I stepped over Val’s head. I wouldn’t kick it or bury it. We didn’t have time for that; we couldn’t even bury our own.
I hated the idea of leaving them here to the animals, but the living were more important than the dead. I was about to open a portal when the fading sun flashed over something on the ground.
Frowning, I walked over to see what it was. I bent and pushed aside some leaves to grasp whatever was there.
My confusion mounted as my fingers curled around something cold and stiff yet strangely yielding. I lifted it to examine what I’d discovered.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Ellery
Nausea twisted in my gut,and bile heaved up my throat when I saw the metal band encircling the finger I held.
Ryker’sfinger!
A finger that should be withhim.
With a startled, disgusted cry, I released it and wiped my hand on my pants as tears welled and fury burned within me. They’d sliced away a piece of him and tossed it away like it was nothing more thangarbage.
The amount of suffering he must have endured caused choked, wheezing sounds to escape me. I kept wiping my hands, but no matter how many times I rubbed them on my pants, I couldneverrid myself of the feel of that finger in my hand.
“Lery.”
Scarlet’s arms enveloped me, and for a moment, I almost gave in to my overwhelming urge to sob. If I started crying, I’d never stop, and so many others counted on me to keep it together.
I did allow myself to take strength in her comfort as she rubbed my hair while hugging me. “We’re going to get him back,” she whispered.
I nodded, but I had no idea how we were going to do that, and I didn’t have time to ponder it. We had to get the rest of the encampment to safety before more lives were lost today.
“We have to go,” I said.
“Are you okay?” Scarlet asked.
“I have to be.”
“Lery—”
“I’m fine, but we have to go.”
Scarlet hugged me close again before releasing me. She brushed my loose hair back from my face. With the sun down, the air was growing chillier, but despite the loss of my cloak, I didn’t feel it. I was too focused on what we had to do next.
“I’ll open a portal,” Ianto said.
As he did so, I went to step over Ryker’s appendage, and my foot froze to the ground. It was morbid, but I couldn’t leave it behind.
“Lery,” Scarlet said when I bent again.
Lifting the finger, I ignored the cool, clammy sensation of it as I removed Ryker’s wedding band and placed it in my pocket. I almost put the finger back on the ground, but it didn’t feel right to leave a piece of him behind.
It made no sense to bring it with me, yet I couldn’t let it go.
Cringing, I slid his finger into my other pocket when the others all turned toward the portal. Rising, I strode forward as Ryker’s finger burned a hole in my clothing.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Ryker
While trapped in the ophidians’dungeon, I’d grown accustomed to the screams of the tortured and dying. Over time, I’d learned to block them out, or I would have gone insane from the incessant suffering permeating the air. There’s only so long someone could listen to the anguish of another before it destroyed them.
