Reapers -- The First Familiar (Reapers Chronicles Book II)

23 - Link

 

My eyes were wide-open but I couldn’t see anything. There was nothing to hear but my own breathing. The only thing I could sense was Vincent’s hands holding mine. There was little comfort in that.

I had only been in Halja for four days but it was like I had already forgotten how it felt like to have more than one soul inside me. It was overwhelming, like I couldn’t contain all of it. And if I wasn’t strong enough, life would spill out from me like water brimming over the edge of a glass. That or I would explode.

Right then, I feared about Vincent’s warning about me going to Point Zero. It didn’t harm me the first time for some reason. But now, I wasn’t so sure.

Fool. A familiar voice cackled inside my head. This time, I was afraid it wasn’t the Bind.

In panic, I clutched Vincent’s hands tighter. My whole body trembled in the realization that my nightmare was back—Alessandra. And to make things worse, I left the Helcium—the only thing that could help me control her—in Sathariel’s hands. The enchantments in Halja might have prevented Alessandra from surfacing, but now that I was free from that place’s Binds, so was she.

“The Link,” Vincent murmured, obviously unaware of my internal struggle. “Now.”

Forcing back the cry that threatened to escape from my mouth, I tried to concentrate on the Transference Link. I closed my eyes and willed my consciousness to search for Vincent’s. But as I did, I caught a glimpse of Alessandra lurking in the corners of my mind. She was smaller and weaker than I had remembered but the hatred in her eyes burned stronger than ever. She wasn’t even trying to do anything and I was terrified.

‘He’s right, you know.’ Her voice was reedy yet, with an unmistakable hint of mockery. ‘You don’t belong in Nirvana. You do not belong on earth. Where do you belong, Aramis Rayne? Where?’

I struggled to keep my focus and ignore her maniacal laughter. Carefully, I let my consciousness drift towards that part of me, that special place where Vincent’s soul and mine connect to become one.

Alessandra sounded mad as she kept yelling, ‘You are mine, Aramis! It would not be long!’

At long last, I reconnected the Transference Link. All of a sudden, I felt the control coming back to me, the panic slowly subsiding. I could feel Alessandra retreating back to her small hiding place as Vincent’s soul connected with mine. It was as if she was afraid of him, of his mere presence that she easily, silently gave up.

With the Link now intact, I was back in command again. I had the gut feeling that as long as I kept the Transference Link with Vincent intact, I wouldn’t be hearing from Alessandra again anytime soon.

As an added safety measure, I made an effort to hide all my thoughts about Alessandra from Vincent. With everything going on, the last thing he would need was to know that his only familiar was on the brink of turning into a monster.

We floated there for what seemed like several minutes. Neither one of us said a word for a while, but then it was Vincent who finally broke the silence.

“How long do you think we’d be stuck in here?” he whispered even though he knew no one else was here to hear us.

“No idea,” I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. There’s no time in Point Zero. We could spend days in here and it could be as if we never left earth… or in this case, Halja.”

I waited for him to speak but he kept his silence as if he was thinking deeply. That was when I began to wonder if he could sense that my soul was going bad. If that happened, I knew it would just leave him with two options—fully-Resurrect me, thus freeing Alessandra’s soul in the process, or destroying Alessandra’s soul while it was still inside me.