Approaching Storm (Alternate Worlds Book 2)

by Taylor Leigh

  And then it came.

  The sadness.

  It was a sorrow and grief so monumental Sam felt as if it had taken hold of her stomach and ripped it apart. It was a living, breathing thing.

  She burst into tears, unable to take the crushing emotion that hit her. It continued to pummel, over and over. She struggled to stop it, but felt a complete, horrible bleakness swallowing her whole. It was impossible to move, to breathe, to do any of the most menial tasks. Loss, failure, regret, loneliness, it all clamped down on her in a violently brutal way.

  She swayed in Tollin’s arms, unaware of the words she was stammering, and then she collapsed, unable to fight the misery and blackness. She let it take her, not able to survive against it any longer.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Tollin burst from the tower room, feet barely touching the ground as he left the stairs, Sam’s limp form in his arms. Though he’d just run down the entire staircase he wasn’t yet out of breath, just fighting down a panic over what was happening to Sam. He could feel it, vaguely. Most of all was the huge wave of guilt. He knew all too well he was responsible for Sam’s catatonic state.

  He should have known! Honestly, he’d been so caught up in the moment and the pleasant strangeness of it he couldn’t help but want it to stay. He should have known it would have been too much for her. Their minds were too different!

  Sam’s body started convulsing in his arms.

  ‘No, no, no, no!’ Things were moving from bad to worse, and it was heading that direction rapidly.

  Tollin cursed under his breath and shouted at the top of his lungs for Marus. He threw the door to Sam’s room open and gingerly lay her down on the bed, trying to keep from panicking. He was Tollin, after all, situations like this shouldn’t rattle him!

  Sam jerked wildly on the mattress, a small moan breaking through her lips.

  ‘What do you want?’ a grumpy Marus demanded, shuffling into the room. He looked like he’d been dragged from a deep sleep. ‘How thick are you? Don’t you know better than to wake a dragon?’

  ‘It’s Sam,’ Tollin said through clenched teeth as he checked her pulse. ‘Her mind is breaking down, I need to try to weaken the connection between us, but I need you to monitor it to make sure I don’t kill her!’

  Sam’s body gave a shudder and went dead still, despite her head, which seemed stuck in some uncontrollable twitch.

  Marus stared at him. ‘How the hell am I supposed to do that? I’m not good with this sort of thing! What did you do to her?’

  ‘Not now!’ Tollin cried. He dropped over Sam, cupping his hands on either side of her face. He noticed remotely that her nose had begun to bleed. Sam’s eyes were fluttering as if she were in an intense dream. If only it was; this was so much worse than that.

  ‘I’m going to have to try and connect with her brain; I won’t be able to see what effect it’s having, if anything starts to go wrong with her, snap me out of it!’

  Marus swore. ‘What’s happening to her?’

  ‘My entire mind is being downloaded into Sam’s head. Every Realm, every memory I have from a thousand years of existing, every memory of every dragon in every Realm since the beginning of time! Sam’s head can’t handle it! Now help me out!’

  Tollin shut his eyes and cupped Sam’s shaking head in his hands and tried to find a way into the strange, frightened darkness Sam was in. Searching for her in a flood of information, like fighting a raging stream in the dark.

  * * * * *

  Sam awoke with a start but she couldn’t find the will to open her eyes. Her head throbbed so severely she wasn’t sure she’d survive the gentle morning light. She was confused by how strange she felt. The night before was an indecipherable blur. Whatever had happened left her feeling strange and hollow, as if she’d lost something important.

  She struggled with her thoughts, tried to pull anything to her that made sense. It was difficult to explain, but it was like having her hand in someone else’s. Some guiding touch in her mind, pulling her back to consciousness.

  She struggled with the presence, and realised with a jolt it was Tollin. He was vague, distant, hardly there, as if he were standing across the room, but he was still in her mind. The memories of last night flooded back. She opened her eyes and immediately winced.

  He was sitting in a chair next to her bed, brown hair a mess, expressive brows lowered as he studied her. ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked after a moment. ‘Can you talk?’

