Page 155 of The Seeker
Do you trust me?
Falling to his knees, Rhys let his defenses fall.
He was walkingthrough the great library of Glast, but there was no one inside. The stacks had been torn down and blood splattered everywhere. Gold dust layered the floor.
“You left.”
He turned and Angharad stood at the end of the room. Blood ran down from her cut throat.
“You left.”
“Mam!”
The floor fell away. He splashed in the sea. Unfurled scrolls and lifeless bodies sank with him.You left.
He wokein his room in Istanbul. Rising from his bed, he stepped into the garden. Matti and Geron were playing near the roses, giggling while they told each other secrets.
Rhys smiled. “What mischief are you two making?”
Matti turned and raised a hand. “We’re playing.”
Rhys froze. “What are you doing?”
Matti began to whisper, and Rhys realized he was truly paralyzed. Locked within his own body by the baby he’d fed and cared for.
“We’re playing,” Geron said. He walked over and held his hands up. Bloody wounds rose on Rhys’s skin. “Don’t you think this is fun, Uncle Rhys?”
Their eyes had turned from warm gold and grey to pitch-black.
“No,” Rhys whispered.
“Fallen blood,” Matti sang. “Fallen magic.”
“Blood will tell.” Geron ran in circles around him. “Blood will tell.”
“No.” Rhys sank to his knees. “No!”
As he fell, he saw the rose vines twining around the familiar forms of Ava and Malachi. The vines twisted and squeezed, choking off their breath until they both disappeared in a cloud of gold dust.
“NO!”
He looked awayfrom the roses and saw Meera lying on the edge of a shell mound, surrounded by a forest flooded with blood. Her body was broken and the light in her eyes was extinguished. She turned her face to Rhys.
“You didn’t love me.”
“I did.”
“If you loved me, why did you let me die?”
“I didn’t.” He began to cry. “You’re not dead. You’re not dead.”
“I am.”
“No,” he sobbed. “Meera, no.”
He felt his soul rip in two. This was the agony they sang of in laments. This was the true rending. Rhys fell on her, tried to straighten her broken limbs, and cried onto her bloody breast as bugs crawled out of the swamp and swarmed over his lover, hiding her from his sight.
“No!” He tried swatting them away. “Get away!”
