Chapter 24: The Dorian Collective

If That's The Way It Has To Be

“It can’t be him. It just can’t be.”

Agatha paced the room, keeping her eyes fixed to Harvey through a slice of open doorway. The urge to strangle him had grown past the point of distrust, enough to force her and the rest of the Collective to secretive whispers in an adjacent room. 

“But it is him,” said Akal. 

An unfamiliar quiver entered his voice, one that the others hadn’t heard for the better part of millennia. His usual confidence had all but vanished, leaving a husk of himself folded into the joint of the nearest wall. Akila slid in beside him, shoulder-to-shoulder, a comforting arm curled to the ridge of his collarbone.