AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I am careful to avoid getting lost in thought again. My queen would not tolerate it a second time. Thankfully, she does not ask for my input again.
When I fetch her towel, those lavender eyes bore into me. “Is there something on your mind? You seem…distractedas of late.”
I bow my head, hoping she doesn’t catch my wince. Sometimes I could swear she can see through me. See the void that has formed within. See that I am not whole as I must have been at one time.
“Forgive me, my queen,” I murmur. “I must be missing my sister more than expected.”
Elizabeth’s gaze slides toward the raven perched in the corner, silent and unmoving since they followed us inside. Kharis croaks. The sound ricocheting off the walls.
Pain throbs behind my temples. I barely keep it from showing.
Elizabeth’s lips are pressed into a straight line. As the drumming ache fades, her harsh glare softens the longer she watches at me.
I’m glad my presence can ease her mind.
I help her out of the bath and drape the robe over her slender shoulders.
Elizabeth strides into the bedroom, halting abruptly a few paces in, then turns back to me. Her pale eyelashes flutter as she drops her gaze. She almost appears sad. “I did not want to tell you this, however, you deserve to know.” She pauses, drawing the moment out. “I received word earlier today that Rosalie was murdered some time ago.”
Everything seems to stop for a painful moment.
The sorrow on her face and the emotionless way she delivered the news don’t fit together. They are cold and sound as if they come from someone else. Someone who doesn’t understand… who doesn’t care.
I couldn’t have heard correctly. It doesn’t make sense.
But then the meaning comes barreling into me like a violent wave. I wait for the world to crash down around me. To crack open my chest and shatter my heart into so many pieces, that nothing and no one could repair it, even if they had an eternity to try.
I wait for the pain.
But it doesn’t come.
It hurts. Of course, it hurts.
What I don’t expect is to find the sharp edge of loss, worn and softened by time and acceptance. I don’t understand how I could accept it at all.
Rosalie. Who everyone loved. Who was kind to everyone she met… even those undeserving of it.
Who would have dared to hurt her, and why?
“How?” I can barely make myself speak the word. I both want to know the answer and dread hearing it. What good will it do? If Rosalie is gone, nothing can bring her back from the grasp of the Otherworld.
Elizabeth waves a hand dismissively as she disappears behind a changing screen. “It was that horrible woman,” she says. Fabric rustles as she changes. Then a moment later, she adds, “The one Cassius claimed.”
That takes me aback. I know of only one mortal connected to Cassius… Miss Valmont. Sheisclaimed, though not by him.
Though what other mortal could it be?
Then I think of what my nightmare said in the library. How she hesitated when I asked if she intended to kill me—she would neverintentionallyhurt me. Which is not the same as never. That careful wording was no mistake, and she is the only known slayer currently living. She must have learned that Rosalie is—was—my sister after the fact. Nothing else makes sense.
It doesn’t matter that she is an enigma of conflicting elements, or that she is the only thing that has quieted my mind, or that I can only seem to breathe when she’s close enough to touch.
I want her to admit what she’s done.
I want to make her pay.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CLARA
