Ghost Knights: The Reliquary
an excerpt

As the pain receded, the conference room morphed into the room from the photograph. Bella could feel the flickering torchlight against her skin, and both of them could smell the coppery tang of the recently dead. Bella stopped struggling and stared at the lumps of cloth. They slowly resolved themselves into the remnants of Earth’s former Reaper and several other individuals. Older, desiccated bodies littered the floor at irregular intervals. Tiira was not the first or last being to meet their end in that room.

Nate peered at the closest corpses. Their faces were lumpy and fluid. It was almost as if their skulls had been crushed, leaving the skin relatively intact. Each of them bore different injuries, all of which were fatal, but they all shared a common injury. Every body Nate could see was missing their eyes.

He glanced from the bodies to the walls, willing his stomach to settle down. The wounds that were visible confirmed the origin of the spattered substance on the walls. Nate wanted to throw up and refused to give in to the impulse.

As they stared, the air in the chamber grew thick and they both found it increasingly harder to breathe. The shadows flickered into unnatural shapes and writhed on the chamber walls. Chaos and despair permeated the room.

Something shifted and Bella strained against Nate. Whatever it was dug cruelly into Nate’s chest, but he did not have time to alleviate the discomfort. The situation crystallized in his mind and he finally understood.

Nate grabbed Bella’s hands and forced them to cover her eyes while he blocked one ear with his shoulder and whispered into the other one. He said anything and everything that came to mind. The goal was to break her concentration.

As quickly as it started, the world snapped back into place. Nate dimly heard Victor yelling in the background and demanding answers, but his voice was muffled and distant. Bella finally realized that she was pinned to the floor and struggled to free herself. Nate let her go. He was too tired to hold on to her in any event. He watched her stand and fall back into her chair before he staggered to the nearest wall and slid back down to the floor.