Tethered Souls
Jessica McCrory
Prologue
Ireland 1815
Today would be her last. She had known it the moment she had discovered the body of her sweet sister. Had realized that at that moment, the consequences of her actions had finally caught up with her. It didn’t matter that she had only done what she had out of love for her sister. None of that mattered to him.
The pain still fresh in her heart washed over her again. Innocent Isleen had paid the price. She pictured the vibrant young girl how she had been rather than picturing the pale, lifeless shell that had been left once Caipre had gotten his hands on her. She never should have died, hadn’t that been the reason she had gone through what she had?
She looked over at her executioner. On the outside, those who did not know him would have thought he was handsome. His dark hair had begun to grey at the temples but his eyes, the color of steel, held nothing but madness. She remembered telling Myria once when they were children that he had ‘mean eyes’. She didn’t know then how right she had been.
He believed himself in love with her. Believes still that he is setting her free from her own sins, cleansing her as he calls it. His face showed no sadness, no glimmer of regret for what he was about to do and she knew it was obsession, not love that drove him on.
Aine closed her eyes and she thought of the lives that had been and were to be lost tonight. Not just her own, or the life of her sister, but the life that had yet begun to live. She wished she could run her hand over her stomach one last time. Wanted to tell the child within that all would be well.
She hadn’t even had a chance to tell Aengus yet. She thought of her love and how his smile warmed her heart. He would have been so happy with the news. Even with their difference in social standing, she knew they would have found a way to raise their child together, to be a family. His parents had been kind to her during the time she worked in their home and his sister was one of her closest friends.
She tested the restraints behind her back one last time, hoping that maybe they had come loose somehow. The carriage bumped along the road and outside she could see the rain coming down. None of that mattered now. Caipre was taking it all away. Hadn’t she brought this upon herself? She should have been clear with him when he continued to pursue a relationship with her, and yet, she had ignored him. Thinking of him as nothing but an annoyance.
She hoped Aengus would always remember how much she had loved him. How much she had wanted their future together. The tears fell down her face as she thought back on her life. She had made mistakes, but why should she be sentenced to death for them?
The carriage came to a stop and her heart fell. She knew it had been coming and yet, she still wasn’t ready.
“Pull her out,” Caipre ordered the guard who came around the side and pulled the door open. His face was covered with a hood and it made him even more menacing.
“No!” She kicked and screamed trying to get away, but she was no match for the guard. He had her out of the carriage and was dragging her towards a tree before she could get any real damage in.
He drug her to the base of a large tree in a small clearing of the forest. The ground was muddy from the rain that continued to fall. The only light was from the lantern that hung from the side of the carriage.
“You should have loved me as I have loved you, Aine.” Caipre knelt in front of her. When she refused to look at him, the guard yanked her hair back. She winced and stared into his eyes.
“You do not love me. Obsession is not love.”
“Oh, you are wrong my dear. Obsession is love in its purest form.” He reached down and ran a hand down the side of her face. Aine did her best to make no sound when that hand reached back and cracked against her cheek. “When you love something, you are willing to do whatever it takes to keep that love and Aine, how I have loved you every day. You say I am a man obsessed?” He laughed and stood in front of her. “Well, you don’t know the half of it.” His grin sent chills down her spine. “I would have given you the world. I can do that you know, I have the power to give you anything you desire.” He looked down at her abdomen. “But it’s too late for that, now that you are carrying his seed. It should have been mine.” He bared his teeth at her as he spits out the words.
She looked at him, shock on her face. “How did you-”?
“Know?” he laughed. “I know all Aine. I must free you now, from him and from your sins. You are dirty, but after tonight you will be clean and worthy of me.”
“You would still kill me, knowing I am with child?” She hoped she could plead with him, but the look of disgust on his face snuffed out any confidence she had.
“It is not my child in there, it is his. Therefore it is none of my concern.” He dismissed her and stood. “Lift her.” He instructed the guard who pulled her to her feet.
