Initium (The Nocte Trilogy 2.50)

But that can’t be right. If he’s my father, then I’m Laura’s half-sister. And Richard’s half-sister. But then Mr. Savage jumps from the cliffs and I don’t know what is real, all I know is that I dream it over and over and over. When I ask my mother, all she will say is that our sons must pay for the sins of their fathers.

My dreams continue

And continue

And continue,

Until

One

Day,

I dream of something different.

Instead of Salome or Phillip, I dream of the betrayer, I dream of Judas. I see his lips moving, I see him kiss the savior of the world, I see him slip into the crowds after the deed is done. His face is appalled at his own actions, but that didn’t stop him from doing it.

His one action, his one betrayal, condemned the savior of the world to die.

Night after night, I dream this, and night after night, I struggle to get to him, to try to stop him from following through with the kiss that doomed the world. Night after night, I fail, because his actions were written in fate, part of a plan larger than himself or me.

He was condemned from the beginning, doomed to play a treacherous part.

My dreams repeat

And repeat

And repeat, tormenting me into screams,

Into sobs.

But one night,

I realize something that I hadn’t noticed before, because I had been so swept away in trying to prevent his treachery. My blood chills in my veins as I make the realization and draw the connection, and I sink sink sink into a black abyss of sorrow.

Judas’ hair is as red as flames.

As red as blood.

As red as Laura’s.

* * *

To see a sneak preview of LUX, the exciting series finale, please keep reading.

Preview of LUX

Prologue

There’s a fork in the road and even though I see it, I can’t avoid it.

One road goes left, one goes right, and neither of them ends well.

I feel it in my bones,

In my bones,

In my hollow reed bones.