Iridescent Chaos (Enchanted Chaos 3)

Shit. This can’t be good. “Which memories?”

He takes a deep breath. “The one where I talked to Max about burying Brody and not telling Sky he’s dead.”

I let out a string of curses as I stride across the room toward him, zigzagging around the bolts of lightning. “I had a feeling that keeping this from her was going to come back and bite us in the ass.” I shake my head. “We should’ve just told her about it when it happened.”

“She wouldn’t have taken it any better if we had,” he says, crouching down in front of Sky. “You’ve felt enough of what she’s feeling through the link that you should know by now that she’s the kind of creature who feels guilt over a lot of things. Even things that aren’t her fault.”

“I know, but keeping it a secret from her probably hurt her.” I crouch down near Sky and reach for her, but Foster captures my hand.

“Don’t touch her,” he warns. “If you do, darkness could spill into you.”

“I don’t give a shit about that.” I reach for her again, but he smacks my hand away.

“You can’t help her if darkness gets a hold of you… Look, I know you want to help her…” He blows out an uneven breath and mutters, “Probably almost as much as I do.”

I squirm a bit, realizing some of my emotions are leaking down the link. That rarely happened until the link between Sky and my brothers and I was altered. I’m not sure why it happens now, why it’s suddenly difficult for me to keep my thoughts and feelings to myself.

“If we can’t touch her, then how the hell do we get darkness out of her?” Pain clutches my chest as my gaze lands on Sky. She appears frozen, the darkness swelling around her like a cloud, building and preparing for a storm. “If we don’t do something soon, she’ll end up getting possessed by it forever.”

I know this because Foster once told me that our grandpa, who was also an elemental enchanter, told him that if he ever completely gave into the power of darkness, that it could end up possessing him forever. And then he would end up like the elemental protectors of darkness, most of which are cold, uncaring, selfish bastards who usually end up going the evil route.

“I know,” Foster says, his voice barely audible above the wind. He studies Sky, his face set in deep contemplation. “I think we need to find a way to get her attention. Maybe if we can, it’ll get her to snap out of her trance, at least enough that we can try to get her to block out the darkness before it takes her completely over.”

I smash my lips together to fight back the words wanting to leave my lips.

Foster glances at me with his brow lifted. “You think I’m wrong?”

“I’m not sure, but considering the pain she must be in right now… the guilt she has to be feeling over this…” My brows dip. “Why can’t I feel her guilt or pain right now?”

Foster opens and flexes his hands. “I’m not positive, but I’m guessing darkness is taking over her mind, which means it’s probably taking over the link too and blocking us out.” He shakes his head. “I don’t like not being connected to her, especially with this going on.”

I nod in agreement, trying to stay as calm as possible, be the East everyone thinks they know. “I agree that we need to snap her out of her trance… My bet is she’s stuck in her own thoughts of guilt and that’s why she can’t hear us. Well, either that or darkness is in her head. But like you said, if we can somehow communicate with her… maybe get inside her mind…” An idea occurs to me, one I know he’s not going to like, but that needs to be said. “Fost, if Sky does have a dream seer ability like we believe she does, maybe we could send him into her head and—”

“No,” he cuts me off with a firm look. “I already considered that and it’s too dangerous. Plus, there’s not even a way to get him here to try it.”

I drag my hand across my face, wiping the raindrops off my skin, and giving myself a second to put together a persuasive argument. While my plan is not ideal, it could be a solution to this problem, and a way to save Sky.

“We could get him here,” I say. “If we risk opening an unsecured portal and pulling him through it.”

He gapes at me. “No fucking way. Do you know how dangerous that’d be? Not just to open the portal but to just yank him through it and hope nothing else comes in with him.”

“I understand the risk, but letting Sky remain this way isn’t any better,” I stress. “You of all people should understand that.”

He seals his lips together, the muscles in his jaw pulsating. “And what happens if the god of darkness gets into the portal that we open? Then we’ll probably lose her to darkness forever.”

I fling my hand in Sky’s direction. “Darkness is already here, man. Sure, it’s not the god of darkness, but his power is consuming her. And if she has a dream seer ability, you know he’s probably in her head.”

He balls his hands into fists, gritting his teeth so hard his jaw pops. “You’re forgetting one small problem with your plan.”

“There’s more than just one small problem with it,” I point out. “But it might be our only option.”

He blows out a heavy exhale. “Okay, let's say that somehow we manage to open a portal and get him to us without the god of darkness getting in here too. And he’s actually able to use his ability to get inside Sky’s mind. It still doesn’t mean he’s going to be able to talk her out of her trance before darkness completely consumes her.” He roughly yanks his fingers through his hair. “I’m not sure anyone we’ll be able to talk her out of letting her guilt go.”

“I don’t think he’s going to be able to just talk her out of feeling guilty. I mean, he can try, but…” I hesitate to continue, knowing he’s going to get even more upset when I tell him the rest of my idea. But then I glance at Sky, surrounded by a funnel of wispy darkness, and realize time is too pressing for me to be worrying about Foster’s feelings. “I was thinking he could use his ability to, well, you know, temporarily block darkness from her mind and body.”

“You want him to tether his soul to her’s…” He gives me the dirtiest look ever. “Are you out of your da

mn mind?”