The Shadow Soul (A Dance of Dragons #1)

Chapter Twenty-One

Jinji

~ Rayfort ~

Jinji woke with a start, gasping for air, eyes opening wide as her entire body came alive in one single second.

She blinked. But the scene remained the same. Eyes open, eyes closed—she was drenched in ebony, drowning in it.

"Rhen!" She called. There was no answer except for the echo of her own scratchy voice. Jinji tried to stand, but she couldn’t—she was restrained.

Heavy iron weighed down her hands, encircled her feet. Every time she moved, the clank of metal on stone scraped her ears. Shivering from the wet cold air, Jinji pulled her legs into her chest. Gradually her eyes began to adjust, to faintly make out bars lining the walls around her, bars and stone.

"Rhen," she whispered. But no one would hear. That much she knew. The last Jinji remembered, she was leaping for the queen, touching the shadow, falling into her nightmare. And then nothing. Blank. Until waking up here.

Cold.

Hungry.

Helpless.

But not alone.

Someone else had woken up with her, inside of her. Even now, Jinji could feel it crawling through her thoughts, exploring her senses, stretching out as though awakening from a long sleep.

New memories were blossoming like flowers in the back of her mind, growing, spreading, taking up space. But hard as she tried, she could not access them. Could not touch them. Could not remember them.

You will.

A voice that was not her own whispered across her mind.

You will.