She waited and when he cut the rope that bound her hands so that he could tie them up to the tree branch Aine mustered up all the strength she had and kneed the guard in the groin. She pushed away and ran praying that she could get far enough away from Caipre’s magic. She felt the pain in her back and her feet were lifted off the ground. He turned her and she saw his hand was lifted just as she was.
“Must I do everything myself?” He spat the words over his shoulder at the guard who scrambled to his feet.
“Oh Aine, why must you fight this? You don’t have the power to resist me.”
“Aengus will destroy you.” She growled. “He will not stop until you have been wiped from this earth.”
He laughed wildly and moved her towards him until they were just inches apart. “Let him try. It will be most pleasurable for me to punish him as well. And that witch sister of his.”
He lifted her to the tree branch, hands tied above her head so that her toes were barely on the ground. The guard tore the back of her dress open to bare the skin of her back. She watched in horror as she saw what he pulled out of the carriage.
“I am to be whipped then? This is how you treat those you claim to love?”
“Oh my dear Aine, I do love you which is why this has to happen. You must believe me, I don’t want to hurt you. This is what is necessary for us to be together.”
“You are a monster Caipre! I could never have loved you even if I hadn’t loved another!”
“I am no monster!” He screamed at her. His eyes burned red with the anger under the surface and she watched as he did his best to rein his temper in. “You need to be punished in order for you to understand what it is you did wrong. Suffer a little so that you can understand who you belong to.”
“I started suffering the moment I found my sister you bastard.” Tears began to fall from her eyes.
“A necessary casualty.” He responded casually. Aine wanted to vomit.
“She was just a little girl! Barely eight!”
“She was past her time, as you well know. Maybe you will think twice before you dismiss me again.”
“She didn’t deserve to die. She had done nothing wrong.” Aine let her head fall refusing to watch as the guard came around behind her with the whip in hand.
“You dismissed me Aine,” he repeated. “Mocked me by giving yourself to that boy when you knew who it was you belonged to. You are mine.” He nodded and she screamed out when the first strike hit skin. The pain radiated through her body and her back felt as if it were on fire.
The guard continued to whip her and she bit back her sobs. When she began to see the blood pooling at her feet, she finally began to feel the numbness of death. Aine had never been one who would have welcomed death. She had loved life. Even today when she had found her sister and knew she would be next, she had been prepared to fight for her life and for the life of the child she carried
. She had wanted to fight for vengeance for a life taken to soon.
Now, though, she welcomed it. She prayed for relief from the pain she was suffering through and hoped that she had done enough good in her life, that she would be reunited with her sister in the afterlife. Her heart was heavy with all she had lost tonight and she wished she had warned her sister to be careful. Wished she could have seen the monster Caipre truly was and had not underestimated what he was capable of.
She lifted her head and closed her eyes. The rain began to fall harder and she relished the feeling of the drops hitting her face. Oh, how she had loved the rain. While everyone else ran for the shelter of their homes, she and Isleen would dance in it giggling wildly. Her heart grew heavy with regret, Isleen would never dance in another storm. Would never laugh again and it was all her fault. Maybe she did, in fact, deserve to die.
“Stop,” Caipre ordered the guard and the assault came to a stop. “Aine, why did you have to make this difficult? Why couldn’t you have just loved me the way I loved you. We could have been happy you know.”
“We could never have been happy. You have no heart.” She said slowly. Biting back pain at each word.
“I could have changed. You could have healed me.” His face somber, he pulled out a dagger and when she saw the red stones glint on the hilt her eyes widened in horror.
“You recognize this?” He smiled then, showing her the blade. “I can see that you do. The Blade of Souls. Took me awhile to get my hands on it, but I eventually got my way. I usually do.” He ran the blade over her cheek and she felt the blood trickle down her neck. “You will be with me forever now. I will always hold your soul the way you would never share your heart.”
“No!” She screamed as he plunged the blade into her stomach. Death would bring her nothing but imprisonment. There would be no afterlife for her, no reunion with her sister. She would be trapped forever, her soul only released at his mercy.
