Blood King by Amber K. Bryant

Author:Amber K. Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-949090-40-6
Publisher: City Owl Press

As worn out as she was from the previous night’s events, Sybille found it impossible to sleep. Instead she tucked Margot’s afghan around Devin’s sleeping form, chatted with Nate about early twentieth century logging practices, and then headed up to her bedroom. Instead of lying down, she sat against her headboard, legs crossed, following her breath in and out.

She would need to concentrate to do what she was about to do. It was now or never. If she was going to get even a tiny glimpse of what was to come, she required a stretch of uninterrupted time. Margot, Peter, and Devin would sleep for hours. That left Elis. Elis, the king of distraction. If he remained out of the house on that psychic scavenger hunt she’d sent him on, she might be able to do this.

The human mind contained a jumble of pathways. Some were well-worn routes walked every day. Some were less frequently traveled. The majority were hidden.

Soon Sybille had achieved a trance state that would have made Elis jealous. In that state, hidden roads were unveiled. Paths that reached beyond Sybille’s consciousness, beyond the Now World, opened for her. The challenge wasn’t in finding a path; it was in choosing which one to walk down. The road to the disincarnate world where disembodied spirits dwelled was one she was familiar with. As odd as it may be, it was a path she herself had built.

What she wanted to do now would take a great deal more deliberation. She let thoughts of the Low come and go. Thoughts of Nathanial Atkins, Crave as a user inhaled it, damaged minds and broken bodies. A land of rambling brooks and deep virgin forests. The Low with its relentless pulsations, constantly wearing away at the minds of its human inhabitants until they decided to take drugs before the craziness hit. Not that the drugs would stop the insanity; it would simply make them care less that it was happening.

She let these thoughts flow, let everything Devin had told her surface. She clung, not to a rock or crystal for guidance, but to the picture of Raelyn Vargas that Devin kept in his wallet. In it, she appeared with a big toothy grin. Young, sweet, innocent. She was everything the Low had taken away from her.

Eyes closed, Sybille held the photo in her cupped hands and she pushed herself along the path she hoped would lead where she needed to go. She pushed Raelyn forward with her, first a fifteen-year-old girl running away from her past, then a few steps down the road. Sixteen-year-old Raelyn taking refuge from that past by obliterating her present. She walked with her as her health deteriorated, as the addiction grew, and she remained by her side when the fragility of her human existence ended so that a new life with a new addiction could begin. Before she knew it, Sybille was there with Devin as he let her feed from him.

The path Sybille walked was on fire, Raelyn’s spirit dancing in the flames.

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