The Psychic

Chapter 8

The ridge felt alive beneath us, trembling with each heartbeat, each footfall, each furious growl from the guardians below. Every step was a gamble, one slip and the abyss would swallow us whole. The air was thick, suffocating, scented with dust and something darker, something that made my skin crawl.

Sarah’s hands shook as she clutched my sleeve. “Ruby… seriously, are you sure this path is safe?”

“Safe isn’t in the vocabulary,” I muttered, voice tight. The thread inside me pulsed violently, a firestorm beneath my ribs. “But it’s the only path.”

Blessing scowled, lips pressed into a thin line. “Only path. Great. Because we love dangling over empty space while shadow monsters chase us.”

“I hate empty space,” Sarah mumbled, hugging herself. Sarah’s voice quivered. “Tell me again why we’re following a glowing string only you can feel?”

“Would it help if I lied?” I shot back, forcing my voice steady. My legs shook, but I didn’t stop moving.

“Maybe a little!” she hissed, ducking as a clawed hand slashed inches from her head.

Blessing grabbed her arm, shoving her forward. “Move! Complaining isn’t going to save us.” Her voice was sharp, but I caught the flicker of fear in her eyes.

I reached out, brushing her arm. “We have each other. Stick together. That’s what matters.”

Jace’s voice cut through the chaos, calm but sharp. “Keep your eyes on the path. Every step counts. One misstep, and it’s over.”

The guardians’ forms swirled, shadows coiling into muscle and sinew, their red eyes fixed, unyielding. One lunged ahead, claws sinking into the stone, blocking the narrow path. Its jagged mouth opened in a silent scream of hunger.

Sarah froze. “Oh God-”

“Don’t stop!” Jace snapped, blade flashing. Steel met shadow with a hiss that burned my ears. The guardian reeled, but it didn’t fall.

“Jace!” I cried, panic slicing through me.

“I said keep moving!” he barked, yanking me behind him. His body was a wall against the shadow. I wanted to stay, to fight alongside him, but the book pulsed against my chest and the thread inside me screamed. I couldn’t fail now.

“Go!” Blessing shoved Sarah ahead, her voice shaking. “Ruby, guide us!”

I stumbled forward, hands cutting into jagged stone, breath rasping. The guardians’ howls grew louder, echoing off the cliffs like the world was splitting. My vision flickered. Flashes of the path, shards of light, glimpses of the prince waiting beyond the storm. My chest ached from the thread, from the sheer intensity of it. “There!” I shouted. “Through that gap, follow me!”

We scrambled, half-running, half-crawling, stones biting into our hands and knees. The guardians followed, silent shadows shifting with predatory speed.

Jace reappeared at my side, jaw bloodied, eyes burning with raw focus. “I told you, I’m not that easy to kill,” he said, though his chest heaved.

“Don’t scare me like that again,” I gasped.

“No promises,” he muttered, gripping my elbow, steadying me as we clawed upward.

A low rumble rolled through the ridge. I froze. Beneath us, the stone trembled. Dust puffed from cracks in the rock, and I knew instinctively that the guardians weren’t just chasing us. They were changing the terrain. They could manipulate the ridge, making it impossible to escape if we slowed.

Blessing hissed. “Did… did the ground just move?”

I didn’t answer. My focus was on the seam ahead, the thread blazing bright enough to sear my vision. We had to move. Faster. Smarter.

The first guardian leapt from a jagged outcropping above, claws extended like deadly spears. I ducked, feeling the wind of its strike whip past my hair. Sarah shrieked, stumbling backward, nearly falling into the abyss.

“Hold on!” Jace roared, yanking her back. The guardian hissed, swiping again. Its claw tore a jagged line across the stone, sparks of shadow scattering into the night.

“Stop trying to kill us!” Blessing shouted, dodging another strike. “We’re alive, remember?”

“Barely!” Sarah gasped.

I bit my lip, shaking off the panic. The thread pulled me forward again, insistent, relentless. “The gap. To the left. Quick, now!”

We scrambled toward it. Rocks crumbled beneath our hands. My palms bled. My lungs screamed for air. But we had no choice. The guardians closed in, a tide of shadow, of claws, of teeth.

One lunged from the side, teeth snapping. I yelped, vaulting over a jagged stone as it struck, claws grazing my shoulder. Pain exploded, but I ignored it, driven by the thread, by the prince, by the prophecy.

Jace’s hand was on my back, pushing, steadying me. “Ruby, move! Don’t look down!”

“I- can’t- I see-” My voice broke, but I forced the words out. “The prince… he’s… so close!”

“Then we don’t stop!” Jace snarled, lunging to block a guardian that jumped toward Blessing. Steel met shadow with a hiss that made my teeth ache. The guardian recoiled but not for long. It was relentless.

The path narrowed, forcing us into single file. My heart thudded in my ears, the thread pulsing like a second heartbeat. I could feel him. Closer than ever. And the guardians seemed to sense it too. Their growls rose, a crescendo of malice and hunger.

Sarah whimpered. “I don’t want to die…”

“You’re not dying!” I snapped, spinning around, gripping her shoulders. “Not here. Not now. Follow me!”

