Page 80 of Jagged Souls
His name rings in my ears, shrieked by my wife because she didn’t see me. Because I was a second too late.
Because I stopped to comfort a dying brother.
But Dayne saw her.
He knows where she was…
And he’s running to the spot where the transportation spell just activated.
No!
I take off after him, my eyes on the circle of nothing on the floor ahead.
No!
No!
No!
She has to be here.
No!
I can’t be too late.
Noooo!
I can’t have lost her because I stopped to try to save my brother!
My heart feels like it’s ripping its way out of my chest, dragging its bleeding, broken form up through my throat and down to my stomach at the same time. Like it’s lost, like it doesn’t know which way to go, doesn’t even know if it’ll make it, if it’ll survive the agony shredding it apart.
“Micha!” I scream even though I know she can’t hear me.
That she isn’t here.
That the spot on the floor is merely a memento to her absence.
To my failure.
It doesn’t shine with the brightness of my wife, of her fire.
Still, I tear across the room to it, as if being where she was a moment ago will bring her back. Will make me feel connected to her. Like it’ll absolve me of the guilt crushing my shoulders because I stopped to try to save Leno.
I should’ve gone straight to her.
I shouldn’t have run to him when I saw him getting torn apart in the first place.
If I hadn’t, I would have my wife.
I would’ve lost Khalid too, more of my brothers perhaps.
But I would’ve had my wife.
Dropping to my knees, I scream an unholy noise that is matched only by Dayne’s echoing agony.
He slams into me a second later, his hands crackling with electricity, his fingers wrapped around my head. I’m on my back, and he kneels on top of me, his eyes like a summer’s storm.
“She’s gone because of you!” he yells, his voice cracking.