  Sam, unable to take the light, squeezed her eyes closed against it. The pressure in her head grew more severe and she pressed her fingers to her temples with a moan. ‘Yeah, minus the fact I feel like I’ve just had my head kicked in.’ She peeked at him.

  Tollin relaxed visibly. ‘Good. I was worried there might be damage.’

  Sam blinked several times. ‘What? Brain damage?’ She sat up in mounting alarm and winced. ‘What the hell happened last night, Tollin?’

  Tollin rubbed his chin. ‘The buggars in that ring have more influence over your body than I first realised. We very nearly had a close call.’

  Sam wrapped her arms around herself protectively. ‘What are they doing to me?’

  Tollin stretched out in his chair. ‘You? Oh, I’d wager they’re not even that interested in you. You really mean nothing to them more than a way to get close to me. They’ve probably been biding their time, saving their energy, and last night they jumped at the chance.’ He smiled slightly. ‘I’m one of the most wanted men in Daemonkind, and they’ve rather taken it upon themselves to make it one of their sole duties to take advantage of any meeting between us. Bit irritating, actually.’ He grinned. ‘How better to do that than through Samantha Turner? The perfect spy. Why not use our friendship to their advantage?

  ‘They wanted to glean every bit of knowledge out of my head, somehow extending their energy field beyond the confines of the ring. I’m sure that took a lot of their energy to accomplish. Honestly, I wouldn’t have thought them capable of such a thing myself, bit difficult to make assumptions when it comes to the supernatural. Whatever you have trapped in there must have significant power. But, it was still rather stupid. It tried to suck all of my memory into your head so it would have better access to it. What it didn’t consider was my memory is much more expansive than anything your brain is capable of handling. So, your brain shut down and would have killed you fairly quickly.’ He paused.

  ‘Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop the connection between us that you may or may not remember experiencing last night.’

  Sam shuddered in revulsion at the thought of Daemons playing with her mind. ‘So, they’re spying on you right now?’

  ‘No. I can block out most of it, what the Daemons listen for, but I can’t stop it. It won’t be as intense as last night; your brain is safe from everything in my head. I’ve been able to mostly close the gate. I’ll still be there, unfortunately. I can’t figure out how to disentwine our brains without causing severe damage to either of us, but I’ll keep a low profile. You can probably feel it now if you concentrate on it—which I would advise against—but the good news is that the life-threatening stuff is no longer an issue. You won’t be able to read my thoughts and I won’t read yours. We still might feel each other’s emotions, maybe more, but it should just be a vague noise, ignorable. Most of the time, at least.’

  Sam struggled for the right words, how to accept this. She was emotionally connected to Tollin now. He had the ability to read her every thought. What was that going to do to her life? Emotions were such a private matter, they gave away more than words ever could, and now Tollin had full access to them.

  She tried to still her hands. ‘Last night…I remember feeling something. Worse than all the information overload. Horrible sadness like I’ve never felt before. Was that you?’

  Tollin’s face fell slightly. ‘Yeah,’ he said flatly.

  She swallowed, feeling her throat go tight. ‘You feel that all the time?’

  Tollin sighed, loo
king clearly uncomfortable about having to discuss this. She didn’t care. If he felt all her emotions now, she wanted to know his. ‘I know how to control it, Sam. That’s the thing. My brain is different from yours, I can handle more.’

  Sam shook her head. ‘But why do you feel it, Tollin? How can anyone possibly go on with that?’

  His expression grew distant. He was trying to close himself off. ‘It’s nothing for you to worry about, Sam. I’m fine, just leave it alone.’

  Sam frowned; it simply wasn’t fair. She wracked her brain for a safer topic. More memories from the previous night floated up. She glanced up at him. ‘Did you kiss me?’ she asked hesitantly.

  Colour rose in his cheeks beneath his facial hair. He stared down at his clasped hands. ‘No, sorry about that. The emotional transfer had a bit of a funny effect. Messed with both of our heads. All of that emotion and thought at once, uncensored. Sorry. It will take some getting used to, sharing, I mean. It’s very…intimate.’ He winced slightly.

  She studied his face. He looked tired. Even his hair was drooping. She reached over and took one of his hands. ‘It’s all right, Tollin.’

