Chapter Eighty-Nine

Ethan stood within the darkness, his breath worn out, eyes wide as the silence squeezed in on him. Clara's shout still reverberated in his ears, in spite of the fact that the void around him was quiet and unforgiving. Fear started to set in, his contemplations hustling, how could he save her now? He had just recaptured her belief, as it were to lose her once more to something indeed darker and more frightening.

He clenched his hands, feeling the power of the binding spell still coursing through his veins. This was no time to give in to lost hope. Clara had been pulled into the abyss, but she wasn't gone. He had to believe that.

The oppressive darkness around him seemed to mock that belief. Shadows crawled at the edge of his vision, taunting him, whispering that he was late, that she was as of now late. But Ethan refused to listen. He closed his eyes, reaching deep within himself for the connection he had forged with Clara. If he could just feel her presence, he could find her.

His he