Fade Into Black - Shadows of the Night 5

Chapter 58

Hi,

Guess what? I'm going to surprise you with an early update this week! I hope you like the chapter :-) Enjoy the read and have a great week!

Lara

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Chapter 58

Eyesight blackened like a candle flame snuffed out. Time got lost in wash of shadows and motion. Hands were prying, drilling into my head. I screamed and fought it, pushed against the heavy weight behind my eyelids.

The memory of old Latin, a spell taught by Giuliana, burned in my mind, fevered words dripping from my tongue. Walls built around my mind, a fortress embedded in stone.

My eyes snapped open. I was breathing hard.

Vladislav's face appeared in front of me, a ghostly apparition of death – too close to escape. The air turned icy, invested by the power of the grave, and the pressure increased again.

I repeated the old Latin, pulled on my cuff. Magic spindled through me, raced through my veins like a wild cocktail of drugs and my vision blurred.

Suddenly I was back in my fortress – my mind – sitting on a stone floor in a chamber imbedded deeply in the complex. My mind was my own and my fortress. I repeated the words, felt them flow through me like the rush of blood and magic pulsating in my veins.

The foundations of my own fortress began to shake, dust sifting through the ceiling. Noise trickled through cracks in the walls that kept widening. Deafening gunshot-like sounds echoed in the distance, rattling the walls like a giant's fist. The fortress shook, cracking sounds numbing my ears in a deadly dance of ricochets. Chunks of the ceiling fell down. Dust billowed in the air and entered my lungs.

I coughed. Latin, the words I'd fought so hard to make my own, they fled my mind. The walls around me stilled as darkness closed in on me.

Found you.

The words slammed into me as I felt the invasion, the sorting and sifting through. I could see him. He was coming. I stilled and lifted my eyes, stared at the monster at the doorstep to my mind.

Vladislav was there. In the innermost of my mind. The spell wasn't strong enough. Not against someone as powerful as him. My magic wasn't strong enough to conquer his power. And he was going to steal my mind!

Vladislav stepped into the room, dark, empty eyes zeroing in on me.

My parents. Maria. Blaze.

Dead.

Dead because I was not good enough. Too slow. Not enough power. Never enough. I closed my eyes and drew a shuddering breath.

Maria. Blaze. Their names ricocheted in my mind like hollow whispers. Both of their deaths were something I could have, should have stopped. I wasn't strong enough.

Oh Maria.

My skin prickled, goose bumps in a deadly march up my spine. The taste of bile and salt settled in my mouth. I was staring the devil in the eye and he was going to eat me alive.

Life's all about choices, from the moment you're born up until the moment your heart stops beating. When death comes knocking on your doorstep, you can let it in, accept it with open arms; or you can bar the door and fight, kick and scream. Beat the shit out of it like a madman. It might only prolong the inevitable because in the end, you go, one way or another. Still, you kick and scream.