Page 14 of Between Soul and Vessel
A blade.
The Blade of Moram.
It was enough. It would free me from him. From this.
I turned it on him—on me. I would sacrifice it all to makethisstop.
Please do not leave me again, Little Goddess,Von yelled from somewhere in the distance. His voice was a powerful tidal wave, breaching my shores and flooding me with emotion.
“Von,”I cried out as the blade dissolved from my hand.
Aurelius’s body split in two, falling to the sides like two pieces of cloth. A scream tore out of me as Nicholas emerged in the middle, his hand shooting out for me.
Von’s not coming to save you this time,Nicholas sneered as he grabbed my wrist and tossed me over his shoulder.
“Nicholas, wait,” I pleaded as he walked us out of the bedroom and into a courtyard, toward a tree with crisp, snow-white leaves.
The hairs on the back of my neck raised.
I couldfeelmyself being pulled toward it.
“No!” I sobbed.
It couldn’t end like this.
I never got the chance to tell Von about our—
“And so, I have my answer,” the empress snarled through clenched teeth, her voice unceremoniously dragging me back to the present.
I was lying on a cold, hard slab of stone, in a strange room, filled with horrifying tools and eerie objects.
The empress looked down at me, her voice filled with disappointment. “You have failed at your task, child, which means you are no longer of use to me. Your soul will be destroyed among the sands, your existence erased forevermore.”
Child. The word slammed into me.
I looked down at my torso, at the hardened plains of my stomach, my trembling fingers snaking their way across my empty abdomen.
Empty.
My heart fractured, the hairline crack snaking its way through the middle. Then, it shattered. Into thousands of tiny, tiny, tiny pieces. So small, even time itself could not make them fit like they had before.
I was forever changed. Foreverbroken.
A deep, low-pitched sound grew from the back of my throat, growing and growing until it turned into a screaming sob. I collapsed onto my side, wrapping my arms around my naked frame as I curled into myself.
Voices blurred over top of me, the sounds fading in and out, warring with the ringing in my ears, warring with my mangled mental state as I sobbed for the loss of our child. Any concern for my own safety was forgotten as I fell intothe depths of this cold and bitter truth.
Von and I had been so close to having the family we dreamed of. We had beenso close,and Nicholas had robbed us of it. Of our child. Of our future. Ofeverything.
Another scream tore out of me, my cheeks scalding hot against my river of tears.
Hands grabbed hold of me, forcing me onto my back.
I didn’t fight them. Why would I?
What did I have left to fight for?
I felt a prick of pain in my arm, and I turned my head to the side.