The ridge twisted sharply. The thread pulled me forward, weaving us through jagged rocks and loose stones. My hands were raw. My legs trembled. But every step felt like a promise: we would survive.

Another guardian sprang from above. I ducked just in time. It landed with a roar behind us, claws raking the stone. Rocks fell into the void. My stomach lurched. I thought we’d fall, but the thread flared again, guiding me to a narrow ledge.

“Here!” I shouted. “Quick!”

We slipped onto the ledge, one by one, hearts hammering, lungs burning. Behind us, the guardians collided with the ridge, claws scraping, bodies thrashing. The stone beneath us cracked, threatening to split apart.

“Ruby… we’re going to die here,” Sarah said, voice trembling.

“No,” I said firmly. “We aren’t. The thread… it’s guiding us. We just have to trust it.”

Blessing gritted her teeth. “I trust you. But if we die, I’m haunting you.”

“Deal,” I said, forcing a laugh. My throat was raw. My chest ached. But the thread burned like fire, and I had no choice but to follow.

The ridge shook. A fissure opened beneath us, dust and stone tumbling into the abyss. A guardian lunged, teeth snapping inches from my leg. I jumped, rolling, landing hard. Pain shot through my ribs, but I pressed on.

Jace grabbed my arm, yanking me upright. “Don’t stop. Not now!”

The guardians pressed closer. Their eyes glowed brighter. Their growls became roars. The ridge itself seemed alive, a living entity threatening to consume us.

I clenched the book, feeling the thread pulse, guiding me toward a shimmer of light at the summit. The prince. The guardians could see us. Could feel us. Could sense the connection. But we were almost there. Almost.

Another guardian leapt from the shadows. I felt the air tear past my cheek as it struck. Sarah cried out, but Blessing shoved her forward.

“Step! Step! Step!” I shouted. “Follow the thread!”

We scrambled over jagged stones, dodged claws, ducked under snapping jaws. My hands were raw, my knees bloodied. My chest burned. My head spun. But the thread… the prince… the prophecy… I felt it again. The thread screaming inside me, pulsing with impossible force, urging me forward. My chest tightened, head spinning, as visions of the prince shimmered through my mind: flashes of fire and ice, light and shadow, all calling to me at once. I couldn’t resist it. I had to reach him.

“Ruby… you okay?” Sarah’s voice wavered, distant, echoing through a haze of pressure in my skull.

I gritted my teeth. “I… I need to…” My voice faltered as the thread flared, burning through my veins. Heat radiated from my chest, searing outward, muscles trembling with power I barely understood. I clenched the book tighter, the guardians’ shapes around us distorting and writhing as the psychic energy burst from me like a pulse of raw light.

“Ruby! What are you doing?!” Jace shouted, yanking at my arm, but I could barely hear him. The thread took over, screaming in colors and sounds that didn’t exist, dragging me forward. My vision shattered into fragments: the prince’s eyes, the ridge splitting, shadows lunging, and then... pain.

I cried out as energy ripped from my hands, burning my skin, scorching my mind. The guardians recoiled, whimpering, snarling, but the air itself seemed to bend around the pulse of my power. Sparks of shadow and light clashed violently, echoing like thunder through the mountainside. I staggered, knees buckling, the thread inside me thrumming so violently I feared it might tear me apart.

“Ruby! Stop!” Jace’s voice cut through the chaos like a lifeline, but it barely reached me. My arms shook, my vision swam, and the air around me shimmered with the raw heat of psychic fire. The book slipped from my grip, clattering uselessly to the stone. My body couldn’t hold it. The force of the thread consumed me, every pulse stealing strength, leaving tremors in my limbs, and a cold dread gnawed at the edges of my consciousness.

My heart felt like it might burst. My hands clawed at the stone, knuckles white. The thread inside me screamed, insistent, insatiable, and for a heartbeat, I was weightless, suspended between fear and fury, between life and the pull of something greater, something beyond me.

"Ruby!” Sarah screamed, but the sound felt miles away. The world narrowed to white. Hot light, the thread’s screaming, and my own ragged heartbeat. My legs buckled. My knees hit the stone. I clawed at the ridge, but it was slipping. Everything's slipping. And the thread burned brighter, more insistent, dragging me forward even as my consciousness faltered.

The air around me warped, shimmering with raw energy. I could feel something responding somewhere beyond my sight, moving through the pull of the thread, but I didn’t understand. Didn’t know. I was too weak to know. Too weak to even hold my head up.

Pain consumed me. My vision flickered. My chest heaved, lungs failing. The ridge tilted beneath me, a living thing trying to swallow me whole.

“Ruby!” Jace’s hands grabbed my shoulders, grounding me, but my vision had gone white at the edges, spinning. Shadows coiled closer, unnerving, sensing weakness, circling like predators. I could feel the thread winding into every fiber of me, stretching me thinner than I thought possible.

“Stay… with me…” Jace’s voice echoed, distant. I tried, oh God, I tried, but the thread’s pull was overwhelming. My knees buckled, then my hands, and finally the world tipped.

I gasped, a scream caught in my throat, as Jace's voice echoed once. And then... everything went black.