tight against her skull.

If she was going to burn, she would do it alone.

• • •

Eliana opened her eyes.

Will you hurt me to get her back?

She stared in horror at the man huddled on the ground at her feet. He had been pummeled; black bruises drew continents across his sallow skin. He clutched his stomach with one hand and reached for Eliana with the other. Between the fingers pressed to his abdomen, the end of his life bubbled crimson.

“It was a ruse, Eliana,” Simon said, his voice ragged. “Please, help me. I did it all for you.”

Eliana stepped back from him, her eyes burning as hot as her hands. “I can’t. I won’t.” She glanced at the sky. They were on a cliff, overlooking a range of bald mountains. The sky was red with sunset. Rings of blood marked her palms, rimming her castings. They were hot; they were ready.

She denied them. Not here. She imagined plunging her hands into an icy pool, how her castings would steam and shrivel.

“Do you hear me?” She raised her voice. The air was strange, thick and close, and it swallowed her words as soon as she shouted them. “I won’t help you. I’ll die before I help you. I can do this forever.”

Simon crawled toward her. “Will you help me? Like you did for Remy. Remember?” And then Simon let out a sharp groan of pain, a tight sob. He blinked hard, shook his head. “Hurry, Eliana. I want to explain. I want to tell you everything. Please, help me.”

Eliana turned her back on him and walked away. She heard him cry out, begging for her to come back. Something was attacking him; she heard a chittering sound, like a swarm of bugs, and then the pounding of feet and fists against flesh. A bone snapped, and Simon’s scream was hoarse with pain.

“Eliana, please!”

She closed her eyes and walked until she had worn holes in her boots and the soles of her feet trailed red prints. It wasn’t real. She knew that. None of this was real.

And yet Simon’s cry of anguish followed her to the edge of the world.

• • •

Will you hurt me to get her