Delta [Epsilon #2]

Chapter Forty-Seven

Kyra

******

My vision flashed again, and this time a face flashed before me. Blue eyes. Black hair. A gilded mirror. Panic clawed at my sweat-licked skin, its dark talons digging into my flesh and injecting me with icy dread. Gasping, I pushed my way through the crowd on feet that didn't even feel like mine, as though I'd been ripped from my body and now only had partial control over it. People were calling my name, but I didn't care. I had to leave, I had to--

'Oh, Kyra dear...'

No...

My vision shifted again, and that face was staring at me again. Those eyes... how I dreaded those eyes. Parts of my body throbbed in pain as I banged into things, but I didn't care. I kept running. I kept running even though my body was in a completely different place.

'How lovely to see you back, dear,' Azriel's voice echoed, and yet his mouth didn't move. It was fixed into a tight smirk, and that's when I realized I was staring towards a reflection. He sat in a room I didn't recognise, before a grand mirror.

That didn't make him seem any less real.

"Get out!" I yelled, though I'm not sure if I really spoke. My head throbbed. My chest ached as I struggled to draw breath. Everything about this had every animal instinct in me screaming to run, but I couldn't. Though my body moved freely, my mind was trapped here, with him.

That smirk softened into something that could have been a smile. It may have even made my heart melt once.

My vision shifted back to my body. People were calling out after me, but I continued to stagger forwards. I couldn't make out much, other than the fact I might be in a hallway. I ran into something hard when my vision shifted back to the strange room.

"What do you want?" I cried.

'Isn't it obvious, my dear? I want you. Do you have any idea how much I miss you? What greatness we could achieve if you ruled by my side?'

Despite my panic, his words set a fire under my skin. "Get out of my head!" I yelled, feeling his pickling presence within me. I slammed into something hard and landed on my rear a second later, still blind and afraid. It was as though someone had put wool over my eyes and forced a wet cloth down my throat. I was suffocating.

'No, dear, for your mind belongs to me. You belong to me -- every inch of you.'

"No I don't!"

"Kyra!" a distant voice called. My vision flashed and several dark figures moved towards me. In a moment of pure panic, I lashed out my hand and clipped someone across the face. They stumbled back with a hiss, and I was sent back to Azriel's mind.

His smirk was wide, but the white knuckles of his curled fists made me shudder. 'You'll regret refusing me, dear,' he said, his tone sending a chill down my spine. Then, his fists relaxed, and his smile widened. 'Only six weeks, dear. Six weeks until your friends perish, and you will have to make a choice. Six weeks before,'-- his grin widened--'you rule at my side again.'

Just then, something warm enveloped my hand, and the dark presence within me wavered.

"Kyra!"

I gasped as I was sent hurtling back to reality. My entire body shook as waves of ice rolled over me, my vision flashing as my eyes darted around the scene. Several figures loomed before me, and through my racing thoughts, my surroundings jumbled into unrecognition. Ohgodohgodohgod.

"Look at me," a distant voice commanded, but I didn't hear it. Someone was kneeling right before me, but I paid no heed to them, either. I had to get out of here. I had to--