Page 234 of The Seven Rings
She loved, and was loved.
As her happiness soared, she turned another circle.
And saw Hester Dobbs.
“No.”
“Did you think you could take what’s mine? My home? My world?”
When she spread her hands, Sonya saw the seven rings glint and glimmer.
“You thought you could take these? See how they shine, see how they sparkle. For me! And you dare to become a bride? Like them?”
They lay on the grass, white gowns blood-soaked, faces gray, dead flowers around them. The Seven.
“And like them, I take the symbol from you.”
Unable to run, unable to loose the scream caught in her throat, Sonya stood paralyzed. But she felt the icy grip on her wrist as Dobbs wrenched the ring from her finger.
“You will join them now. Now there are eight. More will come, more will come, more will die. Only I am forever.”
Though she struggled, Sonya couldn’t stop herself from walking to the seawall, couldn’t stop climbing onto it to stand over the rocks and thrashing waves.
“You love the sound of it. You love the sight of it. So there be your death. Now leap, and leap every night for a thousand years.”
Against her will, against her heart, she jumped.
As she felt herself falling, saw the rocks waiting, she woke.
When she bolted up in bed, Trey woke beside her.
“Sonya.”
The scream in her throat turned into a gasp for breath.
She was here, whole, alive.
“A nightmare.” Gulping in air, she tried to slow her speeding heart. “What time is it? What time?”
“It’s nearly five.”
Not three, not Dobbs’s hour, she thought, grateful as she burrowed into him.
“Stress dream, that’s all.”
“Tell me.”
Because she didn’t want to revisit it, couldn’t bear to, she shook her head. “Gone now.”
She curled against him, closed her eyes.
Gone now, she thought again. And she wasn’t.
Chapter Thirty
Since the last attack, Trey shifted his schedule so when Sonya hit the gym, so did he. Because she understood his reasoning, she didn’t mind, not really. But it did remove that solid hour of me time.
Plus.
