Louisa grabbed her by the hair and threw her. She felt too stunned to even cry out from fear, or from the pain of her hair ripping out of her head. In an excruciating collision, she hit the ground and lay motionless as she attempted to catch her breath. A shadow fell over her, and she whimpered in fear.
She opened her eyes, sure she’d see Lady Harding, and instead saw Elijah.
Oh, thank God.
“Elijah, help me,” she whispered.
“There’s your whore, Elijah. Have any final words to say to her, before I kill her?”
She struggled to sit up, and Elijah shook his head at her.
“It need not be like this. We can leave together, just the two of us. Come to me, and we shall leave.”
Louisa sneered. “I have a much better plan, Elijah.”
Louisa stalked toward them, and Amelia sat up to search for an escape route. There had to be a way out.
Her eyes caught sight of a familiar face, and she drew in a horrified breath. “Good Lord, is Isaac—”
Louisa followed her line of vision. “Dead? No, he’s very much alive. See, I have plans for him. But you, my dear, will definitely be dead when I am finished.”
Elijah jumped in front of her, presumably to protect her. Louisa threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, Elijah. You are positively hilarious.” Louisa picked him up and slammed him against a tree before breaking another tree nearby. She forcefully drove it through Elijah’s shoulder and into the tree behind him. He let out a cry of pain, and Amelia shrieked. Louisa dusted her hands off and laughed. “Ready for the main show, Elijah? You surely will not wish to miss it.”
She stalked to Amelia, who in turn whimpered in fear. “Lady Harding, I am sorry, but please don’t do this. You have hurt Elijah. Look at him!”
“Have you never been told not to frolic under a promised man? You are a shameless harlot, Amelia.” She shook her head and smiled. “This is going to be marvelous. Prepare yourself for a broken arm.”
She grabbed Amelia’s left arm and snapped the bone in two. Amelia cried out and sobbed as pain wracked her body. Elijah strained against his prison and yelled her name.
Even as Amelia reeled from the injury, Louisa grabbed the other arm and repeated the action. Mercifully, Amelia passed out from pain. Next thing she saw, Elijah had blood oozing from his neck. His eyes looked drugged, as if he had imbibed too much brandy. His eyes met hers, and she was startled to see the tears running down his cheeks.
The pain of her leg snapping made her tear her eyes from Elijah, and she screamed in agony. Before she processed the pain, a new one exploded in her other leg. From a distance, she heard Elijah call out her name. She tried to hone in on his voice and conjured up a picture of his face when he had first kissed her.
It had been worth even this agony. She could have no regrets.
Amelia turned her head and focused on him. She could tell he grew weaker, and sobs wracked his body. She latched onto on her beloved’s face and waited for death, mercifully, to take her away. Surely Louisa would finish her off soon.
Pain burst through her chest, and she involuntarily looked down. Elijah’s dagger protruded from her. She choked on a strange liquid and realized it was blood.
She couldn’t breathe. She would soon die.
Thank God.
Sabrina walked out of the house in a daze, focused on the dream until she reached the clearing and examined it under her new insight. She could see all the similarities now, the silly things she’d missed before. She found and studied the tree Elijah had been pinned to, and pictured with perfect clarity the startling red of his blood against the bark. In a trance, she stumbled to the tree and touched its rough surface, and saw a scar on the tree’s surface in the exact spot where Elijah had been speared. The same spot he’d suffered, fought, and died.
She looked over her shoulder and recognized where Isaac had lain motionless. Not far from the tree she leaned against now. He had been so close to them, so close to saving them and running. But instead, he had been cut down like a savage beast. By a savage beast.
The bitch.
She wandered toward where Isaac had landed and froze. And here, here was where Amelia had died. Where they had both lost the love of their lives. Everything had changed drastically that day, both emotionally and physically. Though both immortal, they could no longer embrace each other as brothers. They were on opposite sides of the battlefield, forever locked in a ferocious war that would only end in death.
Her fingers were still on the tree when Elijah walked up behind her. She turned to him; his gaze locked on the scar on the tree, strangely fascinated with the spot where he had died long ago. He tore his gaze off of the tree to focus on her, and the pain in his eyes spoke to her without words. His face looked the same as it had the day Amelia had died. “Oh, Elijah, I’m so sorry. I saw it all happen last night. It—no one should have to go through that. Ever.”
“You saw it?” he whispered. “But, how? I didn’t come to you last night.”
“I don’t know. But I did, somehow.”
“Oh, God.” He looked away from her and sighed deeply. “I’m so sorry you had to see it. No one should ever see what happened that day, what I did that day.” His brow furrowed, and his eyes were lost in shadow as he stared off into the distance.
His pain hit her as strongly as if it were her own, and her heart ached from the force of it. Though she couldn’t love him the way he wanted her to, she did love him. She yearned to heal the hurt bottled inside him, and it seemed natural to open her arms to him. He immediately took her offering of comfort, and she wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his chest.
The oddness of the lack of beating heart beneath her cheek struck her, making her bite back a smile. Instead, his chest was still, immobile as stone. She noticed the oddest things at the most inopportune times.
He didn’t move, and she did her best to do the same. They stayed in their frozen embrace for an unknown amount of time. When he finally spoke, pain wracked his voice and broke her from her silent thoughts.
“I loved her so much.” He sighed.
“She loved you, too.”
“I love you, too.”
She paused before whispering, “I know.”
“And you love Isaac.”
“I do.”
He sighed and inhaled the fragrance of her hair. “Let me enjoy this, just one moment longer.”
She laughed and glanced up at him as she conceded, “Okay, one more minute.” She had a moment’s warning as he stared at her lips, before he went to take the kiss he could apparently no longer resist. She flinched and shouted, “No, Elijah! Don’t do it, or I’ll have to punch you again.”