Chapter 65
Chapter Sixty-Five
Sunaria’s screams shattered the silence.
I flew out of bed, feeling abject fear, finding myself alone in the small chateau. Sunaria, now a continent away, was calling out to me.
Paralyzed with terror, an awful realization hit me that she was in the utmost danger, and I was powerless to save her. Unable to get to her, I used the mind gift to relay that she must stay calm. Escape.
She’d only been in Cornwall for a few weeks.
Stone Masters. Her voice was drifting in and out of my head.
They had her.
I’d slaughtered Lord Archer along with many of his men, but the Stone Masters had been reestablished.
I’d failed her.
Within that dark prison, I shared her misery.
The agony unfolded as sounds, sensations, and feelings were relayed by her.
I refused to leave the chateau, refused to abandon her.
As the hours unfolded, everything unraveled.
Sharing Sunaria’s suffering was unbearable, but I wouldn’t let her go, or let her down, staying with her in thought and trying to comfort her.
I’d never known her to be so afraid. And my fear was just as great.
She lay blindfolded, gagged and bound. From what she conveyed, I gathered that she was held in a dungeon.
They bled her.
In the process of moving locations, they’d lost their grip on her, and she’d bolted, her blindfold falling away. The faces of two small boys stared back at her aghast, seen also by me and imprinted into memory.
The men overpowered her.
Lord Archer’s study. His books referencing Stonehenge. The ritual – the separating of the ashes, pouring them into the fissures of the stones.
Madness promised the greatest escape.
Pacing through the house, I struck the furniture and threw it against the walls that confined me, my fury sending me into a diabolic frenzy. I decimated the place.
When Sunaria’s screams were eventually silenced, there came a moment of relief that her suffering was over. Falling to my knees, my cries were unceasing. My maker, my lover, my beloved, was dead.
I nuzzled my nose into one of her soft gowns that she’d left behind, finding no comfort from her scent.
I want her back. I want her back. I want…
The rage took me over. My blood lust disrupted my ability to think clearly.
When I reached the edge of the cliff, I hesitated. The sheer drop was enticing. For the first time since Sunaria had given me the gold ring, I eased it off to read the words inscribed along the inside of the band, “Orpheus, I’m yours for eternity.”
With a trembling hand, I slid the ring back on.
Far off, crystal-like orange light flickered along the horizon, promising sweet relief.
The kind that’s permanent.
Turning away from the cliff’s edge, I stretched out my arms and fell backwards into oblivion.