Chapter 148

"I can't do it. I just can't." Twice I had tried. Twice I had grasped Lucius' hands and dived into the black seas of Purgatory and twice I had failed to do anything but send the spirits into a frenzy and send myself flailing and scrabbling to escape their clutches. Sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of Lucius, who was mirroring my position, I took a deep breath, counted to ten - which continued to twenty - and placed my hands into his open palms. Instantly his bright blue eyes disappeared and I found myself plunged into darkness, feeling the multitude of bodies moving around me. I steeled myself as I caught sight of the closest ones to me, wanting to cry out in fear at those who displayed the most horrific of wounds, at those with the swollen, bloated skin that looked ready to burst open, at those with the wide open maws, wailing and moaning. They shuffled and swayed together, with barely a gap between them, walking it seemed, with no purpose, but to keep moving. Just a never-e