Page 19 of Solivagant

“Khorli,” Aerith persisted. Louder now. “It’s… I think… well, the humans opened the Bridge. They made a sacrifice…”

That Bridge was open. There wasn’t time to listen to whatever else she had to say. If the Bridge was still open, I could find my Jem.

“Khorli!” she shouted after me. I was faster than her.

Jem.

The Bridge.

It was still open. Barely. A few moments later and I’d have missed it. Nausea and shadows swallowed me. Spit me back out under a different sky.

It was too bright. No longer night. The day sky hurt my eyes.

Tacky blood met my fingers over cold stone. My eyes were fuzzy as they adjusted to the sudden light.

A scavenger was picking at the sacrifice. Bird. From Jem’s world. Large. It flew off the moment it noticed me, abandoning its meal.

A pulse thumped through my head. My throat.

Bones. Blood. Viscera.

A corpse.

Human?

They didn’t sacrifice humans.

Boots.

Familiar boots.

My vision blurred in time with the thumping in my head.

My hands tracked through blood as I crawled over the body.

Familiar eyes. Open. Unseeing. Cold.

A familiar face, with teeth exposed over one side from torn skin.

No.

Not Jem. Not my Jem. Couldn’t be my Jem.

Trembling fingers cradled skin cold and stiff along the undamaged side of his face.

No. No. No.

I’m not too late.

I can’t be too late.

I could fix this. I could change him. Keep him. Forever.

“Pierce the body to infect his soul.”

A rumble started in my chest, rolling up my throat and vibrating my teeth as I bit into a cold, rigid shoulder.

Pierce the body. Infect his soul.