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Arcana Rising Kresley Cole 15630K 2023-09-01

That battle had left behind a vast gravestone Buried beneath it were hundreds of victims My Jack was buried there

Why had I aods were

By trying to reverse tied fate as well And I’d failed

Did that ed?

In a daze, I trudged across the stone Roughly halfway across, I stopped Here the wind blew even harder, the rain stinging

With a sob, I dropped to raves How could I sum up their lives in a few short lines? They’d been so rave the rock, starting with Selena

ThenJack Sweating, bleeding, hyperventilating, I carved Tiht

When I finished, I’d worn ertips to the bone, and insanity beckoned as seductively as a blossom I collapsed ontoblood on therew friendship ivy for Selena

And honeysuckle for Jack

I wondered if grief could be so strong it was fatal My heart hurt so badly itto death Ten swords piercedwith my heartache, a thread of fury

After Jack and I had watched the smoke plurace I only hope to go out so clean"

He hadn’t Because of the Ehed as he’d murdered Jack and all those people

Richter would die The red witch would annihilate him Hatred made me rise Hatred forced one foot in front of the other as I staggered away froed fingers, dotting a trail across the vast black gravestone A tether froe of the stone, I re What if he hadn’t survived that searing flood? Maybe he wasn’t invincible

No! No Arcana had gloated over Death’s death; none of us had sensed it

Then I frowned We were all disconnected now And I didn’t knohen the switchboard had gone down

What if he’ddrowned? He ht’ve called for me as he’d died His lifeless body could be washed up so the flood’s path Maybe that hy Circe’s river wouldn’t answer me