Evanescent Read Free

know how much that event changed us – forever. I tore my mind from the evocative memories. Catching my breath, I felt the push of the former memories, the mind-shift was real, it was brutal, and it wanted something from me. Horrified, calling Troy’s name over and over, and over again, it felt like an eternity had passed before I heard something.
    “Troy?” I called out.
    “He’s gone,” a cold voice bounced back.
    “What did you do?” I swallowed glass, knowing the man was behind it.
    “Oh no, it’s what you did,” he replied, his smug tone sickening.
    I tried to lift myself from the hard floor.
    “I said, where is Troy?”
    “I told you, but for some reason you don’t believe me. He knows what you are and he is hesitating, wondering if it’s all worth it.” His words, like stone, grated the inside of my brain to mush.
    “Liar!” I yelled, pulling against chains.
    “You give me way too much credit… Ava.” A slight pause before he said my name. And by the way he said it, there was no doubt in my mind who was responsible for the state I found myself in.
    “Enoch…” I said in a low, repulsed growl, its poison a dripping, suffocating fluid down my throat.
    “That is one of my names, yes.”
    “How are you alive?” I shot back, ignoring his smart-ass comment.
    “The same way you are,” he simply said.
    “Where are they? Where is my sister, and Arriana?”
    He never answered.
    “What do you want?” I bit back.
    “Only what is owed to me.” This was said matter-of-factly.
    I could not bring myself to think of what he was possibly on about. I lifted myself in order to stand, one slow, dragging limb at a time. I heard the unmistakable clang, the dull, cold chime of metal chains scraping on the hard, stone floor as I moved.
    “What could possibly be owed to you?” I asked hesitantly.
    “Everything!” he shouted, suddenly before me. His swift movement, release of breath and a rush of warm air on my face, forced me to stumble backward.
    “You don’t scare me!” I tried to convince him, but my high-pitched tone must have given it away.
    His mocking chuckle vibrated into my bones. Through the darkness, we stared each other down. He was inches away from me. I could feel the space between us shatter, and suddenly he was at my throat.
    “What is…” I choked out, but just as suddenly as the iron grip came crushing into my windpipe, it released me.
    I staggered on my feet with one hand resting on my knee, the other stroking the life back to my esophagus. I coughed.
    “Show… yourself,” I squeezed out.
    The sound of metal on wall screeched through the air from behind me. I laughed.
    “You’ve changed,” I whispered.
    I tried to focus my eyes, tried to penetrate the darkness.
    But, his intention was to show himself quicker than it would take my eyes to draw on my powers, enabling me to see through the dark. I gasped as the black wall gave way to the soft glow of the entire room. I was in some sort of dungeon, chained to a wall by my hips and wrists. I pulled against them hard as my eyes fell on the disaster before me. Enoch, only it wasn’t. I closed my eyes, I was no fool to his games anymore. His magic had no effect on me, as long as I was aware that he was able to thrust things into my mind. I knew his tricks, and that knowledge made it easier to resist the push of his controlling venom.
    “This is not real.” I smirked, behind closed lids.
    The minute I said it, I knew it was indeed real. I could smell it all. The burn of energy in the room. The metal, the icky, blue substance holding the shells of bodies inside giant, glass cylinders lining the walls. But how did I know he wasn’t pushing me? There was no pull. Not like the times we stood in Arriana’s cottage alone, when he had thrust thoughts and doubt about Troy and the others into my mind. The times he had pushed my own thoughts to make me believe I wanted him. As much as there is a push, you can always feel the pull the pusher