Chapter Ten
She was in a blank place that held neither time nor space nor gravity. It was at once flat and filled with depth. Her feet were wet, and when she looked down at the water, it was pale green, as if it were a parody of life.
Calling. She was calling or screaming, but the intention was true. Someone had to find her. This wasn’t where she was meant to be.
Chine was somewhere. His voice was loud but far away.
Alex took off running. She didn’t know how or to where but she sprinted into the blank whiteness that stretched farther than her eyes could comprehend. The only sounds in this flattened non-reality were her footsteps and those of Chine, invisible somewhere in the whiteness.
Then the color shifted. Alex could see there was a deep-red sky, with black clouds filled with lightning. Everything else was a sickly green that crept into Alex’s mind as she tried to focus on Chine’s voice in her head.
Dustling. Dustling.
Alex was sinking in the water. She struggled as it sucked her down. There was nothing to hold onto, nothing to breathe.
She shot out of the water into dryness and leaned forward, retching. Something slid out of her throat. When she looked down, it appeared to be a small snake, but instead of a snake’s head, it was hers, eyes cracked and red, tongue lolling out like a tired dog’s.
Alex slapped the obscene thing away as she stumbled to her feet, the world around her shifting and spinning. Chine’s voice was still somewhere in the madness, but now there was another—a louder voice coming from behind. She had no desire to find out what else was here and took off toward the dragon’s voice.
There was no measure for how long she ran, but she eventually came across Chine. The dragon was resting on a rock in the middle of a lake.
Alex swam out to him, and he picked up his head and stared at her. I wasn’t sure if you were here as well, he thought.
Alex climbed onto the island and looked around. Above, there were thousands of moons and thousands of planets clustered together in the shape of a question mark. Where are we? she asked.
Chine pointed to the question mark. Your guess is as good as mine. Someplace not too different than the meteor, I’m assuming.
Do you think we are dead?
Chine pressed his hand down into the ground he rested on, watching how it separated so he could touch the water. No, I do not think so. This is not what dragons who have passed through the veil and returned have described. This is something else. What, I do not know.
“It is not death,” a voice rang out.
Chine and Alex jumped to their feet. Walking on the water was the pale child wearing a deer-skull mask. As the child strode toward Alex and Chine, something rose from the water.
The thing was tied to a tree that stretched up and far out into the infinity of the sky, its branches bare and weary. It seemed to be a person, unlike anyone Alex had ever seen before. Its skin was alabaster-white, and Alex could see veins and blood and muscles moving beneath it.
The thing’s single eye was black, and she could not bring herself to look into its face. Its legs melded into the bark of the tree, its arms shaking as it coughed up black sludge and wailed in agony. Its torso pulled as if it were trying to escape from the tree. “Alex,” it growled.
The child continued walking, ignoring the monstrosity leering behind it. “Alex,” the child said. “I am so glad we found you. I’ve been trying to reach you for—”
Alex grabbed the kid, suddenly remembering everything that had happened in the meteor, everything she had tried to block out and forget. “What are you doing here? Is that him? You… We saved you! Why are you with him again?”
The child slipped from Alex’s grip without any obvious movement. “That? That is not the Dark One, only a shade. One of millions, much like me. And we were wrong. I can never get away from him. Not completely.”
Chine had maintained his calm, and he took Alex up in his hand as wildflowers sprouted across his scales. “Why have you brought us here?”
The child knelt in the water, watching his reflection. “I did not bring you here. This was a lucky coincidence. You both were near the veil and got caught up. It’s the only time I’ve been able to speak to you without Vardis listening in.”
Alex leaned over Chine’s claw. “Vardis? Why are you trying to avoid him?”
The thing hanging from the tree moaned loudly, its body convulsing as it shouted, “Liar! Liar!”
The child looked at the thing on the tree for a moment before turning back to Alex. “He is not to be trusted. You and I have the same aim—to rid ourselves of the Dark One. Vardis’ aim is less clear, but his means are false. The weapon he promised is not meant to destroy the Dark One. It is meant to destroy all of existence.”
At these words, the thing nailed to the tree with roots that stretched through the stale water began to speak in a language Alex had never heard before. It tried to hold itself upright but failed and its head collapsed into its chest, the tree sucking itself in as well.
Alex climbed out of Chine’s hand. “How can I trust you? Aren’t you just a piece of the Dark One? A piece that apparently can’t get away?”
The child stood up, its fingers still dripping from the lake. “The only way I will know release is through the Dark One’s death. All I can do is warn you. What you do with that warning is up to you.”
The child melted into water, leaving only the deer-skull mask.
Alex climbed back into Chine’s hand and curled into a ball. “I hate this
