27. Mari

Chapter twenty-seven

Mari

M ari, Mari, can you hear me? Where are you? Please, help— That voice. Ava's soft-spoken tone resonates, and my eyes abruptly open. I shoot up, Soren's arm draped lightly around my hip. He's gone to the world, his breath soft and even—unbothered.

Mari, hurry, they ' re coming! The fear. She sounds so terrified. I scramble up out of bed, Soren still undisturbed. Something in that, though, sends alarm bells ringing throughout my body. Why is he still asleep?

Every time I stirred last night, he woke up to give me small kisses before I settled against him again.

Quiet spreads in the thick air like a fog. No noise comes from the other tents. Did no one else hear her? The voice comes back in racked sobs. Please help. They ' re coming for me.

I hear Ava, but this doesn't seem right. I've been here before. I reach for the answers and memories, but they slip through my grasp like sand.

Why is it so quiet? Why is Soren still asleep? Why is no one else moving or making noise? Am I dreaming?

Fear washes over me like a tide. If this is a dream, then it's coming for me. Like every nightmare I've had since being in this place, that creature is coming for me again.

I can't live like this. I can't spend my life in fear of my thoughts or what my dreams will do once I'm no longer in control.

Lucid, I'm lucid right now. I'm dreaming, but I feel and sense everything. My body moves as it would if I were awake. This is what I'm supposed to do, like in the movies. I need to confront the creature before it lets me go. I have my full strength. It all makes sense now.

I grab the boots Soren's sister made for me and leave the deathly quiet camp. My steps squelching into the muddy ground is the only sound that breaks the silent night.

That voice, Ava's voice, distorts the closer I get, becoming more mechanical. My friend's soul, her essence, dissipating with every step gained, becoming distorted and corrupt. I know what is ahead of me this time. Even though it's horror in every sense of the word, it's expected.

The night is black, with thick gray clouds overhead, winking out any light the night sky can provide. I don't need it. That voice pulls on me like a tether. It beckons me as if our fates are connected. But this time, I know what it is. I've seen it almost every night .

The thing—the creature, entity, ghost, demon, god—the thingso terrifying that people refuse to name it, and when they do, Soul Eater is the only adequate description.

I see horns bobbing behind a bramble before the creature comes into view. It's still speaking in Ava's voice, and its eyes wink in and out, as if attached to a drained power source.

You came back, Mariana; I ' ve been waiting for you . All humanity in that voice is now gone. Its unearthly tone corrodes the quiet night. It sounds unnatural like a record played backward.

"This is the last time, beast. I'm here to end it." The Mariana I have always known to be comes rushing to the surface. No fear, only the fear for others. I pull my shoulders back and jut out my chin; I've cut this thing down once before. I can do it again.

Patti's knife burns hot in my back pocket. I reach for it. Letting the warm sensation spread down my hand and into my arms, like it's fusing to my very soul.

Now, where did you get that ? the creature asks, swaying in and out, letting the languid movement mask its slow advancement on me.

"It was a gift." I step back, expanding the distance this creature is hellbent on closing.

Quite the gift, little human. It nearly did me in the first time. It weaves closer and closer and its words echo in my head. The skeleton structure clatters and grinds with its movements. Every sound this thing makes is an assault on the senses. But it's not real. It's in my head. And there is only one way to stop a nightmare. You look it in its red eyes, and you tell it to fuck off.

"I killed you. This is a nightmare, and I'm here to end it." I step forward, unsheathing the knife. The creature didn't expect the movement, and I lunge at it, catching its bone thigh with my blade. It sinks into the creature like a hot knife through butter. Black blood oozes from the wound.

A roar falls from the beast's mouth, and it swipes its claws at me. I roll out of reach and stand again. Now, I circle the whaling demon like a predator—because I am one.

That was very stupid, Mariana, it says, clutching it's leg. You surprised me last time. That won ' t happen again. Before my eyes, the blood stops, and the bone knits back together, leaving a shiny, undamaged surface.

Fear rakes up my spine, but I don't let it show, I keep circling. This is a dream. Of course, it can repair itself. I can, too; maybe I can fly or have powers. If I'm lucid dreaming, I can do what I want.

I try to conjure something, anything, but nothing happens. In fact, I feel like myself.

That ' s right, human. You ' re starting to understand , the creature says, locking its blinking red eyes on me. This isn ' t a dream; I ' ve been hunting you since that night. Nothing spills my blood and lives to tell the tale. I won ' t return until I have your soul for my own .

