Page 196 of Children of Fallen Gods

“ISHQA!” I screamed. “You cannot leave me here!”

They were dragging me back, dragging me against the floor. I saw only Ishqa’s gold eyes staring back at me, his face stone.

“You cannot do this to me!”

I thought of the House of Reeds, and those monsters.

Would I become a monster too?

My consciousness waned, my vision going white and blurry. I was being dragged farther and farther from Ishqa.

ISHQA!

I do not know if I screamed it aloud.

The last thing I saw was him turning away, his golden hair flying back in a sudden burst of wind.

And then my vision was consumed by white and white and white.

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Tisaanah

Icouldn’t move.

The familiarity was buried deep, somewhere far beneath conscious thought. But the sight of that man’s face, the sight of his bright gold eyes, yanked something visceral to the surface.

Ishqa.Ishqa. How did I know that name?

Max, who had planted himself firmly between the me and the golden-haired man, peered at me over his shoulder, asking a silent question.

Nothing but white and white and white, for so many days.

The voice floated through the back of my mind.

How many times had I heard that? Seen that?Feltit?

You were betrayed by someone that you thought cared for you.

And with that hurt, it was always the same: white and white and white… and a flash of long, golden hair. A man turning away.

Thisman.

“You knew Reshaye,” I forced out. And Max’s eyes went wide.

Ishqa’s stare darkened.

“Reshaye?” he said, quietly. “That’s what she calls herself?”

“She?” Max said.

“Does it mean something?” I murmured.

A wince flickered across the man’s face.

“It means, ‘No one.’”

Chapter Sixty-Eight

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