Infinity Rises Read Online Free PDF Page A

Then I remember Nanny Theresa choking me. Infinity saved me; she saved both of us. Without her, I wouldn’t be here to make this decision, and yet, whatever Infinity did between then and now has led us both back to the brink of dying once again.
    Maybe, if I find her, I can reason with her? Maybe we can live a life somewhere in between who I am and what she wants? Maybe. A huge maybe. But if dying is the only alternative to trying . . .
    I choose for us to live.
    I take myself back to that time in my mind, to the memory of her face hovering over mine, her touch gentle against my brow as she smiled down at me with her serpentine facade. “There’s no need to worry,” she said, and I desperately wanted to believe her. In fact, I did believe her, right up until the moment she cocked her head and her painted smile became a sinister line. Her eyes flashed with a cruel fire as she twisted her wrist, her snake-fast grip pulling my hair tight in a fist.
    This memory seems so real I can almost feel it. Ow! I can feel it! Infinity vanishes, and with a violent tug, my whole body is wrenched by the roots of my hair as I’m jerked backward. The darkness seems to drop away beneath me, and I scream loudly into the nothingness. This isn’t part of the memory! This is happening now! I try to see above my head, but I can’t. I grab at my hair, but it’s wedged tight. I splay my arms out, my fingers grasping for holds that aren’t there as I’m completely upended and dragged, kicking, flailing, and struggling, then sent plummeting down into the depths of the black and endless void.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Graham told me that thinking of Infinity might draw me to her, but I didn’t expect anything like this. I feel like I’m being kidnapped, dragged through the night toward a horrible fate. I reach back and tug at my hair again, but it’s still tightly wedged in the blackness. It won’t budge. I close my eyes and try to calm down by telling myself that this isn’t real, that it’s all in my head, that I chose this and it’s the only way to save us.
    It doesn’t reassure me at all.
    The darkness ripples through my body, rushing loudly through my ears as I’m pulled toward who knows where. I do my best to ignore the noise and gather my thoughts, picking through them for another scrap of Infinity. I need to find her. And no matter how bizarre this may be, I have to believe that what I’m doing will lead me in the right direction.
    I take a deep breath and concentrate, doing my best to put myself in her shoes. I imagine her all alone, cold and wounded, far away, filled with fear, and close to death. A situation that I, unfortunately, realize is true for both of us.
    Nothing.
    I shut my eyes tight and try again, but this time I dip into the well of my own lonely past, hoping that my feelings of abandonment will draw us closer, that our shared isolation might be the bridge that connects us. It seems to work, as suddenly, out of nowhere, I see an image of her frightened face in my mind. I immediately try to hold on to it, clarify it, pull it into focus. My hair tugs at my scalp, and I gasp out loud as my body jerks in a completely different direction. My heart begins racing, and a wave of panic surges through me as her face flashes again, but this time it’s splashed with blood, wide-eyed and terrified. A shock of freezing air hits me like a swift slap to the face, and the flurrying darkness becomes a chilling wind. The black of the void snaps to a field of pure white, and the image of Infinity sinks into it, engulfed by it.
    My skin feels like it’s been pressed against ice. I’m fraught with confusion as thick, blurry columns of shadows begin emerging from the white and moving toward me, roving past me, surrounding me. My breathing quickens as the long stripes of shadows begin taking on a roughly hewn texture, their fuzzy edges condensing and sharpening into focus until soon they’ve transformed into thin, dark trees towering all