  He swallowed. ‘Right. Don’t worry, Sam, I’ll respect your privacy.’

  She nodded. ‘I know you will.’ She grinned wryly, despite her trepidation. ‘And if you don’t, I’ll know about it right away! There’s no secrets between us anymore.’

  Tollin stood and smiled, ‘I’ll let you get some rest, come down when you’re ready. Marus has some interesting things in the works.’

  And with that, Sam was left alone, staring up at the ceiling, feeling, for the first time she could remember, that she was not alone.

  She slept long, in a deep, exhausted sleep. It was odd, with Tollin’s consciousness hovering at the back of her mind like a ghost. Odd, but comforting.

  When she finally made her way downstairs she was surprised to find it was late night. Sam still didn’t know her way around, but she eventually found Marus and Tollin in one of the many rooms full of tech equipment.

  Marus was sitting sideways in a chair, staring at the hologram projector with a bored look on his face. Tollin was perched on a desk; book in hand, gold rim spectacles on his pointed nose. Before Sam entered she heard him remark. ‘Oh, Sam’s awake; she’ll be here any second!’

  Marus grumbled. ‘That’s just creepy. You’ve got to figure out how to stop that.’

  Sam smiled a sleepy greeting. ‘Hullo.’

  Tollin hopped off of the desk and closed the book. ‘Samantha! All better?’

  Sam wasn’t really sure how to answer that. Her gaze drifted over to what Marus was watching. It was the news. ‘Yeah, I suppose…’ She started when she saw what was on the screen. It was her father’s face.

  Marus seemed to realise what he was watching and flipped it off immediately.

  ‘Hey!’ Sam cried. ‘Turn that back on!’

  Marus looked at her innocently. ‘It was nothing.’

  Sam glowered. ‘It was my father.’

  Marus nodded. ‘I know. But do you really think that’s how you want to remember him? Watching a news report about his vicious murder?’

  Sam forced herself to not to snap. ‘I haven’t heard anything since his death. I want to know. Now turn it back on!’

  Marus sighed dramatically and switched the programme back on.

  The reporter was saying: ‘Turner’s murder deepens in mystery due the fact there are absolutely no clues. While investigators are looking into it, an even bigger question arises: What happened to Samantha Turner, Brock’s nineteen-year old daughter?’

  An image of Sam flashed up on the screen. She groaned. Why did news sources always seem to find the most unflattering images available?

  Marus coughed. ‘Wow. Nice picture.’

  Sam shot him a glare.

  ‘Is it possible that she was kidnapped by her father’s murderer? Did she run away, or, more disturbingly, is she the one behind it? Everything is simply speculation at this point, but one thing is certain, this case is going to be a long one. Over to you, Stephen.’

  Marus switched the device off and regarded both of them. ‘Well, looks like you did it. Suppose I should turn you in.’

  Sam sat down heavily. ‘How can I possibly be a suspect? If anyone should be investigated it should be the Myrmidons!’

  ‘Ah,’ Tollin said, pulling his glasses off of his nose and slipping them into his waistcoat pocket. ‘That’s the problem, though, who exactly are the Myrmidons? No-one seems to know! Since they’re part of the government, and the government on Scrabia controls the news, kind of hard to get to the bottom of it, wouldn’t you say? They’re a complete phantom organisation.’

  Marus sat up and grinned. ‘Wrong!’

  Sam looked at him in confusion. ‘What’s wrong?’

  Marus picked himself up and swung over to one of the computers humming in the background. ‘That no-one knows who they are! I’ve got it all right here. One of Arkron’s lackeys must have compiling it. The complete list of all the employees—or should I say followers—of the Layers base of Myrmidons on Scrabia. There’s a few interesting names, but the one that jumps out time and again is Avery Roth, a history and archaeologist expert, former professor at Academia, and somewhat of a fanatic. Total boffin. You’d probably like him, Tollin.’

  Tollin studied the image of the man. His black eyes, greying hair and narrow nose gave him a rather academic look. He didn’t look like a murderer. He looked like an intellectual. ‘His face doesn’t ring a bell,’ Tollin said. ‘Then again, I’ve run into a lot of faces in my time.’

