AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I want her to know whattruepower feels like. How inconsequential she is when faced with it.
She shudders, and the corner of my mouth twitches. Frowning, I pull back, and she lets out a small sigh of relief as she leans against the mantle. A second later, she straightens, the cruelty returning to her face.
“When I get my hands on that girl,” she spits, “I’ll strangle her to within an inch of her life. No, I will draw her death out slowly. Lord Payne will simply be the first of her tormentors. I’ll let him use her until she’s nearly broken, and then I’ll drag the brat out from under him and away to another. Never again will she know love or kindness. She will only know pain and hate, until her body and soul finally break. Hazel will pay for what she’s done to my family, and I will be there to watch every moment of it.”
My hands curl into fists at my side, the leather of my gloves tightening as I force myself to remain where I am. To not reach out and rip the soul from her body.
Taking a deep breath, I glare down at the woman before turning my back to her.
No, death would be a kindness when it comes to giving this woman what she truly deserves.
A gift I am not yet willing to give her.
Moving through the house, I can see traces of Hazel’s presence. However, it is obvious from the layer of dust and grime that her absence has been missed, and it repulses me to think how her time was used here.
Making my way up to the second floor, I stare down a long hallway. Closing my eyes, I let myself feel the house, the rooms, the call of other souls. My shadows flow along the walls, dipping beneath the doors as they fill the house.
Then my heart thuds twice.
Two souls, one of which is far weaker than the other. However, there is something about the first that has my chest tightening.
Something familiar.
Opening my eyes, I momentarily push away the feeling as I move deeper into the house. Stopping in front of one of the doors, I open it and step into a stiflingly hot bedroom.
My skin crawls, the heat clawing at me as I force myself further into the room. With a wave of my hand, my shadows burst through the room, devouring the heat and leaving an icy chill in their wake.
Satisfied with the change in atmosphere, I turn toward the bed to see a man lying still and pale beneath far too many quilts. Approaching the bed, I find him to be in a state as close to death as the bargain will allow.
She came to me not a moment too soon. Had she stepped back out, had she chosen not to stay with me, this man would already be dead.
Frowning, I crouch beside the bed.
Her father does not so much as flutter an eyelid, his chest barely able to rise and fall. I will myself to see past his outward appearance and into his soul. Will myself to see what Hazel sees in this dying mortal.
This man whom she has chosen to give up her life for.
Closing my eyes, I reach out a gloved hand to touch him. A tingle of pain shoots through my arm, but subsides to a dull throb a moment later. My mind, my shadows, search him, call to him.
The soul that answers is warm, but pales in comparison to hers. Where his light is a soft, fading glow, hers burns brighter than the many suns.
But within him, I also see the kindness she mentioned. The care he has poured into others. The love he feels forher.
Our Hazel.
Sighing, I pull my hand back as I rise to my feet. Staring down at him, I realize she will never understand the depth of what she has done. What she has given up for this man.
She will never see what I see, what I feel, in her.
This man will live, only because of what she has sacrificed, but for how long?
My shadows shift, drawing my attention to the nightstand. Glancing down, my eyes narrow on a cup half-full on top of it.
Lifting it to my face, my nose wrinkles at the subtle mixture of scents within. Sifting through them, it takes me a moment to recognize what is wrong with it.
Poisoned, and no doubt administered by the wretched creature downstairs.
Hazel never said a word about how terrible the rest of her family is. How much suffering she endured in this home.
