Oblivion (Page 27)
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
“You mean astral proj—?”
The doors flung wide with a deafening crack.
Midday sunlight flooded the gym.
Swinging one of his swords upward, Reynolds spun into an attack against an unseen assailant—and vanished midstrike.
9
Beyond the Veil
Isobel staggered forward. Then she ran.
Skidding to a halt at the spot where Reynolds had disappeared, she turned in place, but she didn’t see him or his attackers.
Listening hard, she heard only the chatter of birds, the distant swish and hush of nearby traffic.
He was gone. Into the veil.
The veil.
He’d asked her if she remembered being there, in that hazy space between worlds. She did, but that didn’t mean she knew how to get there. Not on her own.
She shut her eyes and scowled in concentration, willing her limbs to relax.
Varen had done this multiple times over, she reminded herself, separating himself in two with ease, leaving his body behind as he crossed over the threshold that stood between dimensions.
Now she needed to do the same.
Focusing on the rapid thudding of her own heart, Isobel waited for the disconnecting sensation she’d felt before, when Pinfeathers had drawn her out of herself and into a haunting vision of the past.
She recalled in a flood of images the events the Noc had shown her in that memory.
That old hospital. Poe on his deathbed—screaming repeatedly for Reynolds—writhing in agony as Lilith and the Nocs tortured his captured soul.
When Reynolds had finally appeared, however, instead of answering his friend’s cries for help, he’d done the unthinkable. Drawing one of his twin blades, Reynolds had severed the silver cord that tethered Poe’s astral form—his spirit—to his body, killing him instantly.
But the doctor at Poe’s bedside had seen nothing. Not Reynolds’s betrayal, not Lilith descending through the black chasm in the ceiling, not the Nocs as they spiraled through the walls in thick smoke tendrils.
The dreamworld demons had all been in the veil, Isobel realized. Reynolds, too. As they were right now.
And not only that—even in the veil, Reynolds had performed Poe’s murder cloaked and masked. Lilith hadn’t known him then; in fact, she had shrieked in protest.
Isobel had unmasked Reynolds herself after tackling him in Baltimore. Had she not seen his face then, she would never have known him in the dreamworld, when he’d stepped out to face her on Lilith’s orders. When Lilith had called him . . . Gordon.
And then today, even as he was being hunted—today he had appeared to Isobel without his usual disguise. But then, why hide if he no longer had a reason to? If he’d been found out . . .
Suddenly Isobel knew she could be sure of at least one thing: that even if she couldn’t bring herself to trust Reynolds completely, or to believe he’d told her all that he knew, he was still her enemy’s enemy.
So for now, if there was even one kernel of truth to what Reynolds had said—that a modicum of the boy she loved still existed behind those black eyes—then sharing a mutual opponent indeed counted for something. And seeing that Reynolds was her only way to the other side, that something would have to be enough.
Isobel drew in a deep breath, picturing herself in the veil. Tuning her senses inward, she released her breath in a slow exhale, and as she did, the noise of the birds and the passing cars and the brush of the wind outside faded.
Her skin tingled. Electricity crawled up her arms, wrapping her body in numbness until she felt only the faint, everywhere prickle of pins and needles.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself within that white and nebulous world of shapes and muted sound.
A muffled shout drew her attention to one side. Then something came crashing to her feet, where it splintered into pieces.
Isobel backpedaled, and in doing so, parted from her body.
Her vision went double for an instant, and she felt a surge of panic. Then, focusing on the blurred outline of the person in front of her—on the sleek sheet of her own hair—Isobel rejoined her body with a jolt. She peered around to find herself alone again, still facing those gaping doors to the school’s rear parking lot.
Hissing a curse, she straightened, determined. Again she shut her eyes, released her clenched hands, breathed, and tried letting go a second time.
Fading under, Isobel resisted the temptation to open her eyes as the sounds surrounding her dialed down to a low hum. Holding on to her calm, she allowed the buzzing numbness to overtake her. Then she stepped forward.
Blurred shapes and shadows seeped into view despite her closed eyelids.
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123