Page 53 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
I look back out to sea. There’s a ship drifting toward the horizon. Its sail unfurls to catch the wind. Oars that have rowed it away from the island slide from the surface of the sea as the boat picks up speed. I rise to my feet, unsteady, as though the hard ground should be moving with the waves.
I take a few steps into the surf. Panic fills my chest as quickly as the water rises around my legs.
They’re leaving me here. I don’t know where I’m supposed to be, but I’m not supposed to be alone.
I see a man and woman watching me from the deck as the ship slides away into the distance. I feel my memories slipping away with them. It hurts so much in my chest that I’m sure my heart has cleaved in half.
“Ummum,” I whisper, pulling up my dress as it slows me down. I raise my knees with every step deeper into the water. “Ummum! Batiltu!”
Mother!.. Wait!..
I call to them, and call and call and call. But they don’t answer. They only watch.
I wade through the water until I’m swimming, but the waves keep dragging me back to shore. Sooner than seems possible, the ship fades into the setting sun.
Desperate tears mix with the salt water on my skin as the sea pulls me onto the beach. I cry into the sand, my throat burning. Everything I knew is pulling from me like threads unraveling from tattered cloth. I hold my head in my hands as though I can trap myself between my palms. I weep as it all disappears, even the betrayal of being left behind. The ship sails away with everything but my name.
And then I hear a voice. The sweetest, kindest voice I’ve ever heard.
“Akhatu,” the woman says.Sister. Her dry hand lands on my shoulder. I look up into Aglaope’s smiling face. “Do not fear, my love. I will look after you.”
The instant she lifts her hand from me, the vision disappears.
There’s a lot of yelling here in the kitchen. My head is swarming with those fucking hornets. I press my temples between my palms and a pained noise escapes through my lips. It goes unnoticed beneath Ashen’s furious tirade.
“I don’t know what you’ve done, witch, but you will fix her or I will strip your spine from your throat-“
“Back up, Reaper,” Cassian says. His voice is tight with urgency but I can’t see him through thick smoke and hissing sparks of Ashen’s wings.
“-I swear I will pull it from your skull with my bare hands-“
“Back the fuck up-“
“-you have exactly three seconds-“
“She is fine,” Bianca interjects, the amusement so thick in her voice that she nearly laughs. “See for yourself.”
Smoke and cinders dissipate and Ashen looks over his shoulder at me. Cassian stands between Ashen and Bianca, his gladius raised with the tip of the sword pointed at Ashen’s neck. Bianca looks thoroughly entertained.
Ashen turns to me fully and strides close enough to take my jaw in a gentle hand. His fiery gaze strikes so deep into my eyes that he might leave a piece of himself behind. His voice is low and strained when he speaks. “All right, vampire?”
I give a single nod, though my head and my chest still hum with pain.
“Not to worry, Reaper. I was just helping her to remember what she saw.” Bianca shifts her gaze to me over his shoulder. Her smile broadens. “I did not take that which you covet.”
I take a step back from Ashen’s touch. When I turn my gaze to him he looks desperate for me to stay within reach. I don’t move further away, but I don’t come closer either.
“What was that, what I saw?” I ask, turning my attention back to Bianca.
“Your words on the wall, they aren’t just spells. They aren’t just magic. They are the past and future colliding. Your history. And your destiny.”
“What does it mean?”
Bianca’s smile turns a little sorrowful as she watches me. “That the threads of fate are pulling tight, bringing the mystery into view.”
I don't know what’s happening to me. Who I am, what this all means. The ancient past makes even less sense than the future. And the way Ashen looks at me, as though I’m both his undoing and salvation, makes me think the present might be the worst of all.
CHAPTER21
