Page 80 of Mindeater

“Fuck you!”

He laughs, shakes his luscious golden locks around, and stands. By the first seer, even his body is perfect. Lithe and muscular, not too tall. I swallow hard.

“Don’t go anywhere,” he teases with a wink and walks off.

He leaves me…well, I don’t know where. I can’t even tell what I’m lying on. But the wind carries the scent of cooking meat, and in my peripheral I spot snow-capped trees.

I’m stuck at this monster’s mercy, and even though I should be focusing on my self-preservation, all I can think is: no wonder Ryx never came for me.

29

Ryx

It didn’t take me long at all to find the third set of footprints.

Whoever it was hung back while the two others did the dirty work. What I can’t understand is why they didn’t kill me. I was vulnerable, completely defenseless. If I were them, I absolutely would’ve slit my throat.

I’m not proud of my panic attack or how I let hours slip away while I rocked and twitched. Thankfully, no one saw it.

It’s dawn now, and I’ve been walking for miles, following the tracks. They’re too pristine to not be suspicious. Anyone with two brain cells would’ve tried to erase them. No, this was deliberate, and whoever took Saren wants me to know—to follow. I’ve gone through the list of possible suspects many times. Bandits are the obvious choice, but Saren could’ve killed them.

No, he would have killed them. I have no doubt about it.

The second option is less ideal, but I can work with it. Another rebel encampment. But that doesn’t feel right either. There’d be more. No one in their right mind would take on a Telex with just three people. Even if they didn’t know who Saren was, they’d find out fast and be dead. The last option seems the most realistic. His own kind took him. As powerful as he is, Saren can’t possibly outdo an entire squadron of Telex. Someone would absolutely get the jump on him.

Yet, this wasn’t a squadron.

It was three fucking people.

The longer I walk, the angrier I get. I’m not sure where it stems from, either. Fuck, I told him to get out of my sight—to leave. I told him I didn’t want him there. It’s partly true. I don’t want him near me because it seems to be doing more damage than good. I’m remembering things. In my toll-induced coma, I had dreams. That never happens. It’s always perpetual blackness until I come to again.

This time, I saw him.

I saw me.

I looked different. My nose was straight, my veins didn’t consume every inch of flesh, and my hair was shorter. He was reading to me. In my dream, I remember feeling content to listen, even if some of the words didn’t translate. Then it shifted. We were older, teenagers, I think. I was coming back from somewhere, and he was waiting for me. His entire face lit up like a night star when our eyes met. He bounced and reached for me, only to pull back at the last second.

More of these dreams made up the darkness.

More blips of us.

It’s too much.

But it also fuels me forward. I need to find him and ask if it’s real or if the pulse is messing with me again, tricking me and twisting fact and fiction into some macabre portrait that’s neither. There’s also something deeper, more primal, scratching at my chest and demanding I move faster. It’s that same feeling that engulfed me when he ran off.

Fear.

Fear like I haven’t felt in a long time. My stomach cramps and knots. A weight sits on my chest, making it harder to breathe. My fingers haven’t stopped twitching and spasming. The alpha in me is pissed that its omega is gone. Someone took what’s mine. I wish I could stop moving so I could flip out over this line of thought, but my legs won’t obey. I’m only going faster. Feet pounding through the forest. The pulse is right there at the surface, waiting for my command to let it out.

I’m going to fucking kill whoever took Saren.

***

I know exactly where I am. A few hundred feet above Hale Valley, back in the fucking snow and bordering a massive lake, is Levi’s camp. I hesitate just before the tree line. It’s bright and sunny, but the air is cold, with knee-deep snow all around except the shoveled trail I’m standing on. Trees are thriving in this environment, their canopies lightly dusted with powder.

I should’ve known it was him.

After how things ended between us, I can only imagine the torture he’s inflicting on Saren. Levi is not only terrifyingly powerful, but also arrogant. Cocky. He knows his beauty would bring even the strongest person to their knees, and he exploits it whenever he can. He did it with me. Somehow preying on that wounded part of my mind, tricking my body into becoming receptive.