Page 18 of Stone Sentinels

“Then… youcanreturn my memories?” I ask, my heart starting to thunder with anticipation.

“I can try,” he responds. “With the shared power of the ethereal plane.”

“How… how will this work?” I don’t mean to sound so intimidated but I can’t help it. I’m scared.

“We’ll start with a happy memory, nothing too traumatic.”

“Why?” I ask, thinking the traumatic memories are the ones at the core of my questions.

“To ease you into the process. Jumping right into an upsetting moment may make you react in a way that isn’t ideal.” Pyre informs me to remove my clothes and once I’m completely naked, he helps me lay down among the crystals. Then he partially buries me in the sand along the lakeshore. The sand feels cold and rough against my skin, but somehow it also feels soothing, all the same. Pyre pulls a small dagger from his waistband and cuts his palm. Once his blood begins pouring down his arm, he uses his index finger from his other hand and begins drawing strange symbols on my arms and at the base of my throat.

He chants in a deep voice until I’m swept away by the darkness. I can’t see anything, hear anything, or feel anything. My body is no more. Beyond the darkness is a swirl of silver magic that beckons me closer. I follow the shimmering entity until I emerge from the other side...

Horses prance through meadows of lavender as I soar above them. My mother shouts for me in the distance. She is beautiful, so full of love and compassion. I fly to her, swooping low with my large wings, and wrap my arms around her.

She laughs lightly, but I know she’s still upset with me. I should never have taken Solya to the city, not when the dark man has been looking for us. Mother leads me inside and I kneel beside my sister, using my hand to push the curls from her face. Black and blue bruises mar her lovely features, blending with streaks of blood.

Anger burns inside me when I realize what he’s done to her.

He’s hurt her. He always hurts her.

I’m suddenly transported away from this scene and find myself standing in a field of lavender with scarlet liquid pouring from between my fingers.

I killed him.

The taint on my soul grows with each unworthy breath I take. I stare down at his lifeless corpse.

I didn’t mean to kill him, only to teach him a lesson. To intimidate him.

But, he attacked me and I fought back, and this is the result. And now his father will never leave my family and me alone now, not when I’ve killed his only heir.

I feel no regret.

Prince Yanhir was cruel—he deserved this fate, and far worse. As the son of an esteemed member of the Unseelie Court, he should know not to harm a child. But none of that will matter. All that will matter now is the fact that I’ve killed him, regardless of whether I acted in self-defense. There will be consequences for my actions.

Solya and Mother must leave.

I run to our modest home in the mountains. Mother screams when she sees the blood covering me. She immediately begins washing it from my arms as quickly as possible.

“What did you do, Ellie?”

“W-We must go, Mother.He’llcome after us.”

“We can’t go anywhere,” she says, shaking her head. “We have nowhere to go!”

Tears blur my vision. “Then we’ll die…”

***

BARON

The Veil

After what happened with Eilish’s memories being restored to her, I’m even more eager to get my own returned to me. But these things take time—I understand that truth now more than ever. I was dead for a long fucking time, so I think I can handle waiting a few more months for Pyre to call on me, to tell me the time is right.

In the meantime, I stand here in the apothecary, sifting through jars of ingredients as a book floats in the air beside me. I’m getting a little better, but I’m no natural-born spellcaster.

Pyre says I’ll become a skilled sorcerer once I learn how to draw on the energies surrounding me without tapping into my own. It’s hard for me to cast even the simplest of spells, and they come with one bitch of a headache afterwards, but it sure as fuck looks badass. And I’m proud of myself, I must admit.

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