Page 117 of Shifter King

It was hard to be alone. Played tricks on the mind. But in the end, it was safe. Far safer than the alternative. Ecekom had gone mad, and one old man could not stop it from descending into the void one painful inch at a time. Sometimes he thought about dying. Just letting go. Ecekom was an easy enough world in which to seek death. All of his friends had passed. All of his family as well.

Yet somehow, he could never bring himself to let go completely.

He took a few paces farther into the cave that had been his home for centuries now. It was all so well-ordered he needed to mess it up and find a new way to put it back together again. Stooping, he straightened the striped rag rug in the center and then crossed back to the small fireplace that had been so cleverly crafted centuries ago by that kind geo Shivennan.

A sharp white light appeared.

Wincing, he lifted his hand to shield his eyes.

The woman landed, surrounded in fading white light. A Neyeb—a no—his arm fell.

That wasn’t just any Neyeb. That was—Kilona?

His stomach tightened.

Was this—was he hallucinating? It wouldn't be the first time. But…he drew closer, brushing his mind over the presence before him. "Kilona?"

She turned toward him, her eyes hard. "Don’t call me that." The low way she spoke reminded him of his sister. Indeed she looked so much like Sialtwa that it made his heart clench all the harder. Thousands and thousands of years and her face and presence remained as firmly planted in his mind as the cracked red bowl he drank water from each morning. Those similarities aside though, the glint in her eyes was far more Salanca. A harsh cold edge that had been pushed to its brink.

He held up his hands to calm her. "What would you rather I call you then, child?"

"I am no longer a child." She blinked slowly. Great rushing gouts of energy poured off her, disappearing into the night. It was as if a strong wind blew over her though all was so still that not even the curtain she stood before stirred.

He stepped closer. That energy pulsing off her had a raw bloodiness to it. Powerful but grievously wounded. Deep splits ran the length of her, and what walls or shields she had put up seemed close to buckling. Yet there wasn’t fear in the dark eyes that stared back at him. Only a woman who had been pushed to her limit. The cracks had already formed. By the second, they deepened.

A chill shuddered through him. No. Was it—could it be? Anything else. Almost anything else would be better.

That thrumming curl of energy so indicative of the Ki Valo Nakar wrapped around her, twining about her and drawing her into its web. How much longer before it ensnared and condemned her forever?

No. By all that was good, no. Elonumato, no, no!

She was alive. And it had taken her.

The rage that curled within him and the sorrow that brimmed up became so thick and deep he could not breathe.

How to reach her? How to stop her?

What name had she taken? He brushed his mind over hers, careful not to lay a hand on her. There was a name there. A name just beneath the surface that she liked. Amelia.

"Amelia?" he said softly. "Amelia, do you know me?"

She didn't answer. He walked around her, looking her up and down.

This wasn’t what he wanted for her. This was precisely the opposite of what he wanted for her. Covering his mouth, he ducked his face away.

All the things he might ask faded. His one comfort over the years had been that she passed peacefully. Quietly. Unstained by the cruelty of her mother’s plans. Untarnished by his unworthiness and failures.

Yet here she stood, blistered, scarred, balanced on a dagger’s blade of sanity and bleeding from her feet.

He’d seen that look before. The empty weariness, the brokenness. What had they done to his child?

"Amelia. What are you doing?"

"They shattered me into a thousand pieces. I don't even know where all I am. Just that…" Her voice started to break. "I have to get back." A low sob followed as her shoulders dropped. "I don't know why I'm here."

He did. He knew exactly why.

"Amelia, where are you? It's important that I find you and soon. We…we need to talk."