Silver Blood (Series of Blood Book 1), Emma Hamm [free novels txt] 📗

if her shoulders hadn’t moved in a silent sob. Wearing all black, with those dark curls tumbling down her shoulders, she appeared as if she were part of the night itself.

She sat upon her knees where the main counter used to be. Her form appeared so much smaller than he remembered, but perhaps that was the curled set of her shoulders as she tried to disappear into the ground.

Fluttering white ashes decorated the air around her. They lit down upon her hair and took on the form of stars in the universe that she had created. Fire danced behind her as the flames struggled to stay alive in the rubble.

The frame of the building groaned loudly around them.

“Wren?” He called.

Her hand moved forward to brush through the ashes, and he could see her fist close around a vial. She was shaking.

“Wren?” He picked his way through the building and brushed aside the smoke that threatened his vision. “Is that you?”

She looked towards him then. Her eyes were darker than he had ever see them as a strand of inky hair pushed past her high cheek bone. The wind drifted around her, and the coals around her knees flared to life.

“It’s gone.” The whisper was carried through the air to him.

“I’m so sorry.” It was the worst thing to say. But he didn’t know what he could tell her. “I should have been here.”

“All of it,” she continued as though she hadn’t heard him. “Everything that was mine. Everything that was left of me.”

“Wren, tell me you’re alright.” He picked his way across what used to be a beam, but froze when the building groaned again. “It’s not safe to be here.”

He could see the tracks of tears down her cheeks now. Soon he would be close enough to touch her. He would be close enough to grab ahold of her and not let go. Not fail her again as he seemed to always do.

The wind picked up again. The black tunic she wore was split up the sides which flared to reveal pale skin and a long length of torso. Smoke swirled around her legs and danced up her arms. “It was Pitch.”

“The Juice seller? Why do you think that?” He had to keep her talking. She couldn’t move or walk towards him, not with the looming threat of being buried alive.

“He was here,” she muttered. “He was right in my window and then… nothing. Nothing but darkness.”

Jiminy recognized that tone. She had done the same thing immediately after she had stepped back into her body. Wren was losing herself in the vast expanse of Legion.

“I need you to listen to me.” His voice remained calm, but his hands were shaking. “You need to get up and walk towards me, darling. This building is going to fall down, and you can’t be inside it.”

“He was the one that brought me to meet Malachi. I don’t know why I didn’t see it.” A tear rolled down her cheek, and she clenched her fist hard. He watched a curled wisp of green Juice escape from between her knuckles. “He was my friend. Or so he told me. He betrayed everything that we had.”

“Sweetheart, you need to listen to me!” He shouted this time to be heard over the creaking of the building.

“It was him!” The shout echoed around them as though thousands of voices had shouted at the same time. The building stilled at the sound, but Jiminy knew that was only the beginning.

“E!” His desperate shout was the last thing he had at his disposal. “E, if you don’t take control of her, we will both lose her forever!”

Her shaking hand raised to touch her lips. He could see blood dripping down her palm from where the pieces of glass she had crushed in her hand had sunk into flesh. His poor, mad girl who had never experienced a quiet life next to a lake. His poor, mad girl who tried so very hard to be normal.

Her eyes started to flip back and forth. She was both darkness and light, each eye changing in succession as E struggled to gain control over the mind that it inhabited.

“That’s it,” he muttered. “That’s it E.”

His hand stretched out towards her as she stood upon shaking legs. A tendril of a vine fell from her lap; at the same time, a large white ash settled delicately upon his outstretched hand. Like a butterfly it hovered against his warm skin before it disintegrated.

Her eyes flicked back to their stormy grey color, and he watched as tears gathered in her eyes once more.

“What am I to do, Jiminy?”

“Come with me,” he said fiercely. “I will keep you safe.”

“How can you?” The whisper sounded like a scream to his ears.

She took another step towards him. She was nothing more than a shadow, the silhouette of a woman that had no form or constant shape. The split tunic slapped against her knees, but split along her sides to reveal the physical form beneath the shadow. Black leggings hugged against the muscles of her legs and revealed delicate bare feet.

The very tip of her foot sank into another shadow. They both had a moment to stare into each other’s eyes before she disappeared.

A portal, left by the people who had burned her home down. A portal that had taken her from him again. A portal that had turned him into a liar once more.

“No!” His angry shout echoed as he ran out of the house that gave one last groan before the supports gave out.

Jasper lurched forward as soon as he recognized the expression upon Jiminy’s face as the Dream Walker exited the building.

“Don’t!” Was the last thing Jiminy heard before he launched himself into the dreaming world. He had to find her, and she had to be close enough to find.

His body crumbled to the ground. His head struck the earth, and a plume of ashes fanned out around his face. Dark smudges left shadows against the hollows