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“What were you doing out here?” Kestral asks him with a hint of violence in his tone. The man’s eyes are as wide as his fists, and his entire body trembles in fear.
“I’m just a palace guard. I was checking the area. I thought I saw something.”
“Lie,” Veles shouts.
Kestral yanks him harder. “Lie to me again, and you will pay for it dearly,” he growls.
“I would listen to him if I were you,” Asra warns.
“Tell us what you know about the missing women,” Kestral demands.
The guard’s eyes widen even more as he glances between them. He must see the promise of violence in their eyes, as a glint of true fear flickers across his own.
“I don’t know where they take them, just that I have to be in a certain spot for collection.”
“You kidnap the women?” Asra asks before he pulls him from Kestral’s grasp and grabs him by the throat.
“I was told to, or they would kill me,” he splutters.
“Another lie,” Veles says, narrowing his eyes on him. “Kill him.”
“Don’tkill him. We need him,” Kestral says, giving Veles a sharp look.
“He deserves to die,” Oryn agrees, making Veles narrow his eyes on him.
“I agree,” Kestral tells him calmly. “But we will never find the other women if he dies.”
“We need a plan,” Cyra says.
“What do you want me to do?” the guard asks with complete and utter terror in his eyes. “I take females to them, and none of you are…” He glances over and finally spots me.
I guess we have a plan after all.
“The Caligo don’t disappear like the Sidus do when we leave this world,” Veles says as we make our way back to the palace. The others have already left with the guard. But after they got what they needed out of him, Veles pulled me aside and asked me to go with him.
I follow him to the gardens and out past it to a little spot full of wildflowers. Every color imaginable. And with the darkness of night and the stars watching over, they seem to sparkle back at us.
It is a small haven I would like to visit again, should I get the chance.
“We bury them.” Veles dips his head to the ground, where a small piece of land has been overturned, and my stomach drops.
“Your friend Visha,” he says softly, and I glance over at him. “I thought you might like to say goodbye.” He dips his head again and moves over to a tree nearby, giving me the space to say my piece alone but close enough should I need him.
And I don’t care if it is the blood bond or the beginning of a true friendship; I’m just grateful for his presence right now.
I glance back down at the dirt, and it hits me that she is beneath it. And I don’t know why it gives me a small measure of peace, but it does. To know that she is here whenever I need to see her. To plead and beg for her forgiveness.
The Sidus don’t leave behind anything. They disappear and rise up. Some say they join the stars and watch over us from above.
I don’t know what will happen to me when I die, but I hope wherever I go, I get to meet her again one day.
“I don’t have enough words to tell you how sorry I am. You were kind to me when no one else was and found me when I wanted to give up. You renewed my hope for the Caligo and, along with Isolde, made sure I felt it. You brought me happiness in the dark and taught me that I could be who I am and that itis enough. I will be forever grateful for you, for the time I got to spend with you.” I glance out around at the world she will no longer get to see, and my eyes blur and burn.
“I do not deserve your forgiveness,” I tell her and then stop when a wretched sob pulls from somewhere deep within me and right into the center of my chest.
It pulls and pulls until I have nothing left and my tears have run dry.
As I’m staring out at the world and nothing at all, a hand rests on my shoulder, and I turn to find Veles there.
