Suddenly, his vision became cloudy.
Ash no longer saw anything around him, overwhelmed with sounds and images of souls screaming in agony as they died. It was a sound unheard by mortals, but one that cut through him like shattering glass.
The order of the universe was being altered.
"Atropos!" he called, summoning the Greek goddess of fate who was responsible for cutting the life strands of mortals.
Tall and blonde with furious eyes, she appeared beside him instantly. "What?" she snapped.
The two of them had never gotten along; in truth, none of the Moirae could stand him. Not that he cared. He had far more reasons to hate them than they had to hate him.
Ash leaned back against one of the old crypts as he tried to staunch some of his pain.
"What are you doing?" he gasped.
"It's not me," she said indignantly. "It's something from your side, not ours. We have no control over it. If you want it to stop, stop it."
She vanished.
Wrapping his arms around his stomach, Ash slid to the ground. The pain... it was biting into him even more. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
The screams rang throughout his head until it brought tears to his eyes.
Without his bidding, Simi came off his arm. "Akri?" she said, kneeling beside him. "What hurts you, akri?"
"Sim," he panted through the vicious stabs. "I c-can't..." His words trailed off into a groan.
She doubled in size and transformed from a young woman into her demon form. Her skin and horns were red, and her hair and lips were black, while her eyes glowed a dull yellow in the darkness.
She pulled him away from the crypt long enough to slide herself between him and the stone, then she wrapped her body around his. Her midnight wings folded around both of them as a protective cloak.
Ash's lips chattered from the agony as tears flowed from his eyes. He felt as if something were rupturing inside him. He had to block the screams or he would be useless.
Simi placed her cheek against his and hummed an ancient lullaby as she rocked him soothingly.
"The Simi has you, akri, and she'll make all the voices go away."
Ash leaned back in her arms and prayed she was right. Because if she didn't restore him soon, there would be no one to repair what was being torn apart.
Tabitha was filled with such a sudden sense of pain that it stopped her dead in her tracks.
Gasping, she reached out for Valerius, who was walking beside her.
"Tabitha? Is something wrong?"
"Tia," she gasped, her heart aching in a pain so profound that she wasn't sure how she maintained her stance. "Something's happened to her. I know it."
"Tab-"
"I know it!" she shrieked, clutching his shirt. "Oh God, no!" She grabbed her phone and started dialing Tia's number as she ran toward her sister's store. They were only six blocks away.
No one answered.
She dialed Amanda, her heart thumping in her chest as she ran. This couldn't be happening. She had to be wrong.
She had to be!
"Tabitha?" She heard the tears in Amanda's voice.