Chapter 30 Alti Pres
CHAPTER THIRTY
ALTI PRES
I stand in the darkness. Nothingness? It’s hard to tell. Yet, I hear the soft sound of breathing. But I’m not scared.
It doesn’t frighten me.
I don’t move. I wait.
From the darkness, faint shapes begin to emerge, accompanied by a sound filled with a deep sorrow that pierces my heart. Then, he comes into focus. He is hidden beneath a hooded cloak, still trying to keep his appearance a mystery.
The nightwalker who saved me.
The nightwalker I kissed.
The nightwalker I bit.
“What do you want from me?” I say.
His fingers twitch as he raises his hands and peels away my glamour, unveiling me. “I want to be your memory. Your present. Your future,” he says, the words echoing and overlapping a thousand times over in an instant, but I can hear every individual word.
My eyes narrow and hands curl into fists at my sides. “And if I don’t want that? What if all I want is to go home?”
Fingers curve around my shoulders, long, cold, and elegant. “There is no home. Alti pres, Saya Claymore.”
Words that should sound foreign to me break and thicken in my mind. Forgive me.
Without another word, I drop to my knees in worship of a creature who is not a god. I do not want this life, but I accept it.
And I will break it from the inside.