After a while, I can’t stop my wandering eyes as I peer at all the women. Those are the same women from my dreams. No, they are from my nightmares. The same women who have haunted me all my life whenever I dared to close my eyes.
My body shudders and a cold shiver runs down my spine as the very scenarios I had to witness play out in my head. These women… They did unspeakable things. Things that would horrify anyone, even those who claim that they have seen hell.
“I have seen them before,” I whisper to Dominic as I stop to gaze into the sea of people. “I have heard their voices, their screams, seen what they have done,” I add. The shadows of the past in the form of these women move through me as if they can’t see me here. Each of them passes through me colder than the last.
“They contain Luna’s anger,” Dominic suddenly speaks next to me, and I look up at him.
“Who are they?” I ask him.
Years after years of torture that was brought over me by the very women I watched in my dreams, I find I now need answers.
Why was I the one that had to bear witness and watch over their madness?
“Kaif’s mates. Each one he killed, they are forever stuck in the shadows,” Dominic mutters as his eyes set on the bunch of women, the same as mine.
“I heard their whispers. They tried to make Kaif kill me.” I whisper. For some reason, I feel like I can’t speak freely, even if the shadows act like they can’t see me. Keeping this a secret is like an instinct.
Dominic nods, his eyes still focused on the crazed women. “Yes, because they know you can break the curse.”
“Don’t they want the curse broken?” I ask him.
He shakes his head as he pulls his gaze away from them. “They want Kaif punished for his sins,” Dominic announces, and walks off again. He moves through the shadows of nothing but emptiness as if he knows the secrets it holds, and is moving toward one he needs to share now.
It has no end, nothing, just shadows of ghostly figures lost to the mist.
“My family has been trying to break the curse for centuries, each of us doomed for history to repeat, but each generation we keep track. We record and learn,” Dominic speaks ahead of me.
“I don’t understand how any of this helps me now I am stuck here,” I frown as I try to keep up with him. It must be his long legs that let him walk so fast. Kyan’s father is a giant. No wonder I struggle to stay close.
“But you aren’t. Just like me, we are floating in the abyss. We aren’t a piece of it yet,” Dominic says, stopping again.
“Ah, I’m dead,” I tell him.
Dominic chuckles as if my words truly amuse him. “No, my dear, not yet. Or not for long anyway, I have seen it.” He looks at me over his shoulder. I’m not sure if I like the glint in his eyes.
“Do you even have visions here?” I ask before I can stop myself.
Dominic nods. “Yes, I have seen it all, and Kaif will break the curse, and you will help him. That is why they tried to kill you,” he says, motioning to the sea of shadowy figures.
“Is that why I am flickering and they aren’t?” I ask him as I look down at my hands.
“Your soul is still tethered to earth because you are a twin, a Gemini one. Your power when you died lives on through your brother. Light can not exist without darkness, balance. You and Eziah are half of a whole. When you were born, the shadows became worried. Because you were born when darkness arose, Kaif arose and they knew, because darkness attracts darkness, just like it seeks light,” Dominic explains.
If I thought my mother has a weird habit of speaking in riddles, then Dominic here is going after that title pretty strongly.
“So I am not dead?” I ask, still struggling to wrap my head around this. It’s a little too much. But then again, is it possible to get a headache if you’re truly dead? Because, I swear, I can feel one charge at me at the speed of light.
“No,” he says.
My eyes snap at Dominic. Although I am aware of the fact, once again, I notice how out of place both of us are here. He keeps flickering the same as I do. And as I glance around again, all I see are ghostly figures, but no flickering at all.
“Then why do you look like me?” I frown again. If he claims I haven’t died yet, and I flicker… He flickers too… Does that mean?
“I was wondering when you would realize,” he laughs. “My soul may be trapped here. But witches are tied to their magic. It’s part of our souls, so I am neither here nor there. In a limbo of sorts, waiting for my magic to die out or return to me.” Dominic shrugs.
He acts like this whole die or don’t thing isn’t serious. Like it’s all just a game. And once again, my eyebrows furrow at his words once I force myself to pay more attention. “But you gave me your magic,” I tell him, and he nods.
“I did. I also gave you my shadows and anchored my magic to you. My body is dead, but my magic lives on. Our bodies are vessels, vessels for Lycans, a vessel for life.”
“You speak in riddles, you know that?” I tell him, once again thinking of my mother and the same dirty habit those two share.
Dominic chuckles darkly. Dang, he and Kyan really are two peas for one pod. “Don’t we all,” he offers.
“Well, I was never any good at riddles,” I mutter, but Dominic doesn’t seem fazed by it. Since it looks like he’s not getting ready to tell me more, I peer up at him. “So how do I free them?”