leaving.”
He tried without success to move his arms from behind his back. Then he attempted to speak, but his voice came out garbled. He grew even more agitated and began to struggle furiously.
“Shhhh. I won’t hurt you if you relax,” she whispered in as soothing a voice as she could muster.
But Basen thrashed and tumbled off the bed. This wasn’t working. She knelt on top of him and pressed the dagger against his chest.
“Stop it now or I’ll kill you.”
He froze, his dark eyes wide as he stared at his own blade.
Keeping his energy under control tired her immensely. He might as well have been screaming, his BE silently telling any psychic nearby that he was desperate for help. But Sanya corrected it as it came off his body to make him seem calm.
He made another unintelligible sound, probably a curse. He’d clearly figured out she was the murderer, his fear changing to anger.
“I could’ve killed you while you slept,” she whispered. “But I’ve seen how death affects those left behind. I’m tired of spreading such grief, and you deserve to live.”
His eyes burned with rage, though he remained still. Squatting over him, she put the dagger back in his sheath. She’d strapped his belt around her waist. It barely fit at the tightest eyelet, but it would stay up. She wore her coat over her nightgown, warming herself as much as possible in case things went awry and she needed to flee. She’d promptly shed the weight if that happened.
“Every time you open a portal, you threaten to rip my mother’s spirit apart.”
He calmed slightly as his brow furrowed in obvious confusion.
“This might sound crazy to you, but it’s the truth. There’s another world connected to ours. I don’t know what to call it, so I just think of it as the spiritual world because it’s where the dead go. When you open a portal you’re actually opening four holes, two in the physical world and two in the spiritual world. The two worlds overlap, Basen. The bastial energy of the spiritual world acts like invisible walls, supporting this world.”
She gestured with his dagger at his enormous eyes. “What you’re doing when you create a portal is building an unstable gateway and forcing it to stay open when it naturally wants to close. The invisible walls I spoke of earlier are everywhere, but we humans have slowly been forming our own dents by squeezing bastial energy together in the same areas for years. This hasn’t been damaging the spiritual world yet, but you have been.”
He said something in anger, then groaned and sounded annoyed.
She ignored it and continued. “You need to understand so you stop casting portals. Think of our world as one long wall curved in an enormous circle. You’re putting so much pressure on a single point in the wall that a hole is formed. This hole must lead somewhere because we can’t fall out of the world, so you’re actually opening a hole in two places, creating an entrance and an exit. You’re doing this by not only condensing BE on top of itself in the physical world, but also by grabbing hold of the BE in the spiritual world and using it to support the opening holes. It’s this act that sucks up so much of the energy of the spiritual world, including any spirits nearby. It’s even powerful enough to drain the life force of spirits up to a mile away.”
At first, she’d begun to regret explaining this to him, thinking it was hopeless. But now that she found understanding in his expression, she started to feel relief. Maybe this would work after all and she wouldn’t be forced to kill him.
“Although I’ve lied to you about some things, I’ve been honest about most else. My mother and sister were both killed, but I have a chance to give life back to my mother and right so many wrongs at once. I just need more time, Basen. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
He nodded.
“I’ll kill you if you force me to, but I’d rather not.”
He glared back at her, his
He tried without success to move his arms from behind his back. Then he attempted to speak, but his voice came out garbled. He grew even more agitated and began to struggle furiously.
“Shhhh. I won’t hurt you if you relax,” she whispered in as soothing a voice as she could muster.
But Basen thrashed and tumbled off the bed. This wasn’t working. She knelt on top of him and pressed the dagger against his chest.
“Stop it now or I’ll kill you.”
He froze, his dark eyes wide as he stared at his own blade.
Keeping his energy under control tired her immensely. He might as well have been screaming, his BE silently telling any psychic nearby that he was desperate for help. But Sanya corrected it as it came off his body to make him seem calm.
He made another unintelligible sound, probably a curse. He’d clearly figured out she was the murderer, his fear changing to anger.
“I could’ve killed you while you slept,” she whispered. “But I’ve seen how death affects those left behind. I’m tired of spreading such grief, and you deserve to live.”
His eyes burned with rage, though he remained still. Squatting over him, she put the dagger back in his sheath. She’d strapped his belt around her waist. It barely fit at the tightest eyelet, but it would stay up. She wore her coat over her nightgown, warming herself as much as possible in case things went awry and she needed to flee. She’d promptly shed the weight if that happened.
“Every time you open a portal, you threaten to rip my mother’s spirit apart.”
He calmed slightly as his brow furrowed in obvious confusion.
“This might sound crazy to you, but it’s the truth. There’s another world connected to ours. I don’t know what to call it, so I just think of it as the spiritual world because it’s where the dead go. When you open a portal you’re actually opening four holes, two in the physical world and two in the spiritual world. The two worlds overlap, Basen. The bastial energy of the spiritual world acts like invisible walls, supporting this world.”
She gestured with his dagger at his enormous eyes. “What you’re doing when you create a portal is building an unstable gateway and forcing it to stay open when it naturally wants to close. The invisible walls I spoke of earlier are everywhere, but we humans have slowly been forming our own dents by squeezing bastial energy together in the same areas for years. This hasn’t been damaging the spiritual world yet, but you have been.”
He said something in anger, then groaned and sounded annoyed.
She ignored it and continued. “You need to understand so you stop casting portals. Think of our world as one long wall curved in an enormous circle. You’re putting so much pressure on a single point in the wall that a hole is formed. This hole must lead somewhere because we can’t fall out of the world, so you’re actually opening a hole in two places, creating an entrance and an exit. You’re doing this by not only condensing BE on top of itself in the physical world, but also by grabbing hold of the BE in the spiritual world and using it to support the opening holes. It’s this act that sucks up so much of the energy of the spiritual world, including any spirits nearby. It’s even powerful enough to drain the life force of spirits up to a mile away.”
At first, she’d begun to regret explaining this to him, thinking it was hopeless. But now that she found understanding in his expression, she started to feel relief. Maybe this would work after all and she wouldn’t be forced to kill him.
“Although I’ve lied to you about some things, I’ve been honest about most else. My mother and sister were both killed, but I have a chance to give life back to my mother and right so many wrongs at once. I just need more time, Basen. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
He nodded.
“I’ll kill you if you force me to, but I’d rather not.”
He glared back at her, his
Similar Books
