Page 65 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

Seth stepped forward. "I am afraid I was not around for this. As soon as you recovered and took off after Tabitha, I followed suit expecting the others to as well. I am only now learning of this devastating news. I am sorry for your loss. He was a great man and a good soldier."

A lump formed in Kane's throat, which made it difficult to swallow around. Don't keep friends, he thought, and this wouldn't happen. Those he chose to love always winded up dead.

At the thought, he felt a soft hand jostle his shoulder in a gentle caress. Tabitha stood beside him with a worrying expression on her face.

"This is my fault?" Tabitha asked in a barely audible question. She shook her head as tears filled her eyes. "I—I didn't mean to kill anyone. I just wanted to escape. I'm so sorry." Tears fell haplessly down her sunburnt cheeks, but Kane felt no sympathy towards this witch who'd only minutes ago brought the greatest joy into his life.

Graham was dead. Buried like garbage under a few leaves, far from his home or family who'd wish to give him a meaningful burial.

Kane looked at her hand upon his shoulder and shrugged it off. A look of pain flashed across her face, further tearing him apart, but he couldn't help but blame her. She hadattacked him when he'd barely been well enough to continue their journey, and now he was dead.

Kane had to step away from her.

"I'm so sorry…I didn't mean to…" Tabitha said wretchedly, her expression crestfallen and filled with fear that he'd normally want to absolve from her, but even he couldn't stand to look at her in that moment. She killed his best friend, his partner, his pack-mate.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard a protest—that this wasn't exactly her—it was whatever villainous demon had taken over her mind and made her forget all about who she was and why she was here in the first place. That notion absolved some of his hatred toward her, but not all of it.

Unfortunately, no apology could bring the joyful Graham back. He was gone now, and at this point, he held out no hope that any of them would ever return home again.

26

Kane consulted his watch for the fourth time.

T - minus thirteen hours until they needed to reunite at the original portal site, or else it'd stay closed forever.

The deadly reaper of time loomed over them like a beacon of despair. Nighttime was a gloomy pit and only the makeshift torches they wielded kept the darkness at bay. His mind had grown lethargic over ruminations of making it back to the original portal site in time to leave Hell and return home to earth before the spell would wear off. Eventually, Kane simply had to force his thoughts away from trajectories of times, locations, and the details inasmuch which only succumbed him to doom and fatality, as logic and rationale told him there wasn't enough time to traverse this listless Castle of Illusions, find the relic (wherever it may be), and safely make their way back to the tiny island in the air that was ridden with warring dragons. That was even if they could make it there in time in the first place, as they'd have to journey even longer routes to detour around the slave trader village they'd been caught in previously and avoid the various sand serpents that wanted a free meal out of them.

This was a hopeless mission, and Kane's thoughts couldn't help but drift back to a time so long ago, he felt as though the memories were no longer even of him, as if they weren't even real…of a time when his twin brother still lived, indentured in Castle Elustrian by a sickening vampire with a fetish for young werewolf blood. He'd lost everything he'd ever had: his family, his twin, his da, and his mind. What that sick vampire had done to him and his family had made him out to be the crude man he was today.

It was only Alpha Zeke's presumptuous proposition that had reared Kane to think he could have more to life. A mate, a wife, a coveted life partner that was made solely for him. Weakly romantic at heart, those promises had lured him into a fantasy that appeared to be far more fiction than truth; for Tabitha and he could never be, he realized reluctantly. A human and a werewolf…he'd far outlive her human form and have nothing left but the consequences of watching her die. That is, if they ever got out of Hell realm in the first place, and if she ever agreed to be his wife. While the touch of her had presented a steadfast new ploy in his mind, a new goal in his life, one that only made him feel more determined than ever to fulfill her every desire and covet her closely as man and wife, he had no idea, as of the current moment, if this female would ever obtain her true mind back. Would she ever be the Tabitha Burke he'd grown to know and desire? Would she ever return to normal? Would she even want him?

That soulful kiss had spoken a connection into existence between them that outlived time and space; it would last an eternity and only grow if they continued it. He warbled in thought between feeling preciously close to her and wishing he'd never laid eyes upon her.

Yet, deep down inside he knew that whatever so-called demon magic she wielded that could force a gale of harsh wind so fantastically that it could crush bones or move people, was no ordinary thing. Surely it'd dissipate. Surely her mind would recover. The fact that she drank it so many hours ago, in the wee hours of the morning sunrise, and that the midnight hour was approaching, spoke volumes to him. This was no ordinary brew, and dark magic was afoot, little of which he understood or could wrap his brain around it.

The pace they walked at was nothing more than a sloshy gait. Kane's body was battered and bruised, swollen in joints and skin ripped and burned in places that didn't bear mentioning. Tabitha looked pallid and weak, and she refused all food he offered to her. Still, he couldn't help but remain near at her side as they trudged the path forward, following her command, even against the wishes of Seth and Alexis who deemed it ignorant to follow the human's ruse. But, Kane needed to follow his gut instincts, which told him some otherworldly magic was at play, and she did indeed know the true location of the Castle of Illusions.

As they marched, the terrain swiftly changed from coarse gravelly sand to the greenest pastures the eye could see. Even with nightfall befallen them, Kane could make out vast pastures of forest in all directions, little wildflowers that smelled fragrantly sweet and pungent all at once. While the scenery did much to improve his dark mood from thoughts of death that Hell-realm forsakenly brought upon them, Tabitha withdrew more and more into herself, refusing to hold his hand, refusing to march alongside him. Whatever connection their kiss had tethered between them seemed as dead as her bleak gaze as self-blame and misery became etched into her face like a statue's portrait.

Little homes made of wood or stone were like blotchy figures in the distance. Plumes of gentle smoke drifted from little chimney stacks and the sound of a water wheel churning in a stream filled the air around them, echoing amongst the natural insect life which sang and buzzed through the brush.

"It's close," Tabitha said, suddenly coming to a halt.

Alexis and Seth looked at her, their gazes expressionless and doubtful. But, none of them wanted to split up at this point; they'd last longer and had a better chance of surviving as a group than apart. Kane sidled up beside her and stared off in the distance where she looked lost in thought. He saw nothing but acres upon acres of endless forest with mighty trees, their leaves thick and verdant with life. The rich smell of freshly turned soil greeted his nose and nearly brought a modicum of peace to him. Farmsteads with growing stalks of vegetables or fruits were surrounded by makeshift wooden trellises and fence-lines. It was a peaceful place, so outside of anything he'd yet to see in Hell.

It was almost…a trick.

A niggling sensation, like that of a warning, told him to be cautious, warned him to be on alert.

"Stay on guard," Kane whispered to the team.

Tabitha reached out in front of her, fingers caressing nothing but empty air.

"He's here," she said and the tone of her voice immediately had Kane pulling his ax and sword free from their holsters and wielding them in a combat position. There was something creepy and out of place about her expression and tone that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He shivered even while his stomach clenched with dread.

"Who's here?" Kane asked in a whisper.

Alexis and Seth neared, their eyes pensively scanning the horizon, though they didn't take up arms.

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