Serpent's Claim (Serpent's Touch 2)

“You know how much she’s worth? It’s stupid to gift her. Lord Kyllen is gone. The others will have their hands full, cleaning up after his death. There’s no one to stop us from doing whatever we want with her now.”

Paddles went into the water with hardly any splash. Darkness enveloped us as the boat slid along the smooth waters of Layahi Bay, taking me away from the golden lights of the palace and into the night.

I curled in on myself on the bottom of the boat. It felt like my life ended back in our bedroom, with Kyllen brought down to his knees and destroyed. My heart had been torn out of my chest, with nothing but a raw, gaping hole left in its place.

And it hurt.

So much.

The agony of loss numbed all other feelings and emotions, including the ache from the blow to my face.

“Lord Kyllen is gone.”

The words made no sense. How could this world exist if Kyllen was not in it? What was this place without him?

Tears didn’t come, ripping me apart from the inside instead. Darkness pressed heavily on me, and I wished it would just crush me. I wished to be nothing but a shadow, like I was always meant to be.