Silver Blood (Series of Blood Book 1) by Emma Hamm (bill gates book recommendations .TXT) 📕

“You believe I have been selfish?” E rumbled.

“Yes. Without a doubt, you have been selfish and using her.”

“You’ve never stated this before, boy.”

“You’ve never given me the chance. Save her, watch over her, I’m the one to look after her in your absence. And yet, still, you selfishly use her. What kind of a protector are you?”

Wren hadn’t heard those words before. She could see Burke was visibly angered as his cheeks stained a mottled red. But since when had E ever spoken to Burke without her?

“Do you truly believe that the human mind has the capacity to hold hundreds of other minds within it? Do you know what that would do to Wren?” E remained calm. It was an even counterpart to Burke’s rage.

Burke appeared to be confused by E’s statement.

Continuing, the black smoke changed its voice from hundreds to one. An elderly woman’s voice that Wren knew very well. It had been the voice that rocked her to sleep at night and soothed her through every pain she had lived through.

“The human mind is like a house. A cup full of water does not affect it. One magical being is simply a cup of water. But if you fill that house with hundreds of cups of water that flood all the levels until the human mind is gasping for breath, then the human mind is the first to die.”

“Are you trying to say that if you had revealed yourself entirely to Wren, then she would have been overwhelmed?”

“That is not a strong enough word,” E murmured. “Wren’s mind would have snapped like a fishing line attempting to hold up an elephant. She would no longer be human, she would not be part of me. She would have fallen prey to the worst kind of insanity. Her own mind would have feasted upon itself until her soul ceased to exist. It is a fate worse than death.”

Burke’s head turned as his gaze speared towards Gaia. “Then what have we done?”

The blonde woman swiped her hand through the air. “Wren is perfectly capable of holding such a creature. There will simply need to be careful precautions taken. A few walls placed in her mind so that she remains separate should do the trick.”

“Walls cannot stop me,” E said. “My power is too great. She is aware of what I am, and the knowledge will constantly draw me towards her. It is in my nature to hoard souls.”

“You think I am not powerful enough to contain you?”

“No one can contain me. I have no physical form. Every wall has a crack that I can slip through. I have cheated death and swallowed life for thousands of years. Even you are not capable of preventing that.”

Silence fell in the room as shock washed over everyone.

Wren couldn’t help but step into the conversation. She knew very well that no one but E could hear her and even then it might be questionable whether it could respond. But it was worth a try.

“E, are you saying when the Five put me back in my body I’ll die?”

The smoke twisted until more of the faces could look at her corporeal form outside of the glass. “I do not know what will happen. I believe the blackouts will be much more often. I have never had a host which shared my minds.”

“So what do we do?”

The question hung in the air between the two of them.

“There’s only one way to find out what will happen,” E said softly.

Burke’s hand rapped on the glass. “Who are you talking to?”

“So you want me to jump back in?” Wren said with a nervous laugh. “Just like how we learned to swim?”

“Just like that, dear one.”

Burke hit his fist against the glass once more. Time seemed to warp again for her, and Wren realized that Kairos was putting her back into her body. This uncomfortable feeling of not knowing where she was or who she was now became familiar to her confused mind.

The last thing she saw was Burke’s face twisting into rage. Slowed down to a fraction of a second, the sight was enough to make her question every decision she had made thus far.

CHAPTER 7

Sand was crusted in the edges of her eyes. Wren did not want to open them. She wanted to rub them fiercely until the feeling disappeared. She tried to lift one of her hands, but it was firmly held against the smooth surface of the chair she was seated in.

Slowly, she blinked her eyes open. It took a while for them to focus, and even then it was difficult for her brain to understand what she was looking at. She was staring at her own legs. That meant she must be looking down, but she couldn’t understand why she would be looking down at her own legs.

Why wasn’t she horizontal if she was sleeping?

Memories started to spark in her head like fireworks going off in the sky. E explaining what it was, the leap that tossed her conscious mind back into the vessel of her body. And then nothing.

She blinked harder. Her shoulders ached as feeling slowly returned. All of her weight was supported on her shoulders as her torso leaned forward and hung limply over her lower half.

Flexing her fingers proved to be difficult. In fact, moving anything appeared to be far more of a chore than it logically should be. She blinked her eyes a few more times.

“Everything working?”

She was unable to respond verbally. She had always spoken to E out loud, and though she tried to think the words at the creature, it didn’t seem to hear her. At least she was in control over her own body.

“I’ll take that as a no. Try to breathe, little one.”

The order wasn’t an easy one to follow. She continued to focus on forcing her body to breathe. Eventually, she was able to open her mouth enough to let out air. Her lips parted as a long