Page 112 of Cursed Shadows 5

The scream that rips out of me is hollow.

It shudders urgency through the lane.

Daxeel lunges over the crumpled litalf for the one still standing and turned on me. He barrels into his back, hard, and they both are sent sprawling.

I turn my dazed gaze on Eamon.

There, on the dewy ground, on his back… he bleeds.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

A hollow sound rips out of me.

That hand that reached into me, it slips away—and that cry splits the lane as I run for Eamon.

I crumple to the puddle-strewn cobblestone.

Thump, thump, thump, thump…

The horror slacks my face as I grab him and hoist him onto my lap. My mouth parts around words that don’t come, words that might explain that I chose him, not Daxeel, that I chose to save Eamon, but something switched in me, instinct, and it forced my hand.

But all I manage are moans, moans of distress, breaths that come out in hopeless whimpers, and I press my hand to the gush of hot blood.

I understand…

This is my sacrifice.

This is my punishment.

How dare I demand of Mother. How dare I demand she hear me. How dare I fail to deliver on the death of Daxeel, and how dare I offer her something I didn’t even want… my womb.

A wail folds me. I hold him tighter, fingernails cutting into his flesh, his body jutting with those harsh, choking breaths. And all I can do is wail.

I did this.

Eamon’s blood is on my hands…

He chokes on it.

In my arms, his body jerks against the loss of life, and his eyes are glazed up at me. His breaths are sharp and grated, they shudder his chest, yet gargle in his throat.

I hold him. I rock, back and forth, back and forth, my wail hitching into garbled, pitched words, murmurs, ‘stay with me, stay with me, stay with me.’

Eamon’s answer is a whisper.

‘Kill him.’

I blink down at him.

Eamon frowns, his face ruined with trails of blood. His gaze flutters aside, silent, but wide.

‘Kill him…’

Eamon’s muscles tense in my arms. He recoils from the whisper—the whisper that shouldn’t… reach us, find us here… the one that should be silenced by slumber.

And Eamon hears it, too.

Darkness shudders at my side.

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