The Red Queen by Meg Xuemei X

Author:Meg Xuemei X
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult, Suspense, Historical, Thriller
Publisher: Silver Wheel Publishing
Published: 2015-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

SERAPHEN’S HEAD

Fighting his aversion to dead bodies, Ashburn studied Seraphen’s corpse.

Seraphen had a complete set of organs, like a human, but he had no flow of blood. The fluid in his body looked like mercury. His heart was charred meat, burnt by the combined powers of Lucienne’s Eye of Time and Ashburn’s black lightning.

Ashburn stared at the grotesque sight of Seraphen’s heart and winced. “Seraphen?” he called as if he could summon the dead. He then immediately felt foolish.

Seraphen’s glassy, sightless eyes stared into nothingness.

Ashburn inserted a hand through the hole in Seraphen’s chest and touched his heart. It was cold and hard like a rock. He shrank back, quickly removing his hand. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do.

What was Seraphen made of? During their brief time together, Seraphen had never revealed his origin, but he’d uttered once, “We’re alike, Ashburn Fury.”

Ashburn had regarded that statement as a humorless joke. Now he wondered if Seraphen had meant that they were linked. When Ashburn had activated the Eye of Time, he’d also activated Seraphen. Yet the creature had held fear and hatred toward the ancient power, hatred as strong as his own.

Ashburn had never delved into their link when Seraphen had been alive. He’d rejected all things that would bring him closer to the Eye of Time and fulfill his terrible purpose. But if he wanted to save Lucienne, he must resurrect Seraphen. And to revive Seraphen, he must find and activate the shared link.

He needed to go up to the Ghost House to perform the task. Inside the Rabbit Hole, all connections to the outside world were shut down. Ashburn dragged Seraphen toward the invisible platform under the glowing liquid interface. The man was dead weight, literarily.

As soon as Ashburn pulled Seraphen out of the Rabbit Hole, he gasped at the onslaught of the billions of images and sounds rushing into his mind. He dropped Seraphen to the ground and clutched his head. He gritted his teeth as he forced the flowing consciousness in one direction—backstage. He hadn’t the power to deny their existence, but he was the traffic controller in his domain. Still shouting their presence, the collective consciousness reluctantly flushed into the background under Ashburn’s harsh commands.

They were a collective humming now, unsatisfied and hungry. Ashburn ignored them. He released his hands from his head after he was calmer. He took another minute to brace himself for TimeDust to frantically record the updates from around the world. The mundane world came alive in his databank.

A pained laugh escaped him. How ironic! He hoped this world was dead in his mind except for Lucienne. He brushed aside the world’s gossip to find new memories that centered on her.

Violet’s and another girl’s memories popped out. Violet was in Sphinxes, bitter, lonely, and desperate. She missed him terribly. Ashburn turned away from her memories. He could never give her his love. He was no longer the Ashburn she knew. The gap between them had grown light years across.

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