Page 93 of Ashborne Phoenix

I wept. ‘Me too, Koa. Me too. I don’t know… I don’t know, but I never want to do that again.’

It took minutes before I could breathe without pain. Another minute before I was aware of anything but her.

I staggered to my feet just as Voski spat a mouthful of water into a vase in the corner, rinsed his mouth and spat again, then turned to look at me.

Both of us went still.

His midnight-blue eyes were bloodshot. Dark bruises beneath them as if he’d been punched. And his hand, when he lifted it to push his hair back, trembled like a leaf in the wind.

“What was that?!” I croaked. “Voski… what happened?”

His forehead crumpled, and for a moment I was reminded of his memories—the little boy who cried in fear. He shook his head as if shaking off the memory.

“I’m sorry, Grace,” he said hoarsely. “So sorry.”

I couldn’t move. ‘Koa?’

‘I’m here, Grace!’ But her call was high, tight with fear and shivering with agitation.

I closed my eyes and reached for her through the bond, a child stretching for a mother’s embrace. Desperate. Fearful. Needy. And she crooned and wrapped that shivering, heaving chamber next to my heart with her wings.

She was here. She was still here. Thank you, God.

~ VOSKI ~

I almost lost my grip. Almost lost Kham. Almost lost Grace. Almost fucking lost everything.

‘Never, ever again,’ Kham hissed in my head, breathless with worry and pain.

‘Never,’ I assured him. And I meant it.

I’d never torn a portal before. Never actually walked the void. I’d never imagined that the dragons couldn’t reach us there. The pain and cold were shocking—and I’d lost my grip on Grace, too.

It was the single most terrifying thing I’d ever done.

For those moments, I was alone. Truly alone. I’d walked death. And I never wanted to do it again.

After emptying my stomach, I tried to comfort Grace, but it was as if she barely registered my presence. Her attention had turned inward, to Koa, no doubt. And I couldn’t blame her. I still clung to Kham like a child gripping his father’s hand in a dark forest.

Never again.

“What was that? What happened?” Her voice was small. Thin. I tried to hold her, but she kept pulling from my grasp. Her eyes were still distant. And she trembled.

“The void,” I croaked. “The… the veil. I didn’t know, Grace. I never imagined…”

I’d learned the theory, been taught the warnings—and mostly believed them. It was why I’d never tried to rip a portal before. What had possessed me this time?

‘Fear,’ Kham answered without hesitation. ‘Fear drove you. Fear held you. And you almost fell into the stomach of it. Never again!’

I shook my head, shamed and mortified—and more than a little afraid.

How much time had passed? The void was outside of time and space. It could have happened in a blink. It might have taken hours.

I turned to look at the windows of this guest suite, one of the rooms I’d considered for our secret hideout.

We were still in the castle. And it remained dark outside. ‘Is this the same night, Kham?’ I sent desperately. ‘How long were we gone?’

‘Only minutes, before you reappeared,’ he answered quickly, but with the tone he used when he was uneasy. ‘You walked the void?’