Page 112 of Visions & Shadows

Awo said I could’ve asked for anything! But I didn't think of my own father.

What kind of daughter does that?

I hold my dad tightly to my chest and let out a broken cry, “This isn’t fair! If I had known my father would die, I wouldn’t have asked for Jason’s animals. You fooled me. I want my father back.” Sobs tear from my very soul, and I feel Raighne’s warmth battle the darkness growing in my heart.

“Give him back to me,” I beg. “This isn’t fair.”

“You need to calm down, child,” Janak says, sounding worried.

It feels as if something snaps in me. Ice spreads through my veins as all the emotions fade until only my rage remains.

Numbly, I sink back until I’m sitting flat on my butt, and my father slips from my arms.

“Alchera!”Raighne’s voice echoes somewhere in the back of my mind.

It feels like the last piece of my soul, of the person I used to be, splinters into nothing.

“Alchera?” Raighne crouches beside me, his hand settling on my shoulder.

Not even he matters at this moment.

Nothing matters anymore.

I feel dead inside.

Dead and dark.

My voice sounds cold and lifeless as I whisper, “Awo let my dad die. He just…let him die.”

Somehow, I manage to climb to my feet while Brenna sobs beside our dead father.

I look down at my dad one last time and turn my back on all of them.

I feel Raighne right behind me as I walk into the forest, silent tears rolling down my cheeks and washing away what feels like the last of my humanity.

I’ll save the chosen ten, and after that, I’ll wash my hands clean of Vaalbara.

Chapter 21

Dreams and Visions.

A world is torn apart,

while another is said to start.

So many people are gone, now dead.

The sun has turned to its infamous red.

Only ten to be taken,

while the rest will be forsaken.

Alchera

I think someone once saidyou can die from heartache.

They’re wrong.

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