Dark Tarot (Dark Carpathians)

“I feel so useless just sitting here. He wouldn’t be just sitting here if I were the one dying.” She raised her sorrowful gaze to Nicu.

“Sisarke, I know this is extremely difficult for you.” Nicu’s voice was gentle. “You are keeping him with us. We are only healing his body. We cannot possibly do what you are doing.”

Adalasia frowned. It didn’t feel as if she was doing anything at all. “What exactly do you think I’m doing, Nicu?”

“You have his soul.”

She rubbed her chin over her drawn-up knees again. “Yes, he sent it back to me. It felt as if he’d rejected me after all the rebirths and lives I led to get to him.”

“But you know better.”

“I suppose so, intellectually. Rejection still feels very real.”

She turned inward, surrounding the half of his soul he’d given back into her keeping with her bright light, warming it, holding it to her a little desperately. There was no warmth emanating from it. No light. It was tiny, as if slowly it was disappearing from her care. She actually saw that small piece shiver, tremble, as if too weak to continue to hold on. Adalasia drew her net of warmth tighter in a circle around his soul.

Don’t leave me, Sandu. I can’t exist without you. I will follow you. You know that I will. That will leave the gate unguarded after all the centuries our family has held true. I would be the one to lose honor. You have to hold on.

Silence met her alarmed begging. And it was begging. She wasn’t too proud to try to convince him of her need of him. She had converted, become Carpathian for him, taken that leap of faith, but somewhere along the line, she had fallen hard for him. He had become her other half.

She became aware of cold. Bitter, icy cold. Whispers. Stings like bees on her skin. No, not her skin, inside her body. Not even her body. Her spirit? His? He was being attacked relentlessly. He was in agony. Agony.

“Nicu. That man you thought was a healer, he is harming Sandu. I connected just for a moment, and Sandu is in so much pain. The attack is on his spirit. You have to get him away from Sandu.” She stretched her legs out, ready to leap up, but what she planned to do, she had no idea.

“The attack has been going on for some time, Adalasia,” Nicu said, his voice soft. “We wanted to spare you the worst. He is long gone from us. You only see what remains of his body. His spirit has traveled down the tree of life and is now in the shadow realm. Luiz is healing his body from the inside out. Driving out the plague. Sandu cannot return to a body with even a small taint in it. We cannot take any chances with either of you.”

Adalasia pushed both hands through her slicked-back hair in agitation. “He’s suffering.”

“Carpathian hunters endure, sisarke,” Nicu reminded.

She did jump up then, no longer able to contain the restless energy pulsing through her body. There was nowhere to put the sorrow that weighed so heavily in her chest. She did her best to maintain a balance. These men, her guardians, were doing everything they could at the risk of their own lives to save Sandu. She had assured them they had lifemates alive somewhere, and yet they hadn’t abandoned Sandu in his worst hour of need. They stood by him in their stoic manner, and they expected the same of her.

Adalasia paced away from the fallen body of Sandu. “What happens when we go to try to retrieve him, Nicu? We can’t just leave his body exposed. There are wild animals here.”

“All of our bodies would be exposed if we were to make our try from here. We attempted the healing of his body here in order to push out the poisons so we could incinerate all traces of it. We will go to a cave nearby where there is rich soil. It is a place Danutdaxton has told us of that holds many elements for healing. He will guard our bodies for us while we make the trip to the shadow realm.”

She frowned. “All of us are living, Nicu. We don’t belong there, right? That’s my understanding. Won’t it make it so much easier for our enemies to find us with so many of us going to this place?”

“You will go with one guide, Adalasia. Most likely me. Perhaps Benedek. The others will be with you in your mind. Together, the power you have will be immense. Should Sandu not recognize you or be able to move on his own, when we join our energy, we can pull him back with us to this realm.”

“That’s the plan?” She faced him, raising an eyebrow. It sounded far too simple to her.