Page 252 of Of Masks and Fury

ISI

As we rushed out the side entrance, the cloaked woman’s mocking laughter echoed in my ears. Behind us, the sound of Skathe claws scrambling through the halls grew louder. She’d called for reinforcements.

We burst out into gray daylight. The wasteland stretched ahead of us, the air shimmering with putrid decay and a rancid smell that made my stomach turn.

Racing back to where we’d left the sacks of weapons, we quickly armed ourselves.

“Which direction?” Trew asked, a sword in his hand and another strapped to his side. He’d also secured multiple blades into sheaths on his leathers.

With a long blade in her hand and a grim expression on her face, Kira pointed southwest. “The breach is half a clek that way. You’ll know it when you see it.”

Addie swayed beside me, her body flickering translucent for three heartbeats before solidifying. I caught her elbow, steadying her.

“I’m fine,” she whispered, though we both knew it was a lie.

Our companions shifted into their large forms, and I was grateful to have them with us.

Kira’s death adder slithered out of the top of her tunic. It flung itself toward the ground and shifted before it landed, bursting into a python that writhed its head above us. It hissed and its head snapped toward me?—

Pherin leaped but before she could reach me, the python snatched up a Skathe that had exited the fortress behind me. She flung it up and toward the building carved into the cliff, and it hit with a wet smack. It tumbled down but before it hit the ground it exploded into a cloud of ashes.

I was still breathing fast, and not only from running.

Pherin nudged my side.Not bad after all.

You’re right.

The python shifted into its death adder form again and slithered to Kira, who scooped the creature up and coiled her around her throat. “Aren’t you amazing?”

Trew stared at Kira long enough she twitched, before turning away. “Let’s go. Stay close.”

We ran across the wasteland with Kira in the lead. Derren tucked an arm around Lexie's waist. She was limping but the blood had stopped trickling from her wound.

The ground cracked beneath our feet, oozing black viscous liquid that hissed when touched.

Addie matched my pace, her breathing labored. After a few minutes, she leaned close enough that only I could hear.

“Do you know how to seal the breach?” she asked. “I’ve only traveled through it. That…was forced. Not sure I could do it alone.”

I shook my head. “Velacross’s journal was vague. ‘Blood calls to blood across the boundary.’ ‘What was torn asunder shall be made whole.’ He never explained the actual process.”

“Willing sacrifice.” Addie’s fingers wrapped around the crescent moon pendant at her throat.

We both knew what that meant, though neither of us would say it aloud.

“The veil responds to its own origin,” I said, telling her what I remembered. “To mend a wound, one must offer the thread that matches.”

“We’re the thread.” Addie’s voice held no question, only grim certainty. “Velacross’s bloodline. Mother’s daughters. We can manipulate the weave,” she sucked in a deep breath, “because it’s a part of us.”

I grabbed her hand, squeezing hard. “Whatever it costs, we’ll pay it together.”

She squeezed back, tears shining in her eyes. “Mother died. She tried…to protect us.”

“We’ll finish what she started.” I pulled her closer as we ran, supporting her with an arm around her back. “We’re not dying, Addie. We’re sealing the breach and walking away. Both of us.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”