A Breeding Darkness (Complete)

(33)

Lucy and Joon started the long climb up the mountain. Though it shouldn't have taken as long as it did, they had to move slowly. The black ooze coursing through Joon's veins depleted his strength even faster after turning into the raven. The veins now snaked across his face, seemingly rapidly progressed by his time as the bird. Lucy wasn't sure they had much time left if they didn't take care of the source. With this in mind, she tried to hurry him up, pushing him forward until they arrived at the mouth of the cave and looked in at the shadows within.

The miracle sunlight shown in from behind them, giving them just enough light to see the interior. It was dim and dark, but they could just make out that it was a shallow cave, with nothing inside of it except one long slab of stone. Before Lucy could step inside, something just to their right moved in the darkness. Lucy's eyes snapped to the movement, and she saw the tell-tale glowing white eyes watching them.

"Heartsore One," the creature said. "You've made it."

"The source is in here?" Lucy asked, but the creature didn't answer her question. It merely melted backward into the shadows, shifting its eyes to look out over the middle of the cave.

"It will be brought to light," the creature said, though it did not seem as if it was talking to Lucy and Joon. "Soon the forgotten one will be remembered."

Further into the cave, the ribbon of darkness seemed to come from under a thick slab of stone that lay in the middle. Lucy, trying to ignore the floating eyes of the Denizen, inched further in, heading toward the source. It was right there. Joon followed her, but as they got nearer, they realized that the darkness may be coming from beneath, but there was also something on top of the slab. Laid out in a red, gold, and white dress, her feet bare, was a young woman perhaps around Lucy's age. Dead as could be.

Lucy gasped, her hand covering her mouth as she stared at the girl's perfect golden curls framing her face which had gone a blue-ish tinge. Joon hung back as Lucy rushed to her side and tried to shake her awake, in the vain hope that maybe the girl wasn't dead after all. But as she drew close to the girl, the darkness rose and covered the girl's body, blocking Lucy from touching her. Lucy froze, watching as the darkness swirled around the girl like a living creature.

"Is she the source?" she whispered, glancing to the creature for answers. But it was already gone, as suddenly as it had appeared.

Instead, Lucy turned her attention to Joon. He had backed up until he was over near the entrance to the cave, blocking some of the light. A black shadow against the sunlight. For a moment, he looked like one of the creatures, hunched and sinister. But Lucy shook that thought from her mind. "Joon."

As if his name revived him, Joon looked up and took another step into the cave. "I don't feel good," he said, his voice strained.

"What do you mean?"

"It hurts." He tapped his chest, right over his heart. Since he didn't have a shirt, Lucy could see his skin and that the black veins hadn't yet reached his heart. It shouldn't be hurting.

She took a step toward him, but as she did, she felt something herself. A strange tugging at her edges. As if she was a canvas expanding on a frame. She paused, her face twisting in puzzlement.

"Lucy," Joon said, his words ticking up at the end. Panic.

"What?" she asked, shaking her head to ignore the tugging feeling. She walked to his side as he clutched his chest, his fingers curling over his heart and his knuckles turning white.

"I feel a memory," he said.

"What does that mean?"

"I can't remember it, but I feel it. Like a wound that's healed a long time ago. I know there's something there. Something hurts when I look at this girl."

Lucy's eyes trailed to the small form on the slab. There was something achingly sad about the girl, but it wasn't painful to look at her. Her sweet pointed chin and stubby nose made her look almost like a child, though it was obvious she was old enough to be claimed a woman. Still, there was nothing that made Lucy's chest hurt. "You think you know her?"

"I don't know. But... I feel like I'm supposed to remember her," he said, his brow crunching as his voice strained and he bent over in pain. "Something's very wrong."

"Well, let's step out for a moment and then we can—" Before she could finish, the tugging grew so strong that her words disappeared as the sensation took over. Her gaze slammed into Joon as her heart clambered against her ribs. In his eyes, she saw fear, and she knew why. Because when she looked down at her hands she saw they were slowly disappearing. She felt someone's hands on her shoulders, violently shaking her even though she saw no one at all near her in the cave. It was a sensation coming not from Zerkalo, but from home. Someone was messing with her body.

She was returning to Strana.

And Joon wasn't.

She tried to grab him, anchor herself, but the tugging feeling grew into a blow that knocked her mind straight out of the dreams. She saw only Joon's mouth calling out her name before her vision went black.

And then she opened her eyes to Alisdair and Saul's panicked faces, hovering over her in the orange lantern light of her bedroom.

She sat bolt upright in her bed, wincing as her foot throbbed and her head ached. She'd never been woken from this side before, and it was not a pleasant feeling. She pressed her palm to her temple, and looked at Alisdair and Saul, who stood by her bedside. Alisdair looked angry, but Saul still wore his panicked expression from before.

"What in the world were you thinking?" she asked, looking for the stash of Sleep Briar she had broken out in order to get into Zerkalo in the first place. She had to get back to Joon. Not that it would be easy to get back to the mountain. She felt her heart quicken as the panic set in, thinking about how impossible it would be to find him again if the creature from before didn't happen to find her again and happen to want to help her.

"No, what were you thinking?" Alisdair demanded. "Did you not hear what Koshmar said about the darkness? Zerkalo is dangerous now."

"You can't tell me you believed his nonsense about the darkness coming over with the Dreamwalkers?" Lucy asked, unable to keep the scorn from her voice. She wasn't in the mood to argue with Alisdair. Not when he'd made her leave Joon behind when he was about to remember something from before. Something that might help them stop all this.

"I don't know what I believe, but I do know that going into Zerkalo isn't going to help with the darkness, and that it's only going to make Koshmar furious."

"You're wrong about that. I was about to get rid of the darkness completely, if you hadn't woken me up!" she said, pushing herself to stand on her bed. Her feet sank into the mattress as she reached up onto the shelf above her and pulled down a tin of Sleep Briar.

"Lucy!" Saul shouted, snatching the tin from her and walking to the window. He opened the lid and dumped it into the street, tapping the tin against the sill to make sure every last trace was gone. "You've gone insane. Absolutely insane."

Lucy stared at him with her mouth open, unable to process what he'd just done. She jumped off her bed and raced to where he'd set the tin. She flipped open the lid, even though she knew it would have nothing in it. She stared at the empty contents.

"Koshmar has a bounty on your head," Alisdair said, crossing his arms. Lucy ignored him, still staring at the empty tin. She couldn't reach Zerkalo unless she was in a deep enough sleep. And she had no idea where she could find more Sleep Briar when Koshmar had banned it.

"Lucy." Saul shook her shoulder, forcing her to look at him. "Don't you understand what that means?"

"It's doesn't matter what it means here. I need to get back to Zerkalo if we want this darkness to ever end."

"It does matter what it means here," Saul said. "The only reason you haven't been killed yet is because Koshmar doesn't know where you live. Once he finds out, he'll come in here with guards and stab you without even the courtesy of waking you up. Whatever you want to do in Zerkalo will be of no use if you're dead."

Alisdair crossed the room to stand over Lucy. "All the Dreamwalkers have been sent out into the city after you. We're offered our own lives in exchange for yours. You won't find many as generous as me. Unfortunately, you are lacking friends now, Lucy Shubin."