I hear nothing but my shallow breaths.
When I open my eyes, I’m in total darkness. I turn my head, noticing a bright blue dot in the distance. I walk toward it, my footsteps echoing on the dark ground, and the light, I realize, is in the form of a tunnel. Chains rattle and the air around me becomes colder the closer I walk through the tunnel. The dot widens with each step I take, the light growing brighter, and that’s when I realize it isn’t just a dark ground beneath me. Its ice, and it’s splintering beneath my feet.
I freeze, afraid to move any farther. The ice groans beneath my weight, as if it will crack completely at any given moment and swallow me whole. I don’t know if this is real or if it’s in my mind, but what I do know is that I cannot let the ice break before reaching the end of this tunnel.
I hear the chains rattle again and lift my head. I spot a figure in the distance, bathed in blue light, slumped over and unmoving. It’s a person. It’s…
“Caz!” I yell. Forget the ice. I need to get to him. I run toward the tunnel end and the ice crackles louder. It splits apart as I run faster, chasing me as I hurry toward the light. I breathe raggedly, arms pumping, before finally diving forward and grunting as I hit frozen land.
When I look back, the ice completely splits apart behind me. A dark tidal wave rises, swallowing the broken ice and dragging it into the darkness, and I can’t help feeling a chill whisper down my spine knowing I could be under that water right now.
I press up on my hands, surveilling my surroundings. The chill in the air clings to my skin, sinking deep into my lungs and bones. Tufts of breath surround me as I observe the hills and mountains of snow and ice ahead. The sky is a cloudless, murky blue, the horizon tinged a vicious red. Caz’s body was here…but now he’s gone. Where did he go?
“You can’t find me!” A shrill voice fills the air. To my left, a boy with floppy, dark hair runs past, glowing in iridescent blue light. It takes me a while to realize he may not be real. More of a vision or figment of my imagination. He glows with sparkling blue dust radiating off him and can’t be any older than five.
The boy hides behind a shimmering tree, giggling, and I step closer, confusion taking hold of me.
“Oh no!” a woman’s voice squeals. “Where could he be? Where has my Caspian gone?”
The boy giggles again, crouching behind the tree as a woman appears, looking all around, pretending not to see him. I remain still as the woman turns in my direction, looking right through me.
“Is he here?” She trots away, popping her head around a wheelbarrow, and the boy’s laughter swirls in the air.
“Oh, wait—I think I hear something! Would that be my raven-haired boy?” The woman tiptoes over, finding him behind the thick tree. She grabs him, tickling his ribs and nuzzling her nose into the crook of his little neck. He laughs hysterically, throwing his arms around her.
“You found me!” he sings.
“My sweet boy,” she coos. “I’ll always find you.”
They disappear, fading into blue specks, as if they were never there. The wind blows, whistling past my ears, and I wrap my arms around myself to fight a shiver. Ahead is a trail of more glittering light leading to a place unknown. The sound of rattling chains grows louder, and if I’m not mistaken, the light is leading to that very noise.
A spark appears in my peripheral as I start the trek, then the sound of a horse galloping, its hooves pounding into the land. A loud woosh strikes the air and I gasp, stopping dead in my tracks as an illuminated horse with a bearded man atop it rushes right past me, barely missing my nose.
“Get back here, you worthless piece of shit!” the bearded man roars. He’s a burly man with angry, coal-like eyes. He has a sword in hand, raised in the air as he chases a teenage boy who throws up his middle finger before jumping a fence.
The horse rides off in the distance, disappearing into the mounds of ice and snow. The rattling becomes louder. I move faster. My feet are practically numb as I climb a hill. Just as I reach the top, I see the person I’ve been looking for.
“Caz!” I cry.
He’s slumped over in a chair, head down, body pale. Frost clings to his dark hair and feathery eyelashes, and if I’m not mistaken, he’s not breathing.
With shuddered breaths, I run toward him, my feet feeling like slabs of ice now, but before I can touch him, a dark figure rises from the ground, talons out and sharp teeth bared. The crescent eyes bore into mine, flaming red and devilish.
“Welcome to the prison of Caspian Harlow’s mind,” Mournwrath croaks.
