Chapter Twenty-Five
She wondered briefly why she’d crammed herself into such an uncomfortable skin cage.
Over the sisters’ screaming and the ringing in her ears, only one voice prevailed. Her mother was calling her name.
“Briar!”
She hadn’t heard her mother’s voice in five years. The familiarity of it, the longing it came with, struck her like a knife through the chest, right into the heart.
Images flooded her blackening vision, pulling her through time and space, to a scarlet room.
Garish wallpaper and a low fireplace. A canopy bed in the middle, the sheets blush pink and the curtains heavy velvet.
Briar floated inches from the thick-carpeted floor, her body feeling light and transparent.
She watched a young woman with long black hair rocking a baby in her arms, cooing at her softly, playing with her tiny hands, smiling at her like she was the most precious thing in the world.
There was no baby crib in this room. This was where her mother worked.
Baby Briar slept in another room, with other babies and toddlers, a nursery of sorts at the very back of the building, where their crying wouldn’t disturb the customers.
Baby Briar was lucky, because she was loved.
While the others were looked after by whoever was available, she was often taken by her mother to her room, where she was fed, cradled, sung to.
“My girl!”
Briar choked. Her tongue felt too big for her mouth. She scratched at the hand wrapped around her throat, holding her in the air. She kicked her feet uselessly – a reflex. The only way to alleviate the pressure was to cling to his arm so her spine wouldn’t break.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She blinked a few times, tried to bring his face back into focus.
From above, the flying nun shot him three times, as fast as she could reload. Daggers slashed through the air from all directions, one nearly grazing Briar’s ear. They sunk into Rune’s chest, shoulders, and back. He didn’t flinch.
“I don’t want to do this. I’m sorry.”
“Ru-Rune,” she croaked.
Tears were running down his face, unbidden.
The golden eyes changed him. Rationally, she knew he was the same man.
The man she’d dived into a frozen lake for, the man she’d tied to her with a length of rope, the man she’d fed with her own hands.
The man she’d kissed. But those glowing eyes made him feel like a stranger to her, someone removed from the moments they’d shared.
His fingers tightened, and Briar felt something break inside.
“Briar, my baby girl,” her mother screamed. “No, Rune. Please.”
In truth, things were happening fast. Men, women, and beasts clashed around them. She knew the sisters were trying to get to her. Time was only dilated for her, her mind holding on to life like a drop of dew clinging stubbornly to the very tip of a leaf.
Rune squeezed again. Her air supply was completely cut off.
“There’s no forgiveness,” he said. “No forgiveness.”
Briar went limp. She lost consciousness and didn’t feel her spine breaking, the tear of ligaments and muscle. Her body crumpled like that of a puppet whose strings had been cut. Her head rolled in the slush and stopped by her feet.
Her mother screamed, but Briar didn’t hear her.
Her eyes were open, glassy, staring at the sky, but Briar didn’t see the full moon, she saw a pale, beautiful face, brown eyes like hers, thin lips curved into a smile.
“I will take you far away,” the woman said.
“My baby girl, you will have a different life.”
Briar was airy and translucent. She floated. The pressure was gone; there was no pain. She wondered briefly why she’d crammed herself into such an uncomfortable skin cage anyway. It had all been a dream. Thank God it was over. “I will take you far, far away…”
It must’ve worked. Her mother must’ve done everything right, because Briar was so far away now, she couldn’t remember what it had felt like to exist. What a nonsensical notion.
All emotions that had made her into who she was disintegrated piece by piece.
Fear, pride, hope, hatred, love… Unraveled, stitch by stitch, thread by thread.
The last one was longing. For someone she thought she’d miss. A name. What was it?
Seraphina.
One day, maybe Sera would join her. Far, far away…