He tore gaze away as if he couldn’t stand to even look at me. He moved over to the window and stared out. I watched him as pain shifted swiftly across his face, unsure of what to say to fix this.
In the end it was Karson who spoke again next.
“And I will never be what you need.”
His voice came out with a terrible softness, but it tore my heart as if he’d reached in and ripped it out with his own hands.
All I could think was—all I need is you—all I need is us. I moved over to him with a strong stride, feeling my world, crumbling beneath me.
“We all have a darkness inside,” I pleaded, warm tears slid down my cheeks. “Every single one of us.”
He looked down with tortured eyes. He reached out and placed his hands in a gentle embrace on both sides of my head. My skin buzzed and my nerves all sprung to life.
He sucked in a breath. “No, Amelia, you do not understand. I do not have a darkness inside me. I am the darkness.”
Those words crushed the ground beneath my feet, and my heart, god my heart, shattered into pieces. The only thing holding me steady was his hands.
“Please just stay,” I whispered, a sob cracking my words. “All I need is you. I need you, Karson.”
My comments struck. His fingers trembled against the side of my head. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead softly against mine. The power thrummed between us, like all the stars suddenly shot through the sky.
He removed the ring from my finger and tucked it in his pants pocket.
Then he let me inside his mind. And his memories became mine.
I felt my heart knot and my breath locked in my chest as images flashed in my head like some heinous nightmare.
There was a dark haired man on his knees outside a tiny wooden cabin. He was surrounded by a group of men. Some carried swords, others pitchforks. Other’s held nothing, but they had their hands up, palms out, uttering a chant.Witches.
“Please, no,” the male whispered. The body of another man laid face down in a pool of blood beside him. “Let them go. He’s just a child.”
A man stood over him, a bloodied sword gripped tight in his hand. His lips pulled into a cruel sneer. “It’s an abomination and you will pay for what you have done.”
“Please.” The man cried out. “He’s just child. Karson has never hurt anyone.”
“And I will make sure he never does,” the man snarled, he raised the sword and removed Karson’s father’s head.
A woman’s horrified scream shattered the night. She tore from the cabin. Her wide, frilled dress was on fire. Flames clawed at her body and her arms. The witches chant increased in sound and tempo. The woman staggered, her eyes filled with terror and terrible pain. She dropped to her knees, and screamed and screamed. The last thing I saw as she toppled to the earth, was the tears streaming down her face and her mouth whispering to a small dark-haired boy,run.
Then I felt it blast into my core, like a cold, hard wall. An unfathomable hatred of witches. And an endless abyss of torment, and loss and rage. It struck me so hard my whole body jerked.
“I’m so sorry.” Came out of my lips on a breath so soft it would have been impossible for human ears to detect.
Then I saw blood. So much blood—and death, death everywhere. Witch after witch, attacking, and then slain. And I heard so much screaming. The blood and death was one thing, but the screaming, the screaming pierced my mind and turned my blood to ice. The color pulled from my face, my heart seizedand stopped, my legs began to shake uncontrollably. I tensed my legs so I didn’t collapse onto my knees.And I learned, sometimes it was the strongest of men who harbored the greatest of pain. So many victims, so much death, and so much pain.
He removed his forehead, and I was slammed out of his memories and back into the room.
He stared at me, his face expressionless. Not no expressionless it was hard. Cold.
Tears streamed silently down my face, dropping off the end of my chin. My heart hurt so much I thought it would burst, for I knew the love I felt for him was not enough. He was caught in a world so dark he no longer held hope of ever finding the light, and I’d lost him. I said the only thing I could think of that might, somewhere in the frozen corners of his heart, ignite hope and bring him back to me.
A sob hitched in my throat and I croaked, “I will leave the light on for you.”
A shaft of agony shadowed his face. The Karson I knew, I loved was back. His lips touched my forehead, the kiss from an angel, easing the pain in my heart. I closed my eyes under his gentle, lingering touch, savoring the moment.
“I release you.” His voice was choked. But it came with the same terrible finality of a loving family gently clicking a coffin shut. His touch dissipated and he was gone.
I was left breathless and trembling, emptied by the power of loss. I stood, staring after him, broken-hearted, defeated, filled with the irrefutable knowledge we were done.
