Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-five
JASMINE’S POV

The thread burned.
The moment my fingers closed around it, heat shot up my arm like lightning and flooded my chest.
I gasped and my knees buckled, but I didn’t let go.
I couldn’t.
It felt like him.
Not just his energy or some weird magic.
But him. Damien. The man I had learned to love. 
It pulsed faintly in my hand, like a weak heartbeat. 
Like something struggling to survive.
And I realised then that Damien was drowning somewhere far away and so if this was the only rope tying him to the world, I was definitely not letting it go!
“Good,” the woman said softly behind me. “You found him.”
“Found him?” I choked out. “He’s right here!”
But even as I said it, I knew that wasn’t true.
The man standing in front of me didn’t feel like Damien.
He looked like him.
He had his same broad shoulders, the same stubborn posture, even the same dark hair that he kept falling slightly over his forehead.
But that was it. Damien’s soul wasn’t in there. 
Not his presence or his warmth, or even his usual spark.
I was staring at a body without a soul and seeing that it was Damien’s , I was just so desperate, I couldn’t breathe. 
“This isn’t him,” I whispered.
“No,” she agreed quietly. “This is what remains.”
My chest tightened with pain.
I wound the thread tight around my wrist, scared it might slip away.
“Then where is he?” I asked brokenly.
But before she could answer—
The thread jerked.
The tug was so hard… Like something –or someone– had grabbed the other end and yanked.
I cried out when pain exploded through my chest and stumbled forward.
“What was that?!” I gasped.
Her voice changed.
Lower and somewhat more careful.
“He isn’t alone in there...”
Every hair on my body stood up.
He wasn’t alone?
“Then who’s in there with him?” I murmured and the fog around us shifted as if in response.
Before it had been Quiet and still… and seemingly empty.
But now it was moving. Albeit slowly.
I watched and from within, I could make out the shape of something enormous, sliding beneath it.
My wolf whimpered inside me.
A deep, instinctive sound I’d never heard from her before.
It wasn’t exactly from, but more like a warning of danger.
My mind screamed for me to run, but I simply could not.
I mean, Damien was still in there! I couldn’t just leave him.
The thread pulled again.
This time harder and it dragged me forward.
“No, no, no!” I cried and tightened my grip. “You’re not taking him!”
The fog darkened.
The grey color turned into charcoal and then black.
It was all wrong. Thick. Sticky and completely wrong.
It didn’t drift like mist usually did.
This one literally crawled. Like oil spilled across water.
The air grew colder.
So cold that my breath fogged and my teeth began to chatter again.
“What is that?” I whispered.
“The thing that answered the mines,” the woman said quietly.
“Answered…?”
“The collapse was not merely stone and accident. Something old sleeps beneath that mountain. The miners must have broken its seal.”
My heart pounded.
“You mean something was buried down there?”
“Yes.”
“And Damien..”
“Unknowingly walked right into its reach.”
“Oh gosh!” I whimpered and watched as the black mass twitched.
Then it suddenly let out a breath
A horrible, dragging inhale that was like wind passing through rotted lungs.
My stomach churned.
I watched as eyes opened inside it. Dozens of them. Red, glowing, with all of them blinking at different times
And they were all staring at me.
My head buzzed and my pulse raced faster, as trepidation filled my veins.
“No,” I muttered. “That’s not real. That’s not real.”
“He is warm,” it whispered.
The voice scraped inside my skull, like claws scraping against bone.
“He is strong.”
The darkness shifted.
And suddenly… I finally saw him.
He wasn’t standing anymore. Instead he was suspended in the air.
Black tendrils wrapped around his chest, his throat, his wrists. And they were holding him.
Draining him.
My breath caught.
“He came to me, and put him to sleep,” the creature hissed. “He belongs to me now.”
Something inside me snapped.
“No, ” I said quietly, but just enough for the thing to hear me, “He will never be yours.”
I wasn’t being dramatic, but I was firm.
 Damien was mine.
The certainty of the truth came from my soul and creature stilled at my words and narrowed its eyes.
“Little wolf,” it crooned patronisingly . “You think you can claim what the earth has taken?”
I stepped forward, on shaky legs.
But I stepped anyway.
“I don’t care what you think you are,” I said. “But you don’t get to have him.”
It laughed –A wet, horrible sound– and I balled my hands into fists at my side.
“Then take him.” It spat and then the tendrils began dragging Damien backward.
Into the dark.
“No, Damien!” When I took a step further, the thread burned hotter.
Like fire wrapping around my wrist.
“Call him,” the woman urged. “Call his soul!”
“I don’t know how!”
“Yes, you do. Stop thinking. Just Feel!”
Panic bubbled up, clouding my judgement , so I tried to suppress it.
“Feel. Just feel.” I murmured.
Because logic and medicine weren't going to save him.
Only this stupid, terrifying, ridiculous bond that I barely understood.
I closed my eyes and tried to think of him. Only him. 
The way he smirked when he teased Liam.
The way he stood between me and danger without hesitation. 
The way he said my name.
Soft. Careful. Like it mattered.
Like I mattered.
My chest cracked open and warmth spilled out.
Not fear this time, or even doubt.
But something fierce, something Possessive and protective.
Was it actually Love?
Maybe… or perhaps it was something even deeper.
“I’m not losing you,” I whispered and then cried with a louder voice, “Damien!”
The thread flared gold.
It was so blinding that the creature shrieked.
And for the first time since I got into this strange dimension… The darkness recoiled.