The mood of our casual family soul picnic was shattered by the sharp reality. Not that it had really gone anywhere, but it was definitely pressing against me painfully now.
I tried to keep my fear inside, but it wasn’t working. Rosy was tensing, her heart thundering against mine, her tiny fingers gripping my clothes in obvious fear that I would have to go. That was exactly what was about to happen.
“Where are the blades? Where are the other pieces?” I asked, my heart fracturing with the knowledge of what was about to happen.
“You have Ryland’s. The other ones I know of are inside Ovailia and Sain. There used to be one in me, but I have no idea what he would have done with it. And there is another that went missing about the same time you and Thom left that compound. So if you don’t know where it is…” He faded off, obviously not wanting to say anything in front of Rosy, not that I blamed him. But it also wasn’t like I could go up and ask Thom if he knew where a shard of our daughter’s soul was.
I had to find another way.
I nodded in understanding, trying to ignore the pain steadily building in my chest, when Rosy screamed, her tiny body lifting off mine for the first time to look at me, her eyes mad and horrified.
“Rosaline?” I asked, too scared to hear the answer.
“You have to fight him, too, now, Mommy. You have to go.”
They were simple words, but they cut through me. I had known from the beginning I couldn’t stay there with them, so I wasn’t sure why hearing it repeated back to me was so painful. Why I was fighting against it.
“But I—”
“You have to go,” she sobbed, her eyes glistening with so many tears she probably couldn’t see through them. “You have to save Daddy.” Her voice was heavy, the dead panic resonating loudly.
I could barely breathe.
Daddy.
“Thom?” I asked, pushing the long strands of hair out of her face. “What’s wrong, darling?”
Rosaline bit her lip as she looked at me, her eyes wide in a greater fear than I had ever seen. It reminded me so much of those last moments that I gasped, a sharp pain rocking through my chest as I fought back the horror, fought back the scream, and braced myself for the plea of help that would come from her blood-soaked body.
But it was just my little girl, my child wrapped in my arms, my child as innocent as Thom and I had tried to keep her until the end.
“Honey,” I tried again, “what’s wrong with Daddy?”
“Grandpa is trying to make you kill him,” she gasped, her eyes refocusing on me. “You have to save him. You have to go.”
I looked from her to Cail in confusion. For once, Cail looked as confused as I was. However, he wasn’t looking at me; he was looking at her, the little girl who clung to me, her hands wrapped around my arms so tightly she was most likely going to leave marks.
“Can you get her out of here?” Cail asked, his seemingly complicated question directed to the tiny child I held. “Will he stop you?”
“He can try,” she said, her face turning up in the same mischievous grin Cail always had. I had forgotten how much she had always adored and idolized him until that moment. “No one can stop me anymore.” She smiled at him, a defiance I had never seen in her sparking behind her eyes. It was a look I had seen a million times before, but not in her or Cail. I had seen it in me. It was something that even my brother did not miss.
“She is your daughter, Wyn.”
“I know.” I didn’t think I could get any more than those two delighted words out.
Rosy looked back at me, the power in her eyes mounting as she pressed her hand to my cheek, her lips soft as she kissed my nose again.
“You won’t be able to come back here. I’ll keep fighting him, but you have to fight now, too. Just remember what’s real.” It seemed like such an adult thing to say, and it caught me off guard.
I looked from her to Cail in some hope of answer, but neither said a word. They looked at me with a combination of fear and support.
“I love you, Mommy.”
“I love you, too, darling.”
“Say hello to Daddy for me.”
And then she was gone.
The calm of the forest was gone. The comfort of her touch was gone. The companionship of my brother was gone. And I was left staring at the same war torn world as before, when I had walked toward Edmund without control. Except, I couldn’t see straight, everything shifting. Everything faded in and out of focus as though they were bathed in a heavy curtain of smoke.
I was surrounded by it, surrounded by this uncomfortable heaviness that made it hard to think. Everything fluctuated before me as though I had drunk far too much Slivovica. It was too much.
It was darkness and confusion and a screaming that never stopped.
I didn’t know where it was coming from or why. For all I knew, it was coming from me, that the haunting, somewhat musical, sounds of terror were mine.
The disorientation of that was terrifying.