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Her knees hit the ground.
This was all her fault. And she couldn't get to him. There were too many bodies, too many weapons. Too many mistakes.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. No one she cared about was supposed to get hurt.
But she wasn't supposed to care for him, was she? For any of them.
Her throat felt like glass and as she raised her hand to it, she understood why. It was she who had been screaming. And she could do nothing to stop the events that unfolded before her. She had let this happen. And she couldn't even crawl to him to apologize. To tell him how sorry she was for everything she had done. For bringing these monsters to shore. For being one of those monsters.
And to tell her brother she loved him. Something she had never said, and now would never get a chance to do so.
They hadn't had enough time. She had just gotten to know that goofy smile he wore on his face. She had just gotten to know the way he looked at his wife, how he and Terin conversed without saying a word aloud. How his laughter filled every room he occupied. How despite everything going against her, he still believed in her, fought for her. His sister who had never been forgotten.
Even when she had forgotten them.
And then, in the back of her mind, she heard a small voice, faint and far away:I know and it's okay. But find it, Kals. Find it and destroy the link.
And she didn't know how, but she could have sworn it was Fynn's voice in her head. Fynn's words. She didn’t know if speaking within someone's mind was a part of his ability or if the horrors that lay in front of her had caused her to start hearing things, but she didn't think it was her imagination. The voice, though faint, was distinctly Fynn's. The presence knocking on her mind was unmistakably his. And the tears fell hard as the full weight of his words began to settle in her mind.
He knew. He kneweverything.
Chapter35
The Frenzian soldiersbacked away from Fynn's body, and Kallie gagged as she saw what was left of him. They had brutalized him, scarred him. His handsome face was now marked with tiny cuts. Blood seeped from his wet clothing. And his brown eyes were void of any light as they stared out toward her.
The world spun around her as the soldiers returned to readying the ship, their actions more urgent, hurried to avoid any more unwanted guests.
Kallie heard nothing as they moved past her. Felt nothing.Only stared at her hands that lay shaking in her lap. Trying to force them to stop, to lay still, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything.
She hadn't been able to do anything when it mattered, and now she sat there, shaking.
A pair of boots entered the corner of her blurry vision. Blood coated the leather.
What color were they originally? Brown? Black? She didn’t know.
There was just blood. More blood than she could have imagined from a single body. Her stomach turned and vomit spewed across the boots.
The owner of the boots groaned in disgust. “Dispose of it,” he said.
A reply came from somewhere nearby, but Kallie couldn't focus on whatever their words were though. She could only stare at her shaking hands.
Then someone dragged her up by the elbow, forcing her onto her feet, and she met Sebastian's green eyes, his face half cast in the shadows. The light that shone on one side of his face made his features appear shaper, harsher than she had noticed before. Speckles of red freckled his face. His eyes scanned her. And she could only imagine what he saw. A woman in ragged clothing, strands of loose hair around her sickly face, her body shaking, her face wet from tears, eyes bloodshot. The beauty that had once existed was left discarded. A shell of a human in its place.
This wasn't supposed to happen.He wasn't supposed to die,she thought.
She felt the weight of his arms press down on her shoulders and he tried to get her attention. Sebastian shook her, the movement jumbling her and causing her ankle to throb in pain.
When she tried to look away, his palm met her chin, forcing her bloodshot eyes to meet his. "Filth or not, this is not a sight for a princess."
She looked up at him through her brows, pursing her lips. She gnawed on the inside of her cheek and forced the tears to remain behind her eyes, refusingto let another tear fall before this man.
"This is what happens to those who try to take from Frenzia," Sebastian stated. Though she did not miss the threat behind them. "You are safe now and that is all that matters." His words were meant to comfort her, the kidnapped princess. His future sister-in-law. The futurequeenof his land.
But they didn't.
A fire built within her. Her stomach filled with rage. It threatened to boil over as she stared into those green eyes, a shade of green that mimicked the treetops in the forest that surrounded the springs. A shade of green that once felt like freedom, joy, and love. But now as she looked into that deep green shade, she felt the space around her close in, suffocating her. She couldn't breathe. The oxygen lodged itself in her lungs as she inhaled. Her lungs felt like stones, with the air pressing against them, wanting to come out, banging on the walls.
Then there was a splash of water behind Sebastian.
