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Throat thick, I lift my gaze, searching beyond the blood-splattered snow. There, in the distance, a speck materializes, racing toward me. This time it happens quickly. It branches. Turns to fractals, crawls up the sky faster than I can even comprehend. One moment, it’s hundreds of yards away, and the next, the darkness surrounds me on all sides.

Encasing me. The space between me and the pitch shrinks and shudders until it’s only a foot away. My frosty breath billows over it. I spin, swallowing the lump in my throat. It’s everywhere. There’s no escape.

Trapped. I’m trapped.

My sternum cracks and splinters. I clutch my chest, gasping for air, but it feels like I’m being split in two.

What’s happening?

{{Step into it.}}

A manly voice echoes in my head. The blood in my veins warms, desperate to obey the command, but my feet refuse to move. My fingers twitch, arm lifting, daring to reach out, though at the last second I hesitate, the tip of my nail only a hairsbreadth away from the void.

“Raina,” a voice that’s almost snake-like calls from inside the darkness.

I recoil. There’s something dangerous within the depths of this unknown. I can’t say why or how I know, only that everything in me warns that the last thing I should do is step into the abyss. A soft keen splits through the air, quickly morphing to screams that shatter my eardrums.

I slap my hands to my ears, crying out as my head spins with pain. Make it stop.

{{Threshold Breaker.}} The grumpy voice barely cuts through the agonized sounds.

“Raina, please!”

“What have you done?”

“Come here, you little slut.”

“Mommy!”

The voices are all different, but each one makes my stomach turn. They layer on top of one another, getting louder and louder, pummeling me. It’s too much.

Gagging, I collapse to my knees, palms pressed to my still-bleeding ears. Those screams won’t stop. If anything, they’re getting louder, shredding my eardrums as soon as they heal themselves. Until blood trickles down my lobes.

The agony is relentless.

Stop.

Stop.

“Stop!”

{{Goddammit, Raina. Listen to me.}}

A hand clamps on my shoulders, shocking air into my lungs, and the snowy meadow splinters, the visage breaking and twisting as I’m lurched off the ground and back into the pit.

Drake’s hand burns where it touches me, the heat of it sinking into my skin even through the fabric of my shirt, but it does nothing to soothe the chill that blankets me. My head spins, darkness dotting my vision, but through the wave of dizziness, Carver’s frowning face watches me.

“Raina—”

“Get your hands off me,” I snarl, slamming both my hands against Drake’s chest and shoving.

He topples back and holds his arms up in surrender. “You’re welcome.”

“Screw you.” Sucking in a shaky breath, I scowl at Carver. “I don’t know what you think this is accomplishing, but it’s obviously not working.” Pausing, I take a breath, clench my fists to keep from running away like last time, and glance at Drake. “I know you don’t like me, but can’t you conjure something else with your illusion instead of that? Like a demon or something? Isn’t that what I’m training for?”

Drake studies me. “Part of the Goddess Trial is learning to face your inner demons. The illusion is a manifestation of your mind.”

“Bullshit. That’s not normal. You’re messing with me.”