Page 130

Cool, collected Daccia.

Passionate, fearsome Hadrian.

Devious, sadistic Kitos.

I let my hand fall to my side, the ring still on it. Then, I step into the kitchen and pour myself a kettle of tea.

This was Lilac’s favorite blend.

I sip it and consider how lucky I was to be able to spend an entire lifetime with her.

It was the only thing I could do. Even when Lilac had returned to rationality, she still had nightmares every single night. I’d hold her tight, and then she’d feel better.

It took years of therapy and counselling before I finally saw the spark of the ‘old’ her. As Lilac returned to lucidity, we reminisced about our childhood, how we scrapped and fought to survive.

In all those years, she never spoke to me about what Torelli did to her. I think I’m better off not knowing. The irony was that it as just three years. Three, gruelling years that had shaped the rest of Lilac’s full life.

But it was a full life. The past seventy years would have seemed like eternity to most humans. It was, after all, a lifetime – in fact, longer than most humans get.

And yet, when I look in the mirror, I’ve aged only a few years, and so gradually it was hard to notice.

I drink my tea, sitting on my comfortable, well-worn chair.

“That hits the spot,” I murmur to myself, as I’ve said every day for the last seventy years to Lilac.

“Nothing like a good cuppa,”the memory of her voice answers back.

I want to cry again, but there are no tears left in me. I feel so alone all of a sudden, and yet there’s a beautiful simplicity to this solitude.

Every day, I’ve wondered ‘what if?’.

What if Ihadchosen my triad? How many sons would I have by now? Are Daccia, Kitos and Hadrian still now alive? How many women have they collected in their harems during the past seven decades?

Before I can think another thought, I look down at the black ring on my finger…

…and suddenly, I yank the Orb-Ring off.

They flood my mind.

Instantly, the auras of my triad return – so strong, so powerful, and still so yearning.

I feel this strange…determinationfrom them.

I don’t say anything. How could, after all these years? I wanted them to get over me. I wanted them to move on…

My legs wobbly, I stand. I stagger from my house, out into the beautiful sunshine. Blinded by the warm, gorgeous sunlight, I stand there and feel the warmth and hardness of the Orb-Ring in my palm.

Gods! It’s too painful, feeling the auras of the three men I love…

…and hearingnothingbut their silence.

By saying nothing, they say everything.

They don’t want me. They’ve moved on!

I press the ring against my finger, poised to slide it back on. It must be better if they wink out of my mind again, and disappear forever…

…and then, suddenly, I look up.