Page 105 of Serpent In White

The closer I listen, the more I realize that someone is crying. More specifically, a man…

The sound is familiar…

“Darian?” I call out. “Dar, where are you? Are you alright?”

I know it’s Darian crying. I can tell, but I don’t see him anywhere. I don’t see anyone.

“Dar?!” I scream louder, spinning around and around, searching for him while he weeps.

Darian’s hushed cries are accompanied by smaller ones. The sobs of a younger boy echo Darian’s. But who?

Who is that? And why is Darian crying with him?

I stumble backward when I see the ground by my feet, covered in stiff limbs and dead torsos. Bile rises in my throat, and I swallow over and over, my hands shaking with fear.

And when I lift them once more, they’re still drenched in blood.

All the blood is onmyhands…

My mind lingers on that clearing in the woods while I continue scrubbing. I remember all the times I’ve been there since that first instance, and the things I’ve done, what I’ve seen. The things it’sallowedme to see…

I hope Abdiel is okay.

Surely, he’s reached it by now. I know he was nearby. I could hear him shortly after Itook care ofthe prisoner. I wondered for a moment if he would find me.

But of course, he didn’t. He’s on a different path, and I just have to hope he’ll be strong enough to overcome whatever the forces in that clearing want to show him. Others haven’t been so lucky…

Shrugging off my bleak mood, I stomp up the stairs from the dungeon and saunter back out of the shack into the woods. Snatching my walkie from the ATV, I radio Lorn.

“Grab Xander and get up here,” I bark, feeling eyes at my back. “I’ve got a body for you to burn.”

“Yes, sir,” Lorn replies, but I’m barely listening.

I’m too busy turning to face the familiar gaze watching me with a quiet scolding.

“What brings you up here, your majesty?” I grunt at him. He says nothing but lifts a brow.

He’s silently simmering in my direction, and of course, I already know why. But this dance we do is like a second language at this point. Actually, it’s the only way we communicate anymore.

We don’t do real conversations. We haven’t in years. It’s strained between us… I know that. I wish it weren’t, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

My mother’s corpse was right all those years ago when it told me I can’t have him. It’s turned my black heart even blacker, but again, there’s nothing to be done. This is how it must be.

The universe showed me something that day, in that clearing. It showed me the location where Lars and Jenny would die, thirteen years before it happened. It showed me and I couldn’t stop it. Because it’s my curse to hold all the pain.

The blood is always onmyhands, so it doesn’t end up on anyone else’s.

Darian looks like he wants to say a million things, but he sighs and settles on, “What did you find out?”

“It’s like we thought,” I answer, leaning against my ATV and pulling out a rolled joint. “He and some friends were spying. They’ve got drones. They decided to sneak in and attempt to steal whatever they could.”

His jaw tightens visibly. “So… you don’t think it has anything to do with the business?”

I shrug. “You know I don’t believe in coincidences…”

“Yea, neither do I. But this shit is serious.” Darian rubs his eyes. He looks tired, weakened. Abdiel’s only been gone a day… Does he really miss him that badly already?

Maybe he’s just worrying. Or maybe it’s something else that’s stressing him out…