“Mother,” Bastion said, harsher this time. “Please. Listen. She’s babbling again.”
“It lies sleeping,” Delilah murmured. “Not truly dead and gone. It waits.”
“That could be about the Eldest,” I said, sweat dripping down the back of my neck. “Or something worse.” What it was, I refused to say.
At the sound of my voice, Delilah’s eyes swiveled to the side, searching for me, her gaze burning, penetrating. She grinned, her mouth bubbling with froth.
“It lies sleeping,” she repeated. “Not truly dead and gone. It waits.” Her eyes bored directly through my chest.
No. She knew. They all knew. The Dark Room was still swirling inside me, waiting for its moment to strike, to break to the surface. All it needed was my permission.
But I wouldn’t give it. Ever.
“Dust?”
I whirled towards the doorway at the sound of Herald’s voice, the fear of Delilah’s words falling away from me, my blood already running warmer. I ran to him, pulled him in for a hug, unafraid, I realized, of how the others would react. Luella tipped her head at us, sipped from her whiskey, and gave the warmest smile I’d ever seen on her lips.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” Herald said.
“Likewise. Did you find anyone to bring?”
Bastion coughed softly. “I’m pretty sure we alerted the same people, anyway.”
Herald nodded. “It’s how I got here so fast.” Behind him, in the hallway, were Romira and Royce.
“Dusty,” Romira said, twiddling her fingers at me. “Gil, Bastion. Hi. And who’s this cutie?”
Mason was so thrilled that he was practically seven feet tall by then.
“Graves,” Royce said, giving me a little salute. “Still alive, I see.”
“And you guys are still together,” I said. “The world is full of miracles.”
Royce squinted at me. “You kiss your boyfriend with that mouth?”
I just barely caught Herald smirking and inhaling as he prepared something sharp to say.
“Okay,” I said loudly, cutting him right off. “Enough banter. We need to get our shit together.”
“Agreed,” Bastion said, his voice going just a little deeper. It was his Scion voice, I realized. “Until we figure out what it is Delilah’s rambling about, we’ll all need to keep a close vigil. There’s no telling what this is, but I’m convinced that her soul was touched by the Eldest while she was unconscious. Nothing else explains the sudden madness.”
“Don’t like it,” Gil growled. “Don’t like it one bit. This means that those bastards still have a gateway into our world.”
“Through the efforts of their servants, yes,” Herald said. “And through their minds as well.”
“It lies sleeping,” Delilah whispered.
“She keeps staring at you, Dustin,” Mason said.
“Not truly dead and gone. It waits.”
Herald watched me in silence. Everyone was watching me, and the pressure of it was making my heart thump harder, the sweat flow faster. Did they know? They had to know. I couldn’t keep the Dark a secret forever. And more than ever, how I longed to surrender, to dive into the comfort of shadows.
But surprise of surprises, it seemed that the shadows had come to me. The windows in Delilah’s room were darkening, if slowly. That shouldn’t have possible, though.
“It’s barely seven o’clock,” Gil said. “Sun can’t be down yet.”
He approached one of the windows, and as with many times before, I was grateful for his werewolf reflexes. Gil’s hands flew to his face as the windows burst inwards, showering the room in a hail of glass.