Soulless

S O U L L E S S: CHAPTER 18

"You've been spending an awful lot of time with this Cedric person."

Dad hoovered up the last slice of pizza from the fridge, with his eyes narrowed at me. I turned to give him a stare down, at which he held his hands up in mock surrender at and I tried not to smile because the last thing I wanted was to talk about Cedric to my father.

"You spend a lot of time with Bonnie." I commented evenly plucking a cookie straight from the box, it was rare that my dad ordered in the mint chocolate chip kind so I made sure to get the most of them whilst they were here, "But you don't see me making any assumptions."

Calla was perched on the couch watching some movie she ordered online with a bowl overflowing with sweet popcorn, I think it was animated so I was less interested than she was. Dad didn't even try to show any interest and instead made the most of leftover night, probably our favourite night of the week.

My mouth opened to say something when a wave of exhaustion crashed over me, making my head spin and a familiar chill prickled down my back. A metallic taste filled my mouth and filled me with dread as I dropped my cookie and inhaled sharply, dad lifted his head with a glance and he nodded towards my cookie.

"You not going to finish that?" He asked half kidding but also kind of curious. Dad's brows furrowed a little and he went to rise, "Honey, are you feeling okay? Did you take your medication?"

I had to force the words from my mouth but it felt as if it had been numbed, "I'm fine. I think I just need some sleep, honestly." I choked out turning on my heels, forcing my body to move even though I could feel myself slipping.

I felt heavy all over, like someone had pumped my body full of sand and my surroundings were covered in oil. I just made it inside of my room with the door shutting behind me before I slipped and I could feel it happening. Except it didn't feel as if it should, it felt like I was being torn from my body by force and it hurt.

The pain was like nothing else I had experience the kind of burn that was so hot that it felt a little cold, consuming my entire body. A migraine like no other made me feel as if someone cracked my skull into shattered fragments, it was the last thing I felt before that awful skin prickling sting consumed me.

I welcomed the familiar touch of weightlessness before I opened my eyes again but when I did, it was like nothing I had ever seen before.

Above me was a blood red sky with not even a trace of a white cloud, my mouth was wide open as my eyes adjusted to the darker atmosphere and I swallowed thickly. My pulse raced with fear as I blinked my eyes rapidly in confusion, slowly turning to see nothing surrounding me other than a forest of dead trees.

"Corvin!" I breathed in immense relief as I held out a hand. He cawed loudly, swooping through the air as he dived towards me and landed carefully on my hand. Corvin's sharpened talons curling around my fingers, "Where the hell are we?"

I felt a little bit like Dorothy when she was torpedoed into Oz, except here it was so cold that I wanted to bomb dive towards the nearest fire. If fire could even survive in this godforsaken place. Beneath my feet, the ground was cracked and dried to hell, making me blink at it in surprise because I couldn't imagine how anything could be so dried up in this heat.

"Are you just going to stand there?" An amused voice came from behind me, and I jumped.

The girl was pretty with ultra-curled rich red hair like the Little Mermaid and glided towards me in the tallest heels I had ever set eyes on. Dressed in a skin-tight leather dress with her wrists binded in spiky bracelets that brought out her silvery black eyeshadow; she looked ready to party, then kick ass.