Page 17 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
The north sea. The shores of Tauria.
How viciously the rain pelted my skin – just as it had then, filling my bones with a coldness I’d never lost.
I saw the tall shape of my father in the distance, broad and bold. How effortlessly he moved through those thick waves to the small waiting boat. His hair drenched. The sharp point of his ears visible through it.
‘Come back,’ the words rasped from between my lips. I tried to get back to my feet but there was nothing but the curtain of rain as it pounded into the earth.
Tauria!The ghost of my mother’s voice called behind me, broken with sadness, but I didn’t listen as I ran, the sand wet between my toes just as it had been that day, only to stumble on weak legs and fall to my knees. Tumbling back into reality, cold mud biting into my flesh, plastering the fabric of my nightgown to my legs. Panting, I turned. Wildly looking for him through the downpour.
I needed to go back. To tell him not to go.
To stay.
A king’s blood, for a king’s awakening, came a dark, hissing voice inside my mind. A scream slipping from my lips as agony bit into my neck, making my wet fingers clutch it. I jerked around, waiting to see fangs and claws, yet there was nothing but the house behind me, and the dark night.
Blackthorn Manor was an imposing shadow in the distance with bright yellow light cutting a path through the gloom towards me like a clawed hand reaching out with spread fingers.
How far I’d run. How awfully my limbs ached. No beast from the pit lingered there. It was in my head. It was madness.
My nightmares had followed me here.
‘Wake up,’ I begged helplessly. Uselessly. Trying to pinch my own skin, but the rain made it too slick, the icy chill freezing me in place.
Then that rainwater simmered as it gathered in my muddy palms.
Murderer, screamed though my head, a sharp ache against my temples. Making me clutch my hair as I lurched backwards. Trying to escape, but the long-wet grass suddenly became charred hands that grasped and curled around my limbs. Pulling me down to the earth, trying to bury me whole.
I kicked and fought, rolling myself to dig my fingers into the mud. Only for a horrific weight to press into my spine, fingers gripping my hair to wretch my head back. The burning agony of the skin on my back from his brutality.
Foolish little troll.
A half-sobbed scream slipped from my lips as I fought to be free of that weight. Free of Daunton’s grip. The phantom lash came against my spine, making me cry out like an animal. A sharp kick to the side rolled me across the wet earth until I landed on my back.
Kat!A voice shouted through the agony but there was nothing before me but darkness and the reek of demonic breath as the galmoth loomed over me in that pit, the press of that claw against my heart.
Kat!Emrys’s voice screamed, desperate and real. I wanted to roll towards it but lead filled my veins, pressing me intothe soggy earth as I choked on the taste of my own blood. Screwing my eyes shut, willing myself awake.
Tauria.The name came playfully. Soft and filled with the warmth of her love.
My eyes opened to the wooden beams and the thatching of the roof. No charred hands but the heavy warm covers of a bed weighed me down.
My head fell weakly to the side – and there she was.
Her smile soft and playful as she lay next to me, book open in her hands, waiting. Her hair a chestnut disarray. Thick lashes casting shadows against her cheeks. The orange light from the hearth illuminating her beauty. Sharp and inescapable as it made her eyes seem umber.
My mother.
‘You’re here.’ The words were a croaked whisper between my chapped lips, smelling the lavender and healing herbs of her. She was real, she existed for the merest of moments.
She didn’t answer. Yet she leant closer, her calloused fingers gently tipping my chin to lay a kiss against my cheek. There was a slight tremble on her lips. As if I’d broken her heart too.
You’re not finished yet, my love. Her breath was suddenly as cold as the icy wind against my skin.
Live. I tried to curl my fingers into her hair, but all I met was grass and, in a blink, there was nothing but the bitter night before me.
Alone. The last place I ever wanted to be was alone. The vast bruised sky endless above me, illuminated by white flashes of lightning as the storm raged above.
I choked on a sob, rain running down my throat, thumping ruthlessly against my bruised skin. My neck burnt as if the fangs were still buried deep, the old scars down my back a searing torment of all my mistakes.
