She involuntarily flinched at the memory of their cruelty, and their laughter while they’d done it. The demonic bastards had pitted her against her brother, the entire time she’d been among them. They had reveled in their unholy torture. Had done unspeakable things that had kept her from having a decent sleep since her return to the land of the living.
No longer did she feel safe, at all. Every shadow left her terrified that it held one of them waiting to drag her back to their pits. Every laugh sounded sadistic.
She wasn’t sure if she’d ever feel right or normal again. If she’d ever get rid of this feeling that every nook and cranny held danger for her.
Cameron had thought her childhood had left her traumatizedand defensive, but that was nothing compared to the latest horrors of their enemies’ tender, loving care. It was a nightmare she’d wish on none. And definitely not on someone as decent as Mr. Dupree.
Most especially not after he’d allowed Thorn to cut his throat and had sacrificed himself like a slaughtered lamb to spare her and her brother, Paden, from the merciless cruelty of their enemies.
Cameron was brutally aware of the fact that, for every minute she wallowed in safety, he suffered in agonizing hell.
Why, Mr. Dupree?
Why?
But then she knew the answer. He held himself to blame for his own brother’s murder. That single event had scarred him to the bitterest depths of his soul. And no doubt he shouldered equal blame for her being taken by their enemies under his watch, even though it wasn’t his fault at all. None could have saved her that night—which was the source of her current unending nightmares—and he’d tried harder than any other would have even attempted in his fins.
Wincing, she could still hear his agonized shouts as the water sprites had swept her overboard from their ship during the storm. See the anguished expression on his face. He’d lunged for her, trying his best to keep her from their grasps.
In the raging sea, he’d taken her hand, and for one instant, she’d thought herself saved. Thought that all would be fine again.
His grip had been so firm and steadfast that she’d let herself believe the impossible.
That she was safe in the icy water.
“I won’t let you go, Cameron! So help me!”
Until their enemies had overwhelmed him, prying his hand awayfrom hers. Even then, he’d fought against them with a fury the likes of which she’d never seen before.
“Nay! Nay!” The insanity in his pale eyes as he’d desperately swum for her had been the last thing she’d beheld. His agonized cries as he searched had stayed with her every minute she’d been gone.
Tears choked her as she clutched at the necklace he’d given the captain for her to keep in his absence.
Tell her to pray for me brother’s soul.
Not his. He thought himself too damned for redemption.
Some days, so did Cameron. For Kalder held a darkness inside him that made a mockery of Captain Bane’s. A deep, soul-wrenching blackness that said it wouldn’t take much to lose him forever to the Cimmerian forces they fought against. But no one deserved what they were doing to him. And definitely not after he’d done a favor for someone else.
Never be beholden. ’Twas what her parents and brother had raised her up on. It was what she lived her life by. And she owed Kalder a debt that could never be fully repaid. For he hadn’t just freed her, he’d given her back her brother, too.
Closing her eyes, she could still see Kalder’s body the day he’d died to liberate them.
Because of the torture and insanity, Paden had turned on her. His hands had been wrapped around her throat when all of a sudden Kalder had been there, pulling him back.
At first, she’d thought herself dreaming.
Until their gazes had locked in the misty nether realm between the worlds.
There in that dark, vacuous place where light and dark mingledinto one—where it was neither day nor night—good nor evil—Kalder had reached for her. And for the slightest second they’d almost touched.
But just as his hand brushed against her skin, he’d faded from her reach like a whispered blur—torn from her side so fast that she couldn’t stop it.
She’d awakened back in this world to find him on the ground at her feet, lifeless and cold in a pool of his own blood where he’d allowed Thorn to cut open his throat to steal him from the realm of the living to take her place in the hell hall of the dead.
For her. To spare her life and save her soul. And this even though his worst fear had been to die alone and have no one mourn his passing.
Again.
