Landing smoothly, she races away down the beach, her feet flying, moving at an impossibly fast pace even in her dark elf form.
Within seconds, she and her brothers are gone.
The keeper immediately turns to Lucian and says, “Farther down the beach that way, you’ll find a path that leads about a hundred paces inland. At the end of the path is a furnished hut. It contains a bountiful supply of food that should be suitable for your consumption. There should also be a place to bathe and sleep.” He gives my brother a pointed stare. “I’m sure you’ll be comfortable there.”
Lucian hesitates, his expression filled with the same regret that washed over him when he insisted Galeia was alive. “I’m not sure that?—”
“You may wish to go therenow.” The keeper’s voice is a growl and his eyes change shape, turning reptilian like the eyes of the black dragon he became in the forest.
Lucian’s lips press together. “Okay, but I’ll be back to check on Veda first thing in the morning.”
Diavolo scowls at my brother, who still doesn’t budge from his current position, as if he’s demanding the keeper’s agreement.
“Fine,” Diavolo snaps, at which Lucian proceeds to the edge of the porch.
My brother throws a concerned glance back at me before he checks the beach. Quickly descending the steps, he releases his wings, casting an aura of shadows as he takes to the air and speeds along above the white sand, rapidly disappearing in the direction the keeper pointed.
I’m alone with the keeper, but my senses are numb, my head spinning even more badly than before.
“My Veda, what do you need?” He turns me in his arms, moving me to face him again, an urgency in his question, but I’m already pushing myself out of his embrace.
What do I need?
I need the ground to stop falling away from beneath my feet.
I back away, my eyes burning hot with tears and my teeth slowly sharpening, even as I try to quell my body’s reaction to the unwanted revelations I’ve faced today.
He doesn’t let me go far, reaching out for me, cupping my cheek and peering into my eyes, his own widening. “My Veda… Where have you gone?”
In response, the corners of my mouth turn down.
I can’t even shake my head.
I want my anger. I want my need for vengeance.
But I can’t seem to find them right now.
Turning away from him, I descend carefully, deliberately, down the steps, stopping only to peel off my jeans and then my underpants.
Finally, my bra drops to the sand, leaving me completely naked as I walk toward the edge of the water.
Every step I take is steady because that’s all I can fucking control right now.
One step in front of the other.
My feetcrunchin the sand, not a new sound or a new sensation since I’ve walked on sand before, but both punctuate the way my foundations are no longer solid, so many grains shifting beneath me.
The scent of my own blood is strong. My earlier efforts to remove it from my hair didn’t do much good and, now that I’m naked, I can also see the slivers of dried blood across my chest and legs.
The blood didn’t bother me so much before, but it does now.
I don’t stop walking, even when the cold water shocks my toes, rushing and pulling at my calves and then my thighs as I wade deeper into the waves.
I don’t know how to swim, which makes it easy to sink beneath the surface and let the thrashing water toss me back and forth, tumbling me around until my chest is burning because I’m holding on to a breath I can’t seem to exhale.
Suddenly, within my mind, I once again see a blue butterfly in the forest, its wings whipping back and forth before it lands on that little girl’s nose.
I remember the way her mother breathed in and out, as if anger were as easy to control as exhaling and inhaling.
