Page 51 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

Then something else arrived on the heels of that inscription. A city of pale stone, petals falling from rooftops, two carriages coming up a wide avenue from opposite ends, and a crowd cheering loudly. The bride under a tall gold headdress with her burning hair beneath it, laughing, blowing kisses off her fingertips. A tall male leaping between the moving carriages, the crowd going wild, and the male carrying her up the palace steps while she protested and did not mean it.

The two of them turning to face each other.

The bride putting a ring on the groom's finger.

For eternity and beyond.

Khiann's breath caught in his throat.

The bride had said those words while she put a ring on the groom's finger, and there was a ring on his finger with those exact words inside it.

No.

It could not be. Perhaps every ring said that. Perhaps it was something people wrote inside rings, and it meant nothing. That was possible. That was entirely possible. The other thing was not.

He wanted to see it.

The urge emerged so fast and so violently that it frightened him.

He wished he could lift his hand in front of his eyes and see the letters because he believed he could read them. If he could bring his hand to his face, he would know for sure, and the knowledge would be his own.

He tried to lift his arm.

It came up off the blanket, but not far enough. He got it perhaps the width of two fingers and held it there while everything in his shoulder shook, and then he let it drop because he could not hold it up any longer.

He lay there for a few moments, breathing through his teeth, and then he tried again.

His hand barely lifted off the blanket before dropping back. He was so weak.

The physician came over and started saying something in that strange language that sounded like it was one long word instead of a string of them.

He put his hand on Khiann's wrist, and Khiann looked up at him and tried to tell him that he wanted to see what was written on the inner side of the ring, but nothing came out of his mouth.

The physician put his arm back down on the blanket, patted it twice, and then walked away.

Khiann shut his eyes, and what he saw behind his eyelids was a scene from the dream that told him everything he needed to know, but he still could not believe it. Could not accept it.

He was the groom in the dream.

He was the tall male in fine clothes who was luckier than anyone had a right to be. The life he had been mourning from the edge of the crowd as a spectator had been his own.

That part was almost bearable. The second part was not.

Annani had not been kind to a stranger. She had been waiting for her groom to remember who he was.

Five thousand years. That was how long she had been waiting for him to return to her.

He did not know how anyone could wait so long without losing hope. What she got back, though, was not the perfect groom who had loved her more than anything in the world, who could carry her up the palace stairs, and pledge himself to her forever.

Because he had not kept that pledge.

Something had happened, and he had been taken away from her, but he did not know what it was.

She had waited five thousand years for him to keep his promise, but what had returned to her was a useless body, a scattered brain, and a mute mouth.

If he fell asleep now, he would forget what he had deduced, and when he woke up, she would be sitting in that chair, and he would not know what he was to her.

What she was to him.