Chapter 110 FEEL ME

Chapter 110 FEEL ME
Esperanza let out a small, pained whimper. To her, the "flesh" Orion spoke of felt distant, but the "heaven" was so close. She could almost feel her mother’s hand brushing her cheek.

"It... it doesn't feel like death, Ezra," she murmured, her head lolling back against his shoulder. "It feels like... coming home."

"It’s not home!" Ezra roared, his voice cracking the Siren’s melody. He shook her gently, his eyes burning with a desperate, golden fire. "Esperanza, look at me! There is no jasmine here! There is only cold stone and a demon who is laughing at us! Stay in the cold with me! Stay in the pain!"

Esperanza! Where are you going?" Ezra’s voice was a ragged roar, his muscles straining as he tried to anchor her to the physical world. He shook her, his large hands gripping her shoulders with a strength that should have bruised, but she felt as light as sea foam in his grasp. It was like trying to hold onto a ghost. Her body was there, solid and warm, but her spirit was wading into the dark, shimmering void of the "Siren Sea."

"You are so beautiful..." Esperanza murmured, her voice a hollow, silver bell. Her eyes were wide and vacant, reflecting a world that wasn't there a world of white gardens, sun-drenched marble, and a mother whose laughter wasn't a jagged scream. She began to lean toward the shimmering abyss, her feet sliding across the stone as if pulled by an invisible tide.

Seeing her slip into the lethal peace of the delusion, Orion moved with a sudden, predatory speed. He didn't just stand back with his cold observations anymore; he reached out and pulled her toward him, his icy, psychic grip clashing against Ezra’s warm, desperate hold.

"Esperanza..." Orion’s voice dropped into a low, commanding frequency that bypassed her ears and vibrated directly into the marrow of her skull. "Do not look at them."

He stepped directly into her line of sight, his silver eyes flashing like a lighthouse in a midnight storm, trying to physically and mentally block out the "heaven" the Sirens were projecting onto the library floor.

The voices beneath the floorboards grew louder, shifting from a mournful hum to a triumphant, angelic choir. The "mother" in the vision reached out a hand made of pure, warm light, beckoning Esperanza to leave the "noisy, angry men" behind and step into the eternal silence.

"She’s not hearing you, Ezra!" Orion hissed, his teeth gritted as he held her arms, his own face pale from the effort of resisting the song. "She’s seeing the 'heaven.' If she takes one more step, the Sirens will stop singing and start biting. They don't want her soul, Ezra they want the heat in her blood!"

Ezra roared in frustration, his heart breaking at the sight of her distant, peaceful smile. "Then do something, Demon! Use the bond! Tell her that we are the only reality she has left! Tell her I am still holding her!"

"I am trying!" Orion snapped, his silver eyes bleeding into a dark, terrifying obsidian. "But your fear is like a scent to them! You are feeding the very monsters you're trying to fight!"

Esperanza’s hand slipped further from Ezra’s. She was looking past Orion now, her eyes fixed on the "beautiful" shadows swirling at the edge of the balcony.

"The water... it looks so warm," she whispered, her voice barely a breath. "Why are you both so loud? She’s calling me... she says the fire is gone."

She reached out a hand toward the empty air, her fingers brushing against the spectral mist that smelled of jasmine and decay. The pressure in the room became unbearable a weight that threatened to crush Ezra’s ribs and snap Orion’s concentration.

"Why is this happening to her?" Ezra growled, his voice a low, jagged vibration of terror and protective fury. He looked down at the woman he loved, seeing the way her soul seemed to be evaporating through her skin. "She is right here! I am holding her! Why can't I reach her?"

Orion didn’t look up from Esperanza’s vacant gaze. His hands were clamped onto her wrists, his knuckles white against her skin as he fought to maintain the psychic tether.

"She is connected to all this," Orion said, his voice sounding distant, as if he were speaking from across a vast canyon. "She is a Golden Dragon, Ezra. Her blood is the key to the Verge. She can be there even while being here with us."

Ezra froze. The realization hit him like a physical blow. He had thought this was a vision a dream they were watching from the safety of the shore. But Orion’s words revealed a much more terrifying truth.

"You mean... she is actually in the water?" Ezra rasped, his eyes widening in shock. "While I am holding her hand, the Sirens are touching her soul? She is in two places at once?"

Exactly," Orion hissed, a bead of silver sweat rolling down his temple. "To her, the library is the dream, and the Sea is the reality. If she stays in that 'heaven' too long, the connection to her body will snap like a dry twig. She won't just wake up screaming,

Ezra she won't wake up at all. Her 'flesh
' will remain in your arms, but the spark of the Dragon will be digested by the Sea."
Ezra looked at Esperanza’s face again. He saw her lips move a silent, blissful "Mother" and he felt a cold, primal fear he had never known on a battlefield.

"Then pull her back!" Ezra demanded, his voice cracking. "If you are the bridge, Orion, then pull the bridge back to the land!"
"I cannot pull a soul that doesn't want to return," Orion countered, his eyes flashing with a rare, desperate honesty. "She has to want the cold. She has to want the pain of living over the peace of the dead."

"She is my mother..." Esperanza whispered. The words weren't directed at Ezra or Orion. They were a surrender.

To her, the library had vanished. The arms holding her felt like heavy, restrictive chains, while the dark, shimmering water below looked like a silk bed. She could see her mother’s face clearly now not the haggard, screaming woman from the "cage," but a version filled with light, reaching up from the depths with an expression of pure, heartbreaking peace.

"She’s freezing," Ezra gasped, his voice breaking into a panicked growl. He pulled her tighter, trying to transfer his own body heat into her, but it was like hugging a block of ice. "Orion, her pulse it’s slowing down! Why is she so cold?"

Orion’s face was a mask of grim concentration, his silver eyes fixed on the way Esperanza’s spirit was sinking.

"Because she’s choosing the water," he hissed, his own hands shaking. "Every step she takes toward that 'mother' in the sea is a step away from her own blood. She’s letting her fire go out, Ezra. She’s trading her life for a hug from a ghost."

"Esperanza!" Ezra roared, his voice vibrating against her cold chest. "She’s not there! That’s not your mother—it’s the Sea! It’s the creatures who want your flesh! Look at me! FEEL ME!"

He took her face in his hands, his thumbs brushing her frozen cheeks. He could see the "Heaven" reflecting in her pupils—a world of white roses and calm tides—and it terrified him more than any army.

"Orion, do something!" Ezra pleaded, his pride completely shattered. "Use the bond! Burn her! Wake the dragon in her before she turns to ice!"

Orion looked at Ezra, then at the dying light in Esperanza’s eyes. "If I burn her, I might break her mind," Orion whispered, his voice thick with a rare, terrible hesitation. "But if I don't... she will be a statue in your arms by sunset."