  Sam stared at Roth’s image, taking it all in. ‘You think this man murdered my father?’

  ‘No,’ Tollin said slow and thoughtfully. ‘I don’t. He’s not one to get his hands dirty. I doubt any crimes can be traced back to him directly. No use going that direction.’

  Sam furrowed her brow. ‘We need to figure out just how far along they’re coming with this whole anniversary. If they’re trying to open a portal, and if the Daemons in my ring are trying the same thing, then I’m involuntarily on the same side as them. I am not going to be responsible for a Daemon invasion!’

  Marus went on, ignoring Tollin’s look of pride at Sam’s words. ‘Looks like Arkron was interested in what our little friends were up to, too. She’s got files of information on the base that’s close to us. Schematics, list of employees, shift hours, deliveries, the list goes on and on.’

  Tollin’s eyes sparkled. ‘Do you think you could get me in?’ he asked innocently.

  Marus cast him an incredulous look. ‘You haven’t forgotten about that yet? You can’t go in there! Look, go ahead and speculate all you want about the anniversary and that mysterious void but don’t do anything stupid. You’d be walking straight into the lion’s den if you try and get in there.’

  Tollin shrugged, undaunted. ‘Bah! Wouldn’t be the first time.’

  Sam straightened. ‘If Tollin is going then I’m going, too. I’m not about to be left behind. If there is a way to stop them, I’m going to help.’

  Marus shook his head. ‘Oh, no. Yes, they killed your father, Sam, and that is horrible and all, but going right into their base is completely mental. They’re hunting for you and desperate for that ring. Not to mention you’ve already run into one of those nutters—in a supermarket, no less! You go in there and you’re not coming back out. They’d be on you in seconds!’

  Tollin waved a hand, clearly unconcerned with Marus’s worry. ‘Oh, you have little faith! You should have seen her breaking into the shipping yard with me! She’s an expert by now!’

  Marus shook his head. ‘Breaking into a shipping yard is a completely different thing to breaking into the Myrmidon base, an area with more security than this keep! It’s illogical, irrational and not to mention stupid.’

  Tollin’s voice took on an icier quality. ‘I know what I’m doing, it’s not like this is a first for me. Besides, I need her along. If the Myrmidons are so keen on
getting hold of Sam’s ring then that means they’re almost ready. Sam’s ring, I believe, is attracted to its sister; it’s been glowing brighter ever since we got here. It senses something; I think the second stone is here. I need it with me to act as a guide. I have to know I’m on the right track.’

  Marus rumbled. ‘I know you think you’re some invincible god, brother, but Samantha is still human. Waltzing into the Myrmidon base with her makes no sense. It’s not fair to make Sam your tracking beacon.’

  Tollin clapped his hands and spun in an energetic circle, but Sam could feel his irritation welling. ‘Ah, but that’s what we do, isn’t it?’

  Marus narrowed his midnight eyes. ‘Act completely irrational?’

  ‘No!’ Tollin growled excitedly. ‘We take risks, we do what others wouldn’t! We do the unexpected!’

  Marus shook his head. ‘You, maybe. Don’t include me in the same category.’

  Sam cleared her throat. ‘Don’t I get a say in this?’

  Marus glanced over at her. ‘Only if you agree with me.’

  She crossed her arms. ‘As I’ve already said: I’m going with Tollin. If he needs me then I want to help. I’m not just going to sit by while he takes all the risks. He’s only in this mess because of me.’

  Marus rolled his eyes. ‘But he wouldn’t be taking all the risks, you would! Tollin at least has a slight advantage since they don’t know his face!’

  Sam pressed her lips together stubbornly. ‘I don’t care.’

  Marus threw up his hands. ‘Fine! Whatever. You won’t listen to reason, so when you get caught, don’t go blaming me! I’ll make your bloody passes to get in, but leave me out of it!’

  Sam grinned, aware of a flush of triumph rushing through Tollin. ‘Brilliant!’

  Tollin fixed her with a hard look. ‘But if you come along, that means you do what I say, when I say it, no questions asked.’

  Sam stumbled as an overwhelming will, no doubt directed by him, battered her way. So much for not abusing their connection. ‘Yeah, of course.’