Of Breakable Things Read Online Free PDF

fifty feet ahead of us.”
    They reached a fortress of black, leafless trees with branches intertwined from the ground up. Nature had weaved the bark so intricately that Alex doubted she could find a hole large enough to fit an arm through. The branches continuously twisted into a word she’d never heard before. “Eidolon.” The term tasted magical, and she licked her lips to savor it.
    “Eidolon,” Ellington echoed with a content sigh.
    More colossal redwoods waited through the gate. There were no buildings, no signs. There was no one there to greet them. She reached out her hands, but could only grasp the “bars” like any normal person.
    “How do we get through?”
    You’re here?
    Alex gasped. The melody of Chase’s voice soared through her mind like a tranquilizer, engulfing her with a happiness she’d long forgotten. Distracted, Alex failed to notice Ellington reaching for her hand. The electric pressure of his grasp startled her, but the prickles of electricity preceded something much worse. Stepping through the branches was like passing through a cookie cutter of needles. Alex attempted to pull away from the pain embedded in the bark, but Ellington wouldn’t allow it. A scream exploded silently within her, deepening with the pressure of the punctures. With a lurch, she reached the other side. The torment left no traces but white sparks of shock erupting from all around her.
    “Allow the discomfort to remind you that you exist. It’s alarming, I know, but I promise you’ll get used to it,” Ellington assured her. He brushed his hair from his forehead. “I hate to rush you, because I know how distressing the experience is for the first time, but unfortunately, we need to hurry.”
    She felt vulnerable and frightened, but the echo of Chase’s voice motivated her. Stiffly, she followed Ellington, each step easier than the last. They ascended a hill and reached a wall composed of mossy stones with palettes of tired blue and smoky gray. A small archway stood crookedly off center, etched with the words Ab Vitam .
    For Life , Alex translated in her head. The Latin had been inscribed on her great uncle’s tombstone. He died during World War II, and she had often passed his tombstone when she visited her mother’s grave. Alex had thought during those visits how ironic it was to carve those two words on a stone that marks the existence of death.
    As they stepped through the archway, Alex noticed that they were venturing through a series of walls, each one tilting at a different angle. She shuffled through one disorienting arc after another, feeling like the rotating hand of a clock.
    Darkness shrouded the sky when they finally reached a courtyard framed by two black L-shaped buildings. They towered in size, and thus Alex realized the purpose of the mammoth trees. Crossbreeds between skyscrapers and medieval churches, the epic structures stood blatantly out of place in the middle of the forest. Crookedly placed gothic stones comprised the misshapen framework, each block cracked into a unique form. It was imperfection at its best.
    “This is it?” Alex whispered.
    Ellington’s shoulders relaxed. “It’s a small part of Eidolon, but it’s a good place to start.”
    A rippling of fog lapped at her ankles like an airborne stream. Outlining the rickety, stone pathways through the courtyard, hazy streetlights stood at attention allowing ivy to coil around their bases. This is exactly what she’d expected a ghost town to look like. The scene was daunting and exquisite in a fabulously eerie kind of way.
    One was thing missing. “Where are all the people?”
    “I’m not sure of the time,” Ellington said. “But I assume the sessions are still in progress.”
    “Sessions?”
    “Like workshops. There’s so much you don’t know about this afterworld.”
    “You make it sound like school ,” she said with a grimace.
    “The actual city is farther that way.” Ellington pointed through a gap between the two