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.There was something in him beyond all saving, now.Something even she could not touch, walled away behind fearborn defenses that no mere woman could breach.“The children,” she whispered.The chamber was dark, and seemed to demand whispering.“Where are the children?”“I’ll take you there,” he promised her.Something flickered in his eyes that might have been pain, or love—but then it was gone, and only a distant cold remained.He picked up a lamp from the corner of a desk and bid her, “Come.”She came.Through the door which he opened at the rear of the chamber, leading into an inner workroom.Artifacts from the Landing caught his lamplight as they passed by, twinkling like captive stars in their leaded glass enclosures.Fragments of unknown substances which once had served some unknown purpose.there was the soft silver disk that tradition said was a book, although how it could be such—and how it might be read—was a mystery her husband had not yet solved.Fragments of encasements, the largest barely as broad as her palm, that were said to have contained an entire library.A small metal webwork, the size of her thumbnail, that had once served as a substitute for human reasoning.Then he opened a door in the workroom’s far wall, and she felt a chill breeze blow over her.Her eyes met his and found only cold there, lightless unwarmth that was frightening, sterile.And she knew with dread certainty that some nameless, intangible line had finally been crossed; that he was gazing at her from across an abyss so dark and so desolate that the bulk of his humanity was lost in its depths.“Come,” he whispered.She could feel the force of the fae about her, bound by his need, urging her forward.She followed him.Through a door that must have been hidden from her sight before, for she had never noticed it.Into a natural cavern that water had eroded from the rock of the castle’s foundation, leaving only a narrow bridge of glistening stone to vault across its depths.This they followed, his muttered words binding sufficient fae to steady their feet as they crossed.Beneath them—far beneath, in the lightless depths—she sensed water, and occasionally a drop could be heard as it fell from the ceiling to that unseen lake far, far below.Give it up, my husband! Throw the darkness off and come back to us—your wife, the children, your church.Take up your dreams again, and the sword of your faith, and come back into the light of day.But true night reigned below, as it did above; the shadows of the underworld gave way only grudgingly to the light of the Neocount’s lamp, and closed behind them as soon as they had passed.The water-carved bridge ended in a broad ledge of rock.There he stepped aside and indicated that she should precede him, through a narrow archway barely wide enough to let her pass.She did so, trembling.Whatever he had found in these depths, it was here.Waiting for her.That knowledge must have been faeborn, it was so absolute.And then he entered, bearing the lamp, and she saw.“Oh, my God!.Tory?.Alix?”They were huddled against the far wall, behind the bulk of a rough stone slab that dominated the small cavern’s interior.Both of them, pale as ice, glassy eyes staring into nothingness.She walked slowly to where they lay, not wanting to believe.Wake me up, she begged silently, make it all be a dream, stop this from happening.Her children.Dead.His children.She looked up at him, into eyes so cold that she wondered if they had ever been human.She could barely find her voice, but at last whispered, “Why?”“I need time,” he told her.There was pain in his voice—deeprooted pain, and possibly fear.But no doubt, she noted.And no regret.None of the things that her former husband would have felt, standing in this cold stranger’s shoes.“Time, Almea.And there’s no other way to have it.”“You loved them!”He nodded slowly, and shut his eyes.For an instant—just an instant—the ghost of his former self seemed to hover about him.“I loved them,” he agreed.“As I love you.” He opened his eyes again, and the ghost vanished.Looked at her.“If I didn’t, this would have no power.”She wanted to scream, but the sound was trapped within her.A nightmare, she begged herself.That’s all it is, so wake up.Wake up! Wake up.He handled her gently but forcefully, sitting her down on the rough stone slab.Lowering her slowly down onto it, until she lay full length upon its abrasive surface.Numb with shock, she felt him bind her limbs down tightly, until it was impossible for her to move.Protests arose within her—promises, reasoning, desperate pleas—but her voice was somehow lost to her.She could only stare at him in horror as he shut his eyes, could only watch in utter silence as he worked to bind the wild fae to his purpose.in preparation for the primal Pattern of Ema.Sacrifice.At last his eyes opened.They glistened wetly as he looked at her; she wondered if there were tears.“I love you,” he told her.“More than everything, save life itself.And I would have surrendered even that for you, in its proper time.But not now.Not when they’ve opened hell beneath me, and bound me to it by the very power I taught them how to use.Too many prayers, Almea! Too many minds condemning my work.This planet is fickle, and responds to such things.I need time,” he repeated, as though that explained everything.As though that justified killing their children.He raised a long knife into her field of vision, even as his slender hand stroked the hair gently out of her eyes.“You go to a far gentler afterlife than I will ever know,” he said softly.“I apologize for the pain I must use to send you there.That’s a necessary part of the process.” The hand dropped back from her forehead, and the glittering blade was before her eyes.“The sacrifice is not of your body,” he explained.His voice was cold in the darkness.“It is.of my humanity.”Then the knife lowered, and she found her voice.And screamed—his name, protests of her love, a hundred supplications.but it was too late, by that point.Had been too late, since true night fell.There was no one listening.CITY OF SHADOWSOneDamien Kilcannon Vryce looked like he was fully capable of handling trouble, for which reason trouble generally gave him a wide berth.His thick-set body was hard with muscle, his hands textured with calluses that spoke of fighting often, and well
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