Page 2 of To Crave Deeply
An explosion rang through the air and the ground trembled with the sheer size of it. My heart plummeted and my stomach sank. No. They couldn’t have. “What have you done?”
Sanna squealed with glee and clapped her hands manically. She was mad. How could I have been so taken in by her? Was I so willing to run away from the throne that I’d ignored all the warning signs?
I looked over to the horizon where my town was situated and saw smoke. Horror burst to life within me, its icy grip clutching my heart. Oh, God. I could hear the screams on the wind, taste fear in the breeze, and I was helpless. I couldn’t move, could barely think. There was no way I could save them.
My people would burn because I’d been a fool.
“I’ve taken what’s rightfully ours. And you made it so easy,” Von goaded as he patted my cheek carelessly.
There was nothing I could do. The Hellfire spreading through my system stopped me from calling my dragon to me. It rendered me no better than a mere mortal.
“Can we go and see?” Sanna asked her brother.
“Hmm, what do you think, Cassian? Do you want to see the massacre we have brought down upon your people? Your parents? Your sisters?”
I couldn’t even look at him. There was such a manic joy radiating in his green eyes at the terror and devastation he was raining down on my people that I thought I was going to throw up.
He laughed. “I don’t think Cassian wants to take a look, dear sister.”
Sanna pouted and whined like a spoiled child. “But Von, I want to go and see.”
How could I ever have thought this woman was my mate? She was nothing more than a spoiled brat.
“I’m only teasing him, little one,” Von chuckled as he stood from the snow. “Of course we’re going to see it. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
There was a sharp thud against my left temple, and the world went black as unconsciousness claimed me.
***
I flitted in and out of consciousness. The acrid smell of smoke stung my nose and the smell of burnt flesh choked me. I saw flashes of men wandering around, joking, laughing, jeering at the horrors they had brought to my people. I could feel the snow beneath me, the coldness seeping through my clothes and cooling the toxins that had my blood burning me from the inside out. Von had tied me to some wooden post. Not that it mattered. I didn’t have the strength to breathe, let alone run away.
I succumbed to unconsciousness again and the next time I awoke, darkness had settled along the horizon and the stars glinted in the distance through the dying plumes of smoke. It was quiet now. The screams had stopped. The fires burnt out. And the laughter had vanished. I was alone.
I looked to my left and screamed at the sight that greeted me. They hadn’t just murdered my family. Those bastards had left them hanging from posts for all the world to see. Tears filled my eyes as I looked at them, their beauty marred by the violence I had brought into their lives.
Me and my stupid selfishness had killed them. This was all my fault.
I looked away, unable to bear the sight of my failure as a son and brother. My eyes fell to a scrap of paper that someone had nailed to my thigh.
“Cassian. Now you’re free to run away like you always wanted.
Thanks for all the fun,
Love, Sanna x.”
My throat burned with bile, and I spat it out. Hate and rage ignited in my core and, as I sat there, watching the crows turn my family into carrion, I vowed I would never let myself fall into the clutches of a woman again. Because of this day, my heart and soul would be forever stained, just like the blood of my family had forever stained the crisp white snow of my homeland.
Chapter 1
LORI – Present Day
I awoke with a start and yelped. You know that moment, when you open your eyes for the first time after sleeping, and you scream and curse because the lights are so blindingly bright? That was me right now. I squeezed my eyes shut and then tentatively tried again. All I could see was white. Brilliant, shiny white as far as the eye could see. Which admittedly wasn’t far because I was still guarding my eyeballs from the stupidly bright light.
“Hello and welcome to the afterlife. I’m Cindy, your designated mentor and case worker.” The sugary voice echoed loudly in the room.
My stomach dropped.
What?