“Let him go, Decius. Now.”
Mournwrath floats higher, smirking. “It’s not your turn yet. I’m surprised to find you here so soon, Willow.”
I look around him to see Caz again. The chair he’s in has now been suspended in the air, his body wrapped in icy black chains. Black veins crawl along his body, snaking up to his temple. My eyes follow the black veins down the length of his body all the way to the ground, and it’s a trail that leads to Mournwrath’s cloak.
“Why?” I choke out. “I don’t understand. Why would you do this, Manx? Show yourself, you traitor!”
Mournwrath is quiet a moment, staring, and then comes the sound of crunching bones shifting beneath flesh. The black monster disappears, transforming into a familiar jolly man with white hair from Whisper Grove.
“Better?” he asks, still floating.
“Oh, fuck you,” I snarl.
He releases a petty sigh. “Do you think I wanted it to be this way, Willow?”
I back away as he floats closer to me. He’s Manx, but the black still drips off him like whorls of smoke, and they’re keeping Caz prisoner.
“How can you do this to him?” I breathe. “He trusted you.”
“Many people trusted me, I’m afraid.”
“You’ve been hunting him since he was a child,” I counter. “You’re a predator.”
“I do what I need to in order to prosper. It’s in my nature. Blame the Regals. They brought this wretched Tether upon us.”
“The Regals didn’t make you this way,” I retort. “You decided to deceive because you couldn’t have what you wanted.”
Manx’s eyes widen.
“Caz told me all about the original Tethered people. Oriah, wasn’t it? You couldn’t have her, so you killed her mate and then you murdered her. You killed all of them and then tried going for their children. You’re a sick, twisted monster who doesn’t deserve to live. The Regals should’ve killed you a long time ago.”
A darkness sinks into Manx’s eyes, and the whites of them turn blood red. I expect a snap back, a lash of anger, but instead he raises his chin and puts on a simple smile.
“Now, now. Don’t worry yourself about that, Willow. That is the past, and after I absorb your and Caspian’s Tether, I won’t need to hunt anymore. As for the Regals, they are simply three bored, miserable beings who don’t care about any of their creations. That’s why they let me do this, you see? They let me hunt for Tethers, let me feed, let me live on. It is clear they want this, and I suppose it’s like a game for them now. How long can a couple survive before Decius drains the life from them? Oh, what fun! Better fetch the freshly popped kernels while we’re here!”
“I—I don’t understand.”
“What is there to understand?” His face darkens and that jolliness is gone, his eyes piercing red flames. “This is my world, and you’re both in it. I’m the one in control of Vakeeli, which means you’re as good as mine. As soon as I’m done with him, I’ll be coming for you.”
Something pierces my arm, like a quick poke of a needle, and I look down with a hiss. The veins from Caz’s body have attached themselves to me. My skin absorbs them, and I watch as they crawl up the length of my arms and chest. I can feel them on my neck, but they’re nothing more than a tingle now.
Manx throws me a bewildered glare. He whips his head to peer at Caz, who groans and shifts in the chair.
“What have you done?” Mournwrath hisses, eyes turning to crescents again as he focuses on me.
I smirk. “I was only buying time. You’re not taking us as easily as you think you are.”
“Ah. How brave of you, Willow. Let me guess. You got Beatrix to talk. She’s helping you…again. Love of Vakeeli, you’d think that woman would’ve learn a thing or two by now.” He floats closer to me, the redness disappearing from his eyes. His feet lower to the ground, and he places his hands behind his back. “Here’s what I’d like to let you know, though…” A chiming noise rings in the air like a gong, and I spin around to find a black and silver clock floating in the air behind me. “In ten hours, the capsule she’s given you will wear off. And what they don’t tell you is that if you take another to try to prolong this rather pressing matter, it’ll likely kill you, which will make my work so much easier. I’ve been waiting one hundred and twenty years to have Caz. What’s ten more hours?”
With those words, he transforms completely to Mournwrath again and rushes toward me, shoving me onto the ground. However, I don’t fall on my back. I sink into a dark void, arms flailing for seconds that feel endless. Above, I spot the blue light, the snowy hills, and my mate, floating in his chair. And then I land on hard ground.
