Kael's stomach twisted fiercely.
It was as if some cruel hand had dipped in and knotted his innards. He dreamed he was buckled into a monstrous roller coaster, ascending and plummeting in wild, senseless loops. Wind howled in his ears, his chest tightened, his stomach somersaulted. During that dream, a strange tension grasped him—not fear of heights, but fear of something else. Something that gnawed at his chest, as if he had left behind something vital.
Behind that naked fear cringed a monstrous entity, a darkness that stalked him relentlessly through the darkness of his own mind.
Then he remembered.
The moment he had passed out returned in fragments—blurred light, pulsing blood, a glimpse of eyes like bare blades in silent sunlight. His mind retained the image as if waiting for it all along: two shining, slanted eyes, and then a mouth agape ripping free from the darkness, lunging at him with fangs that could crush bone.
