I cannot allow harm to befall these children.
It’s as if a part of his soul has been brought to the surface to shield them from whatever horror lurks in these desolate halls.
Calder carefully rounds a corner and is met again with the cloaked figure and its endless darkness.
The children scream for his help and bury their faces into him. Calder turns them away, charging away rather than fight it. But the creature is faster, pursuing them while the disturbing scent of lilies and death descends on them. A twisted combination that takes him back to a time when he had seen as few winters as his mythical children.
The creature nearly overcomes them, but Calder slides down a corridor at the final moment.
A collapsed suit of arms lies in pieces on the floor. The sword point catches along his leg, slicing across his skin. Blood pools from the cut, furthering his belief in the reality of this vision.
He leans against the stone wall, setting Addie on the ground with Ludo while he assesses himself.
“Papa?” Addie tugs on his pant leg. “I want to find Mama and go home.”
Abandoning his bleeding cut, he picks them up and moves along.
Calder slows his gait and carefully considers their states. They both close their bright blue eyes, leaning their tiny foreheads against his chest. He squeezes them both, his heart accepting them as his own.
I will not allow that bitch to take my children.
He stops beside a bench with a mirror centered above and places the young ones on the seat.
Calder glances around, attempting to understand his bearings, but his reflection does not track his movements.
He turns to the mirror to watch himself smirk. “Hello, Calder.”
The voice is a terrible combination of his and Makt’s.
“What do you want?” he snarls at the reflection.
“This,” his mirror self gestures around, “I need your body. You will permit me, my son.”
Calder edges closer. “I will destroy my body before allowing you to take it.”
Calder smashes the mirror with his fist.
Lavina’s cackle answers in that manner that sends a wave of dread through his soul.
As if the effort pains him, he turns to look down the corridor.
The Queen of Skalor restrains his children’s hands as they call him to rescue them.
“Release my children!” Outrage fills every bit of his being as he helplessly watches her retreat. His children scream for him, crying for their Papa.
“Perhaps if you will not open yourself to Makt,” she taunts, “then maybe your children will. Or your pretty princess. I have her, too.”
He charges down the hall, abandoning all rational thought. Somehow, she evades him, moving farther away into the castle with Ludo and Addie.
Not again!
He cannot speak.
He cannot breathe.
His chest spasms, and he drops to his knees, clutching at his heart that refuses to beat.
Not again.
