Dawn of Ash (Imdalind, #6)(77)

The thought slapped me in the chest, the similarities painful. He had broken his mind when he bound the curse, just as mine was bound. Each of us, essentially two different people trapped inside a whole, every part fighting for space.

Even Rosy, in a way, was shattered into many: a child, a woman, an immortal trapped in a forever, having to live with what had been done to her.

My hold on her tightened again at the thought, but this time, she grunted, the stress finally getting to her.

“So he’s controlling me the same way.”

“Well…” Cail answered, a small smile playing around his lips, all sign of his agony lifting, “he can try. As we said, Rosy is very good at stopping him. He is not a fan of her.”

“It’s my soul,” she answered, her voice the same exhausted sigh as before. “He used my soul to make the blade. It’s all of me. Everyone else is part of me—my soul, my blood. He can control it because he is my grandfather, because a tiny part of him is here, too. But I can stop him. Stop him from hurting my family—Uncle Cail, Uncle Ryland, Aunt Joclyn. All but Sain. Sain controls me. I don’t like him here. That’s why I couldn’t see you before. But now you are here!” she finished happily before she collapsed on me again, her weight comforting against me.

“Now I am here,” I whispered, the palm of my hand running over the crown of her head with a comforting weight that even she seemed to respond to. I was kind of enjoying having her against me, enjoying the ability to run my fingers through her hair. To smell her.

“Where did you find the blade?” Cail asked after a moment, his voice tender as he pulled me away from the partial nirvana I had found.

“Inside of Ryland,” I whispered, my heart tensing with the fear that inhibited the memory. “I could hear Rosy call for me.”

“So one of the five…” He sounded like he was talking to himself.

“Five?” I asked, not following what he was saying.

“Yes.” His dark eyes pierced mine as I met his gaze, the intensity of them frightening me for a moment.

I inhaled sharply out of habit, glad when his lip twitched enough to remind me of the brother I knew and loved.

“I’m assuming you want to release us,” he finally said, his calm voice putting words to my unanswered questions.

“Well, that’s the plan, yes.”

“Then you will need all of the fragments of the Souls Blade. You have to put it back together.”

“You sound like you are sending me on some epic video game quest.” I could barely keep the laugh in.

He couldn’t.

“Maybe I am.” His deep chuckle bounced around the smoke trees that surrounded us, sending the distorted trunks into some kind of belly dance.

“Well, if that’s the case, I am going to need a better weapon. Maybe I can find one in a cave that’s guarded by a dragon.”

“He’s inside,” Rosy whispered from where she lay on top of me, her tiny proclamation pulling me out of my musing. “I’m trying to find Ilyan or Ryland so they can help.”

“How long do we have?” Cail asked, his body rising above us as the trees distorted and swayed with the movement.

The mood of our casual family soul picnic was shattered by the sharp reality. Not that it had really gone anywhere, but it was definitely pressing against me painfully now.

I tried to keep my fear inside, but it wasn’t working. Rosy was tensing, her heart thundering against mine, her tiny fingers gripping my clothes in obvious fear that I would have to go. That was exactly what was about to happen.

“Where are the blades? Where are the other pieces?” I asked, my heart fracturing with the knowledge of what was about to happen.

“You have Ryland’s. The other ones I know of are inside Ovailia and Sain. There used to be one in me, but I have no idea what he would have done with it. And there is another that went missing about the same time you and Thom left that compound. So if you don’t know where it is…” He faded off, obviously not wanting to say anything in front of Rosy, not that I blamed him. But it also wasn’t like I could go up and ask Thom if he knew where a shard of our daughter’s soul was.

I had to find another way.

I nodded in understanding, trying to ignore the pain steadily building in my chest, when Rosy screamed, her tiny body lifting off mine for the first time to look at me, her eyes mad and horrified.

“Rosaline?” I asked, too scared to hear the answer.

“You have to fight him, too, now, Mommy. You have to go.”

They were simple words, but they cut through me. I had known from the beginning I couldn’t stay there with them, so I wasn’t sure why hearing it repeated back to me was so painful. Why I was fighting against it.

“But I—”

“You have to go,” she sobbed, her eyes glistening with so many tears she probably couldn’t see through them. “You have to save Daddy.” Her voice was heavy, the dead panic resonating loudly.

I could barely breathe.

Daddy.

“Thom?” I asked, pushing the long strands of hair out of her face. “What’s wrong, darling?”

Rosaline bit her lip as she looked at me, her eyes wide in a greater fear than I had ever seen. It reminded me so much of those last moments that I gasped, a sharp pain rocking through my chest as I fought back the horror, fought back the scream, and braced myself for the plea of help that would come from her blood-soaked body.