Change of Darkness (The Change Series Book 3) by Jacinta Jade (best new books to read txt) 📕

That he wanted to be with her, always.

The big black hole in the centre of her being yawned open.

A tug on her hand.

‘Come lie down next to me, Siray.’

Focusing back on the present moment, Siray saw Genlie standing before her, her friend’s face and voice conveying compassion while her eyes darted with warning at Zale and Baindan, the message to the pair of males clear: Give her some space.

Grateful, Siray allowed Genlie to pull her over to a chosen spot on the blankets, but she turned her face away from the others, hoping that the males hadn’t seen her expression. She didn’t want to look weak, especially not when they all had to be stronger than ever.

Genlie settled down and patted a spot on the ripped blanket beside her.

Obligingly, Siray bent her knees and lowered her fatigued body to the ground. Although the ache in her muscles was familiar, the feeling of blankets—even blankets with holes that covered a hard stone floor—was strange and wonderful.

As she stretched out her tired body, the last thing Siray saw was the final rays of dim evening light seeping in through a small slit window near the corner of the room, the grey beams falling on even duller walls.

***

That night, Siray dreamt. Everything was dark as she closed her eyes, but when she opened them again, she found herself sitting on a grassy area that stretched as far as she could see.

To her left was a rippling surface, and as Siray looked at it, more details appeared. She recognised it. It was the Great Mountain Lake in Lalinta.

When she turned back to gaze again at the grassy area, she saw with a start that she was now part of a seated ring of smiling people. And directly across from her was Trelar, waving and smiling.

Siray waved and smiled back, immensely relieved for some reason to see her childhood friend. She tried to call out to Trelar but frowned when she found herself unable to make any sound.

Trelar didn’t seem to notice Siray’s efforts but just kept waving and smiling at her from across the circle.

Confused, Siray waved back again, but she also looked at the other faces seated around her. As she examined them more closely, she realised that she knew all of those arranged there.

It was her old cycle class, with even her former cycle guide—Firna—sitting a quarter of the way around the ring from Siray.

And they were all waving, smiling, and chatting to each other, although Siray couldn’t hear anything they said.

That was when a voice spoke to her from her right.

‘They don’t see what’s coming.’

Siray twisted. Deson sat next to her now, somehow having seamlessly integrated himself into the full circle. And although it surprised her clouded mind to see him there at first, when Siray tried to think about why, she couldn’t hold on to any thoughts.

But it felt right that he should be present in this place. Wherever it was.

She pondered Deson’s words briefly before peering around the ring of people again. ‘I can’t hear what they’re saying,’ she said to him.

Deson shook his head slowly, his words slow and considered. ‘You don’t need to. You just need to remember them.’

Siray looked at him, her brows knitted together. It seemed to take her longer to process things in this place, as if a fog were clouding her mind. ‘Remember them? But I haven’t forgotten them.’ She looked across the circle again at Trelar, who was still waving, and Siray happily waved back once more.

‘But you could. With what’s coming.’

Siray looked at Deson again, happy to see him, although some deeper part of herself felt conflicted. She knew it had been a while since she had seen Deson, and she knew he was important to her—could remember the intimate moment they had shared at the edge of the desert on their way to Gonron. But when she tried to remember when she had last seen him, her head began to pound. So she gave up trying, deciding to just enjoy his company, and asked, ‘What’s coming?’

Deson hadn’t actually looked at her yet, still gazing out at her friends animatedly, and silently, chatting with each other.

‘They don’t see it,’ he said again, not answering her question.

Siray frowned at Deson. Why couldn’t she remember anything more about him? She knew he had been at the Gonron Facility with her … She grew less happy about being seated in that circle and ignored the still-waving Trelar. ‘Deson, tell me,’ she urged, feeling that his answer was of the utmost importance. ‘What’s coming?’

‘Be aware, Siray. It will test you, hurt you, break you … but you can always come back.’

Siray’s frustration peaked, and she repeated her question loudly enough that she could hear it echo around that silent circle of waving people. ‘What is it, Deson? What’s coming for us?’

Deson finally looked at her, and when he did, cascading waves of inexplicable grief began to wash over Siray as she stared into those eyes.

‘The end,’ he said softly.

Although spoken quietly, those two words seemed to carry and echo for a long time, longer even than the question that had come before them.

Siray wanted to look away from those beautiful brown eyes, but they held her for another long moment.

‘Hide who you are,’ he whispered intently, ‘so that you can come back. They will need you to come back.’

When Deson looked away, Siray was finally able to blink and shift her gaze. But when she looked back again, Deson was gone, and a different type of sadness suffused Siray as she sat surrounded by waving and smiling friends, alone in her silence.

CHAPTER TWO

SIRAY WOKE UP suddenly from a deep sleep, panic rising as she took in the surrounding darkness. Briefly, her dream came back to her, the fogginess that had obstructed certain memories during the dream gone. But as even the memory of talking to Deson caused Siray pain, she blocked out the images