Little Sacrifice!I called once more, mustering the strength to listen for her. The small fragments of my own being that had been muddled with hers when I remade her should have made it possible for her to hear me.
I hadn’t meant to do it, but the only way to create a being—or recreate one—was to give part of a soul to it. And the only soul that I trusted in the Abyss not to harm her was mine. Though it had been ruined.
Had I ruined her as well?
Suddenly, I felt her pain, felt her panic and fear. I followed the thread of our bond and focused intently as something in my love’s soul... changed.
Mother, help her!What had happened to her? She was almost as burdened with shadows as I was, though her heart was still light, her emotions a riot of wonder, worry, pleasure, and remorse.
I reached for her, painfully, slowly following the trail of emotions into her spiritual core. Gavriel was there, though I couldn’t see him. I felt her connection to him. The undeniable, unchangeable connection of her spirit and his. Their soulmate bond.
And then… the bond dissolved. Her soul cried out for his, and he did not answer.
It was gone.Shewas gone, from Sanctuary and every realm that my shadowed presence could sense.
Winked out of existence.
All that was left was lingering agony, and the subliminal echo of her heart crying out for the very one who had broken it.
Gavriel.
Gavriel had destroyed my love. Somehow, he had extinguished her soul’s light. Unmade it.
No.
No!
NO!
The shadows around me were flung away by my rage, my sudden, incandescent fury. Her soul, the one constant that kept me from rampaging through the Abyss, was now utterly absent.
Unmade. It was the only answer.
For the space of a breath, I allowed myself to mourn all that was lost.
All that would be lost.
And then I lifted my claws to the underbelly of Sanctuary, tearing through it to seek revenge. To kill my best friend.
My betrayer.