It lunges for me, moving at a speed my brain can't process. I'm knocked to the ground, falling into the squelching mud. The creature follows, holding me to the earth, my arms stretched over my head, its bony hands scraping the flesh on my palms.

Y ou see how easy it is for me, human? You are nothing to me. I will eat your soul and never think about you again. It opens its maw; white teeth stretch over an endless cavern down the creature's throat. It's nothingness, pure, unadulterated nothing. And it's going to swallow me whole.

I kick and thrash, but there is more here than brute strength. I feel it; whatever abomination this thing might be, it has dark, deadly magic—the magic of a soul eater.

Tears fall for the first time. Sliding down my face into the black, muddy earth. I don't want to die here.

It opens its mouth impossibly wide. There is something whirring and pulsing in the back of its throat. More magic.

I close my eyes. Not wanting to see my death, not wanting to see the endless hollow I'm about to fall into. Dying a coward, the thing I swore I'd never be. Dying alone.

Cold, viscous liquid drips on my face, causing my eyes to fly open. There is a gleaming silver arrow piercing through the roof of its mouth. A scream rips through the creature as its black blood covers my skin.

Hands grab my arms, pulling me out from under the beast.

I'm wrapped in Soren's arms before I have time to assess what happened.

Winnie storms out of the shadows, bow drawn. "Do you know what these are, beast?" he asks, the usual kind timber to his voice, now drawn and harsh. If he were a viper, he'd be spitting venom. "These are arrows forged in the Ambustum mountains, fused with the magic of the scorched lands. Only dwarfs create these, and I have an abundance." His eyes are wild, and his salt-and-pepper hair is set free to billow in the night air.

Despite his stature, he looks like a true warrior. Not the welcoming man who does cross-stitch and bakes bread.

He stands alone, cresting the top of a small hill, holding his bow at the ready.

Then, like the green of spring, come to tamp out the bitter cold of winter, one-by-one, the Vissar family walks out of the tree line to join Winnie at his side. An army of ancient warriors come to stand and to fight—for me .

"Haha, you foolish creatures," the beast snarls. It was in my head. All those times before, that voice was in my head. I realize it now, hearing it speak. It was in my fucking head! That's how it was in my dreams; that's how it knew Ava and Yera's voices.

"I will eat every last one of you. You understand how strong that's going to make me? I'll be indestructible,"it snarls.

Winnie shoots another arrow that breaks through the exposed rib bones—causing the creature to waver on its feet.

It rips the arrow from its chest and laughs again. The wound is already stitching back together. "You idiots. You can't kill me."

Part of the horde opens, and Em moves to the front and stands beside Winnie. Her chocolate brown eyes, once so full of light and mischief, have gone putrid black from the white to the iris.

"You will leave, beast," she says, not sounding like herself. Her voice is melodic and haunting. I squish the boots she made me deeper into the mud, Soren's arms still locked around me.

Her black eyes scan the creature before she speaks again. "You are dying here. Your light is fading. Your master is calling you back. It has been for weeks now."

"Stupid ogre bitch. You know nothing."

"I know that your obsession with the human has consumed you; if you stay much longer, you will start falling apart. Or we could do that for you. We could cut you into a thousand pieces and spread you throughout the lands so you'll never be put back together." She pauses, listening to whatever has taken her over. "They're calling to you now; I can hear them." She crooks her head to one side, looking more and more like a creature possessed. "You going to answer? You loyal dog. Go back to your masters?"

It screams, rattling the earth and shaking leaves from their branches. Black smoke pours from its ears, eyes, and mouth, covering the beast in dark, swirling mists that engulf its body. Lightning crashes to the ground with a crack, throwing everyone off their feet.

I look over to where the creature stood. Now, smoke writhes and swirls from where the lightning struck.

It's gone.

"Em," I say under my breath, getting to my feet. I rush over to her, kneeling in the mud."Em, are you okay?" I hold her head in my lap, brushing her short brown hair from her face. Soren shrinks into the mud on her other side and reaches for her hand. "What happened?" I asked him. "I didn't know ogres had magic."

"We don't," he says in a flat tone that sends a shiver down my spine.

"Then what was it?"

"I truly don't know. Em has always seen things we can't; she could speak with our grandparents long after they passed. It's uncommon, but some non-magical beings can speak with the spirits. They are called the gifted." He stares at his sister for a long moment, as if willing her to open her eyes. "She's done nothing like this before." A tear falls from his chiseled cheek, sinking into the ground.