Bound by Devotion

Chapter Eleven

Now, it was simply death, despair, doom. Everything that she felt was going to happen behind that shimmering surface. A very accurate representation of her fears.

She shuddered as one of the mouths opened impossibly wide.

"That... is fucking gross." Gabe said, his hand taking Eve's as she tried to pull her eyes off it.

"This is the doing of the new king," Eve said as she finally pulled her head to the side. She stared into the beauty of Gabe's gray eyes. Those eyes alone making her not despise that color. "It used to be a representation of life and death."

"You've seen it?" Kornae asked and she glanced at him.

"No, only the drawing in my head." She looked back over her shoulder. "Ryon's drawing."

The affect of his name, spoken in front of those damned, was... intense.

Eyes locked on her and they all tried to speak. All at once, with no sounds.

"Holy fuck." Fallon could always be counted on to come through with the most eloquent reactions.

"Let's not do that again," Gideon said.

A wave of nausea rolled through Eve. Just watching those faces... She made a sound and Micah was beside her with his arm around her as she took deep breaths. She wasn't going to throw up, damn it.

"Are you okay?" Sebastian asked and she pulled herself together and stood. Micah's hand moved from her back to her hand and she nodded.

"Yeah. Peachy. Can we do this? If I have to look at them much longer, I'm going to lose my breakfast."

"I'll go first," Sebastian said. "I can tolerate the light better if it's sunlight that's lighting up the land."

He had a point, but it didn't matter. She didn't want any of them to go first. So, compromise. She let go of Micah and stepped forward.

"Together," she said and as he was about to argue, she was hit again. The urge to just let go bringing a cold sweat to her skin. He took her hand, Kornae took the other, they helped her gather herself and without a word of warning, stepped into the gray.

~~~ 

She didn't know what she was expecting, but this wasn't it. The sky was a study in shades of gray The rocks the same, with white and black added for... color. Grasping tentacles flopped and swept across the dusty ground, and of course, they were gray. Pools of... something were scattered around, covered by a milky white membrane.

This was the place that helped give birth to her?

She was on her knees, using a hand that shook to push her hair off her sweaty forehead. Kornae was knelt beside her, hand against the small of her back. The others appeared around them, Fallon jumping out of the way of a roaming snaky piece of muscle.

Hesitantly, she got to her feet, making sure her stomach stayed settled. Nerves and faces. One was gone, the other, she was controlling.

"This is Shadow?" Gideon asked, disbelief in his voice.

"This was Shadow." Eve told them about the things Cora said.

"And he wants to do this to our world." She could hear the cold anger in Kornae's voice. She glanced down at him and watched as he scooped up a handful of silt, letting it fall through his hand. Eve barely managed to control her shiver at the image that made. "I won't let him."

She touched his forehead softly and he turned blazing eyes her way. "We, Kornae. We won't let him."

He stared at her for a long moment before letting his breath out. His eyes went back to the quiet calm and he stood, dusting his hand across his black leather. "We. I forget sometimes how quickly you have come to love the dark beauty that is our world."