Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [82]
“Disappearing,” Ethan said.
I watched the coin grow smaller in the distance, rising to infinity. “It isn’t disappearing,” I told him. “It’s still there. It’s still turning.”
“Not the coin. Me.”
The soft fear in his voice drew my eyes back to him. He was staring at his hands, now palm up in front of him. Having thrown the coin in the air, Ethan was beginning to fade, the tips of his fingers dissolving into ash that fell onto the psychotically patterned carpet below us.
“What’s happening to you?” I couldn’t do anything but stare as his fingers disappeared one millimeter at a time. Instead of screaming in horror or trying to stop it, I just gazed with clinical fascination, watching my lover being slowly erased into nothingness.
“I made my choice. I chose you.”
Frantically, fear rising in my gut, I shook my head. “How do I stop it?”
“I don’t think you can. It’s natural, isn’t it? That we all devolve to ashes. To dust. And we’re put away again.” His attention was suddenly drawn away. He looked up and away at something across the room, his gaze widening farther.
“Ethan?”
His eyes snapped back to mine. “It’s too dangerous. Don’t let them do it, Merit.”
“Do what?”
“They’ll take advantage. I think they’re trying now.” He looked down at his hands, now halfway turned to ash. “I think that’s where I’m going.”
“Ethan? I don’t understand.”
“I’m only ashes,” he said. He looked at me again, and I felt my own panic finally rising at the fear—the honest-to-God fear—in his eyes.
“Ethan—”
Without warning, the disintegration accelerated, and he began to slip completely away, his last move the screaming of my name.
“Merit! ”
I jolted awake in a cold sweat and a tangle of Ethan’s blankets, dread sitting low in my stomach. It took a few moments to adjust to being awake again, to remember that it had been only a dream. That the horror wasn’t real, but that he was still gone.
The nightmares were coming faster now, no doubt the result of the stress I was feeling. I hadn’t solved the problem yet, and there were potentially two more elemental dangers—perhaps the biggest dangers—lurking out there. Earth and fire.
God forbid, I could figure something out before the city burned.
When my heart slowed again, I untangled myself from the blankets and walked to the bedroom window. The automatic shutters that covered it during the day had already lifted, revealing a gloriously dark sky, a couple of stars peeking through.
I closed my eyes in relief. The sky was back to normal, and that probably meant the lake and river were, as well.
If Claudia and Catcher had been right—that the magic was elemental and following a kind of pattern—the reprieve would be only temporary. We’d seen air and water. Earth and fire couldn’t be far behind. But even a temporary reprieve would take some of the heat off us.
I returned to my room. With Tate on my agenda, and a message from Catcher confirming our second meeting, I showered and dressed in my leathers. I wasn’t trying to impress Tate with my business acumen tonight; this was about fixing supernatural problems. The bit of worry wood, of course, was back in my pocket.
Jonah, on the other hand, hadn’t called. That bothered me a little. I hoped he wasn’t going to avoid me because I’d rebuffed him. We were a green team, but a good one. And while I was beginning to learn that I could stand Sentinel on my own, I’d have much rather done it with a partner.
Thinking misery loved company, I dialed up Mallory. It took five rings before she answered, and even then she wasn’t thrilled about it.
“Kind of in the middle of something.”
“Then don’t answer the phone next time,” I joked, but the comment still stung.
“Sorry,” she said, and it sounded like she meant it. “I’m just—every exam gets a little worse, you know? And then I’m crazy tired, and I’m nearing the end of my rope. I just want this entire process to be over. I don’t even care if I pass. I just want it done.”
I could hear the exhaustion in her voice, and in the speed of her words. It wouldn’t surprise me