Page 70 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

Her lungs filled with cloudy dust and Tabitha coughed to clear her lungs. Squinting at what the door had revealed, she could see little but that of a dark, cavernous room, and something brilliant sitting in the middle.

Tabitha ducked inside. Her heartbeat fast and even though she was afraid, she forced herself to move further inside where a special object rested atop a stone centerpiece. Quickly ensuring she was alone, Tabitha approached the object with a touch of fear and excitement.

It was unlike anything she'd ever seen!

It looked like a star captured in time. Brilliant, blinding white light shone from the object which radiated a signal of power and magic that even her human senses could feel. Points stuck out from various angles as if this object had grown inside the earth like a raw crystal geode. Yet the light that it emanated was abnormal, unheard of, and spectacular to behold.

Tabitha felt like she was seeing something of magnificence. Something not to be taken lightly. This object…this relic…was important somehow. She didn't couldn't wrap her head around it.

She reached for the stunning object as if her soul called her to do it, and as her fingers neared its pulsating surface, a scant inch away—she saw a vision in her mind.

All the air was sucked from her lungs and Tabitha dropped to her knees gasping for air. She'd never even touched it. The vision was so real, so extraordinary, Tabitha sobbed at what she saw, frightened to her core.

She had no choice but to sit there and cry. Cry so hard that her lungs burned.

How could he have gone?

Tabitha wept until there were no more tears to shed, and then it was with watery eyes she looked up at the luminous object and gasped.

This was the relic of souls.

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An angelic woman materialized before Tabitha. She had a gentle smile on her face that somehow made Tabitha's pain feel more manageable, for she'd just seen a vision of how her dad died. The concept of death and her father had never even been an imaginable idea to her. At least not in reality. The truth of it…the crux of it…the matter of fact way of experiencing his death was too brutal to contend with. Her heart was simply…broken.

The beautiful woman spoke, yet her lips did not move. Her voice was eloquent and soft. "Be wary, daughter of Burke, that which you touch, you become."

Tabitha could not look away from her. Not because of the spell forced upon her, but because this woman must be an otherworldly deity. For no normal person could radiate energy in the way this ethereal beauty did. It was unnatural, it was inhuman, yet not bestial like a werewolf's energy, and not cold like a vampires.

This otherworldly being exuded an elf-like elegance and grace that couldn't be describe, and atop her head was a crown. Was this the queen of the castle, Tabitha wondered?

"Be wary? What does that mean?" Tabitha asked.

The woman smiled and patted the altar where the relic had just been, which was now poised in Tabitha's grasp.

She didn't even remember grabbing it. She'd thought she hadn't touched it. Yet, the white, crystalline object sat in Tabitha's lap, covered in her tears.

"It simply means…that the power of the relic is within you now. Feeling less ill? Less…transgressed upon by evil forces?" the wordless queen spoke.

Yes, she did feel more free and like her usual self. Like an unnatural weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Though how this queen knew this, Tabitha could not say.

She thought back to the green ghoulish figure with his skeletal fingers that had sucked her into an alternate world through the demon brew she drank at the tavern. Les the Revenant. A power-thirsty immortal who yearned for the demise of humanity. It was he who desired this sacred, magical object, and had commanded her to find it through some sort of supernatural magic to come and find it.

And so she had.

How…curious, Tabitha thought.

So that was another truth. She'd been so out of her own mind for so long, she couldn't keep from seeing everyone around her as hostile threats. She couldn't even remember what had been spoken about while inside her strange dream. Now, it had all become clear. All because of the relic of souls.

Or, was it the relic of truth?

"Yes," the queen said. "This is exactly what the dark lord has desired all this time—for you to collect the relic and hand it to him. Would you still give it to him knowing now that you have your mind returned?"

Tabitha shook her head with denial. "Whoever he is, he's a monster. But…wait. How do you know about the man who calls himself the Revenant?"

The queen smiled and a soft giggle like the tinkling of angelic bells sounded in place of normal laughter. "I can feel your thoughts, Tabitha. I know all about you. Your desires, who your loved ones are, what your trials are. I know what you saw when you touched the relic. What it showed you in its bright flame of glory. Your father death, yes?"

Tabitha couldn't hide her surprise. She just merely nodded along simply.

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