The Coalition (Book 1)

Chapter 63

His lungs screamed for oxygen in the dense air of the corridor, but he forced himself on. He focused on the smooth control of his body. His muscles tightened and relaxed rhythmically as he ran. The empty corridors echoed back the sound of his pounding feet.

The same guard stood watch, a silent sentinel at the bottom of the stairs. He didn't react when Aliah snatched a short-bladed knife from the weapons table.

He took the stairs two at a time, running blindly up the dark stairwell, his feet finding each step from memory.

The blazing sun had finally set outside, cooling the air. The moonlight sharpened the angles of the towering factories and stretched their eerie shadows along the ground.

He ran with nothing but the knife in his hand and the page from the Book. He'd looked enough times at the page to know the map by heart. After the jagged Sector Seven terrain, the land became smooth and flat further west. On the map its label was simply the Outerlands. Gershom wasn't on the map. If the entrance to Gershom was through Death then he would face it. Even if he had to run forever. He would run until he stumbled into Gershom.

Memory after memory slammed into his consciousness. The next thought climbed on top of the previous thought, each one vying for attention. He shoved them all down and kept running.

Just focus on Shai.

Her long blond hair. But now it's matted with blood.

Those incredible blue eyes. Eyes that had barely registered recognition when she looked at me. The further he ran the darker his thoughts became.

Acute pain attacked his left side and he squeezed it.

Breathe. In. Out. Run. Run. Keep running.

Breathe.

Whose blood was all over Shai? Hers?

He shivered. She would've attacked him if Elchai hadn't called out to her. But he saw in her eyes she wasn't really there. She hadn't been standing in the Center's Core. When she had raised the knife and came at him it wasn't him she was seeing.

Then who?

"Who did you see when you looked at me, Shai?" He spoke into the darkness. He asked the ragged shadows of rocks as he passed them. He lifted his face to the black sky and asked the wind that whipped through his hair and tore tears from his eyes.

You know who she saw. And you know where she is and who she is with. The voice penetrated his questions. Familiar and cold. Taunting and teasing.

Gershom was close now. I suppose I've always known it was close. As close as a person's next breath. The veil was always there, hanging between two realms, rippling in the icy wind he felt in his soul.

Shai, I know where you are and I'm coming for you. He felt her teetering between life and death. He knew she was standing on the threshold between Gershom and Edan. He wondered if she could feel the same cold wind that he felt. The harsh gusts that turned his blood to ice, his breath to frost.

Another memory rose in his mind, vivid in color. Sounds so loud he had to listen. His feet stumbled for footing, but still he ran while looking inwardly at the sudden memory.

They had been walking along the water (was it the river of Lael or the channel in Kent? He didn't know.) The three of them swinging their clasped hands: Remiel and himself with Shai between them. It was the last time he could remember being happy. Shai had squeezed his fingers and he smiled at her profile. The smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose danced when she crinkled her face in a laugh. His heart soared and ached at the same time. He loved her. He truly loved her. He nearly told her so, but he heard thatvoice. The voice that would often return to chill his soul and eventually harden his heart. That day he heard it for the first time.

"Be careful she isn't taken from you. You can't trust Remiel."

He had glanced sideways and saw Remiel's face as he watched Shai, the same hungry look he imagined he himself had when he was with her.

Something had twisted in his gut when looked at Remiel and Shai's interlaced fingers. Remiel was certainly more alive, more excited when he was with her. But who wouldn't be?

She was golden. Like honey on the lips.

He remembered the sudden dryness of his mouth. The instant sweat that slicked his palms. And he made a vow. I will do anything to protect Shai. Anything.

The memory dislodged something long-buried. An undefinable agony that ripped into his chest and left a gaping hole where his heart had been.

Aliah tripped on a loose stone and turned his ankle. He fell sprawling on the ground and felt the skin roll back from his palms and knees as the sharp gravel and dirt embedded in his flesh.

He spat and sat up. The memory dissolved like a spoonful of salt beneath his tongue, leaving behind a bitter taste.

I've been a fool. Listening to the voice had poisoned him against Remiel and twisted his own love for Shai into something selfish and evil.

He grabbed fistfuls of his hair as he cried out inside. Why? Father, why did you try to destroy my life? All this time I've let you into my head because I thought you were helping me. But you've never wanted to help me. You've always hated me. Why?