Excerpt #1
Shade’s ears rang from the darkling’s
screech and she had the sudden urge to let go of Camulus and Brisa to cover
them to make the shearing noise go away. She resisted, afraid she’d end up in
some weird teleporting limbo if she dared disconnect from Camulus now. She
endured the pain and felt Brisa trying to tug away from her too, probably also
in torturous pain. The jaunt could not have ended sooner and she found the
entire bunch writhing on the floor from the darkling’s searing call.
Shade followed suit, collapsing to
the ground and grabbing at her ears. Moments passed before the relentless ring
faded away, leaving them all breathing hard and sweating buckets. Shade pulled
her arm away from her ear to grasp her other arm, which now was throbbing with
a searing pain. Slowly opening her eyes as she breathed deeply in and out, she
saw why her arm was hurting so much. A black spot where the darkling had
touched her right before they had teleported away stood stark against the pale
skin of her forearm. It sent spikes of pain radiating up her through her elbow,
up her shoulder and into her chest. She gasped, gritting her teeth from the
agony.
The others were now finally getting
to their feet, some still dazed from the deafening screech. Dylan held his
hands on his knees, crouched down as he shook it off his senses. Noticing that
Shade was still on the ground, he hurried toward her and knelt down. She was
grabbing her left arm and shaking uncontrollable, tears leaked from both her
eyes and her face was screwed up in pain.
“Shade?” He pulled her up to sit
against him but she could barely open her eyes to register him.
“It’s burning!” She gasped, clutching
her arm against her chest, cradling it softy.
“What happened?”
“The darkling, it touched me
before…before we left.” Shade tried to breathe the pain away, but it was
winning and she wasn’t sure how long she would stay conscious. “What is this?”
“A darkling’s kiss.” Soap slid down
to check out the wound. It was hot around the edges and the black spot wasn’t
growing. Still, Shade grunted through the torturous agony. “When a darkling
marks you, it dies. In death, its touch poisons your blood slowly until all of
your blood turns black and you either become a darkling or…” he cleared his
throat, looking solemn. “Or, you die. But it takes just a few days.”
Alexia Purdy
Where to find Alexia Purdy:
@AlexiaPurdy
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