Sacrificed in Shadow by Reine S M

Author:Reine, S M [Reine, S M]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Paranormal & Urban, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Red Iris Books
Published: 2013-07-16T07:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

ELISE DRIFTED OVER the wastelands of Hell. The air was warm as liquid magma; it buffeted her with gentle turbulence, carried her on its tides, drew her toward the obsidian slabs of the mountains. She watched gashes of flame spread below. Human hands stretched toward her, screaming for mercy until enveloped by curls of black smoke.

Herds of demons swept over yellowed earth, a creeping plague that left rot in its wake. Father, they said, it’s been too long.

Love us.

Be with us.

But Elise drifted on, as untouched by their pleas as she was the screams of the damned.

She knew peace, soaring above Hell. Serenity.

Elise wasn’t supposed to be there.

It should have only taken a moment’s thought to return herself to Earth. Waking up from Hell was unpleasant, but easy. Yet she thought, I need to get back to Earth…and nothing happened.

An electric shock jolted through her.

She was trapped.

Elise.

The wasteland fuzzed. Wind smashed into her, blasting her toward the ground.

Elise, come back.

That voice was familiar—more familiar to her than her own body. It was masculine, carefully-articulated, almost professorial. And he sounded as though he shared her fear.

I can’t, she thought. I’m trapped here.

I won’t allow that, he replied.

Another shock of electricity.

Hell blinked out of view. Trees reared above her, piercing a navy-blue sky with their jutting branches.

It was night. The moon had waxed to a fraction less than full, and its brightness bore down on her, a disapproving gray face that reflected sunlight onto her tender skin.

Her flesh solidified. Her bones became whole.

Elise had returned to Earth. Hours had passed, and it was night again. But something was wrong. Her corporeal form hadn’t been restored with her clothing and weapons intact.

Naked on the forest floor, Elise’s skin was bared to a merciless moon.

And she wasn’t wearing her warding ring.

Elise!

Another mind drove into hers like two cars colliding at high-speed. Magic blazed in her vision, illuminating the night with arcs of gold and blue and bronze. A lacework of veins traced through the trees, the earth, and climbed Elise’s flesh, patterning her skin with the images of lightning bolts.

She could see magic. But worse than that, she could see through another person’s eyes.

He was in the forest, too. He was running, beating away the branches that reached for him with pine fingers, desperately seeking Elise. The mud sucked his feet under with every step. He knew that she was close, because he could see through her eyes, too.

It was James.

Elise fought to sit up, struggling to make sense of what she saw around herself in the forest. She couldn’t separate her sight from James’s. The trunks swirled around her. Earth and sky inverted, spreading the clouds underneath her like a distant carpet, before everything righted itself again. Her head throbbed.

I’m coming, Elise.

It was meant to be a promise, but it sounded like a threat.

“Stay the fuck away from me,” she said aloud. Her own voice throbbed in her chest, her skull, making her eardrums pound.

I’m almost there…

The sun reflecting off of the moon burned her.

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