Shapes took form in the dots. Blood, screams. The shocked, shadowed eyes of his father as he drove the?—
A swift knock on the door saved his spiraling.
"Sorren! Sorren? Are you in there? Please."
Graves sat up, staring at the fluttering, half-closed curtains that led outside. A shadow shifted on the stone outlook—Sora.
He stood and walked to the curtains. "Sora, what is it?" Fear gripped him as he opened them, revealing his young, pregnant sister, a hand pressed against her swelling belly, as she stood on the stone outlook. Her eyes were wide, shoulders tense.
Graves forgot all about their ill words and how angry she was with him. He gripped her shoulders, looking her over. "Sora, are you hurt? What’s wrong?"
Sora trembled. "Can I come in? Please?" She kept casting looks behind her.
Graves ushered her in with a hand on her shoulder, and he stared into the darkness outside. It was quiet. Almost too quiet.
She turned to close the curtains, shutting out the sight of the swaying bridges and crashing waves beyond. Her movements were jerky, and she curled her shoulders inward protectively, as if to keep the babe in her belly as safe as she could.
As Sora turned to meet Graves’s eyes, he felt a lance of fear within him. It was muted, as if from a distance. The fear turned to pain, and it made his knees weak. He braced a hand on the wall to keep himself steady. His wings snapped out behind him, as if sensing a great threat.
As quickly as they came, the feelings abated—leaving him fucking confused and on edge.
"Sora, what is it?" Graves rasped. "Is it Sorill? Are Soro and Mother okay?" Oh gods. It was his fault if they weren’t. It was his fault. He never should have come back and?—
"Sorren… It’s the angel—yourangel." Sora’s words came as if Graves were deep underwater. "She was taken."
40
ASHES
VALE
Burn them all to the ground.
They’ve taken our mate from us.
They deserve to die. Turn them all into ashes.
Mine, mine. Ours. Taken. Take her back…
Find. Her.
Vale huffed smoke into the room. He was undone. He was breaking. Shattering. His bones groaned with a shift, but he held it back. Just barely.
Someone took Luella from them all.
And they would pay with their lives.
With more than their lives.
Pain.
They would pay with pain. He would love to make them pay.
And it wastoomuch.
Vale’s fist pressed against his mouth to stifle his ever-present hissing that threatened to betray just how on edge he was at the moment.
His thoughts blurred. A constant stream of violence and possession, and the single-minded focus of?—
