“Emma. Do not waste your energy. Ye must use it to seal the gateway. Hold fast just a bit longer.”Torin’s deep voice echoed in her head, breaking her heart with his words.
“I can’t do this. I can’t trap you in there,”Emma sobbed, firing another round of useless orbs against Arach’s glistening sides.“What if you can’t come back to me? I can’t bear never seeing you again.”
“I will come for ye, Emma. Somehow, I will find a way. I swear it with every beat of my heart. Now do it—seal the gateway.”
Squinting against blinding tears, Emma slowly raised her hands and extended trembling fingers toward the pair of obelisks. She choked in a sobbing breath and screamed Torin’s name one last time as she forced the pain and sorrow wrenching through her body into an earth shattering blast of fury.
Chapter
Fifty-Five
Deafening silence weighed heavy in the air like an electrical storm about to explode. Lifting her head, Emma forced her eyes open only to squeeze them shut again and drop her face into her raw, bleeding hands. The fully restored stones towered over her, aloof and bleak as though passing judgment—and they obviously didn’t approve of anything she had ever done.
The bone-chilling sentries sprouted from the hard-packed earth, silent and mysterious as they had always been. The wide bases disappeared into a white swirling mist floating just above the ground. The cold slabs stood black and glistening with the dampness of the air. Everything had returned to its prior state. The ancient circle was whole and intact just as it had been for untold centuries. And Torin was gone. The gateway sealed. It was over and once again; she had lost someone she loved.
Angry sobs shook her, bursting forth in short hysterical hiccups as she beat the ground with her bleeding hands.Dammit to hell and back!She had never told Torin she loved him. Why hadn’t she told him? What the hell was wrong with her?
Dragging herself across the ground to the base of the gateway, she leaned her cheek against the damp rough surfaceof the silent spire. Nothing. She bit her lip and pressed harder against the scratching crystals embedded in the obelisk. She sensed nothing from the stone. The pulsing energy that had always greeted her before no longer hummed into her touch. The obelisk stood as mute and detached as any other rock scattered across the earth.
She rolled to a sitting position and leaned back against the cold hard slab. She had lost him. Permanently. Propping her elbows on her knees, she covered her face with her throbbing hands. She swayed back and forth against the cold stone and released keening sobs into the swirling mists.
“Emma?”
Laynie’s faint call forced its way through her blanket of misery. Emma curled into a tighter ball against the base of the stone. If she could only melt into the unforgiving gneiss, become a part of the unfeeling rock, she would never have to explain anything or ever face the truth. Swallowing back a sob, she squeezed her eyes shut so tight; her face ached in protest. She had allowed a precious love to slip away. She had no one to blame but herself for this pain.
“Emma. Oh, Emma. Are you all right?” Laynie knelt by her side, shoving Emma’s burnt, matted hair out of her face.
“No,” Emma croaked the words through dry, cracked lips as she slowly opened her eyes. She would never be all right again. Turning away from her sister’s concern; she pressed her face harder into the jagged surface of the stone.
“Where are you hurt? Talk to me, Emma. You have to tell me where you’re hurt so I can help you.”
“You can’t help me,” Emma whispered. How ironic. Baby sister coming toherrescue. My how life had changed. Forcing her hand through her tangled hair, she flinched as the short brittle strands raked across her blistered palms. She would have to shave the singed mess short. Torin wouldn’t like that. Hehad always loved her long hair. Desolate realization crushed her heart and knotted in her throat. What did it matter if she cut away what little remained of her curls? She would never see Torin again.
“Emma, where is Torin? What happened?” Laynie grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her from the obelisk, forcing Emma to face her.
“He’s gone.” Emma flinched as though the words set fire to her tongue. Saying it out loud made it worse, made it impossible to escape the truth. Dragging a shaking hand across her face, she squeezed her burning eyes closed again. “Arach took him through the portal. I’ll never see him again.”
“Who is Arach?” Laynie glanced at the space between the parallel stones. “What portal? I don’t see anything but the stones.”
“I can’t do this, Laynie.” Emma covered her face with her hands. “I can’t talk about this now. Please just go away and leave me alone. I just…I just want to be alone.”
“Bullshit. I’m taking you home and once you’ve rested, we’re going to figure this out.” Laynie grabbed her arms, pulled her up from the ground and supported her body with her shoulder. “You’ve never been one to give up before, Emma. I’ll be damned if you start now.”
Chapter
Fifty-Six
The sweet acrid scent of the burning peat compounded the ache in her heart. How many times had she lain in front of this very hearth, safe and contented in Torin’s embrace? How many times had they stared into the glimmering coals together?
Emma closed her eyes against the remembered sensations sweeping across her. Damn the sharpness of the memories. Damn thefeelof him against her flesh. Every muscle in her body tensed. Covering her face with her hands, she bit back a sob as another vision hit. She longed to return to the snuggled hardness of his chest against her back and the sensual tickle of his calloused thumb stroking a mesmerizing rhythm back and forth across her skin. A rare sense of peace had seeped into her bones more comforting than the warmth from the fire.
Without warning, a steaming cup of coffee appeared just inches from her nose, blocking the view of the orange-red glow undulating through the grating. “Here. Drink this. It’ll warm you up. I added a little something to it for medicinal purposes.”
Nostril-stinging vapors of alcohol wafted up from the black liquid. Emma curled her nose and pushed the cup away. “Youknow I don’t like whiskey. Take it away.” The last thing she needed was alcohol to make her misery even worse.
Laynie pushed the cup back between Emma’s hands and folded her swollen fingers around the hot ceramic. “You’re going to drink it. You need to get warm and put some color back in your cheeks.”
Emma stared at her reflection in the inky brew. How in the world had she come to this? How in the world was she going to go on?