“Aine!” She heard her name in the distance and felt a wave of relief. He had found her. Her love had come for her.
Relief filled her as Aengus’s sister Myria rushed towards her. She waved her hand and Aine’s hands were free. She slowly drifted down to the ground with Myria guiding her.
“I’m sorry for this Aine, but I have to pull this out. The dagger cannot be touching you when you die or you will be trapped.”
Aine winced as she pulled the blade from her and looked up into her eyes. The look confirmed Aine’s fears that she was too far-gone to save.
“Myria, the baby. You have to tell Aengus.”
“Hush Aine, it will be okay. You just have to stay calm.”
She could feel herself slipping further into the darkness. Aengus fell to his knees beside her, tears falling from his eyes.
“My love, I am so sorry. Why was I so stupid? I should have known.”
“Aengus. You. Couldn’t. Have.” She managed to whisper.
He leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers.
“I will love you forever Aine.”
“Aengus do you have that amethyst?” Myria gently touched his arm.
“Yes, why?” He looked up at his sister and reached into his pocket.
Aine watched as he pulled a beautiful amethyst necklace out of his pocket.
“I may be able to give you another chance.” Myria grabbed the stone from his hand and placed it over Aine’s heart. She covered it with her hands and began to chant in Gaelic.
Warmth washed over Aine and her pain all but disappeared. A light shone down on her face and she smiled into it.
“Two hundred years from now you will be given another chance at love. You will be reborn in another place with no memories of your life before. If your love is truly everlasting, you will find him and once you choose, the other will be destroyed.”
“I will find you.” She whispered to Aengus and closed her eyes as death embraced her.
Chapter 1
Dallas, present day
Abigail had been having the dreams as long as she could remember. When she had been young, she had often dreamt of forests and the ocean. She could vividly see herself running through the trees laughing or standing on the edge of a cliff and watching the waves crash into rocks. She pictured herself sitting in gardens filled with lush flowers, the vibrant colors all around her. For a time, she could even imagine what they had smelled like.
Other times, though, the dreams had transformed into the most horrific nightmares Abby could have ever imagined. She saw herself running through the same forests, only she wasn’t laughing. She could feel the fear deep in her bones and behind her, she heard a chilling laughter. He would call for her and tell her that she had been bad and would be punished. That no one could protect her, for he would always be there. She would scream and wake her parents, both of whom believed that both her dreams and nightmares were nothing but normal manifestations of a child’s mind. That was until she continued having them well into her early teen years.
Her parents, both world-renowned physiatrists, had started becoming frightened of her dreams, almost as frightened as she had been. They sent her to one of their coworkers who had prescribed her with a sedative to help her sleep. She remembered fighting them whenever they tried to give it to her, afraid that she wouldn’t be able to run and the Dark Man, as she called him, would find her. Eventually, she had learned to hold in the fear and pretend nothing was wrong until they finally believed she had grown out of them.
The dreams had never ended, though. Changed yes, instead of being a child she had begun to dream as a woman. She would see herself with a handsome man, she longed for each night. His laugh warmed her and she would ache to see him every time she fell asleep. The Dark Man continued to terrorize her, only in different ways. She could hear him whisper to her so vividly that she swore she could feel his breath on her neck even when she had woken up. He would tell her that he was coming for her and that she was his. He would tell her he was going to have her whether she wanted it or not and that he would destroy everything and everyone she loved to get it.
Tonight, however, for the first time, she dreamt of death. She saw herself suspended from a tree. She felt the pain from each strike of the whip and yelled out in agony as the knife plunged into her. She looked up into the handsome man's eyes and wept with him when she felt her life slipping away.
Abigail Kelly looked down at her coffee. “I need a vacation.” She said aloud to her empty apartment. She rubbed her eyes and rested her face in her hands. She deserved one, didn’t she? Her last gallery opening had been a success and she had even managed to sell half a dozen paintings. She had been painting non-stop since last spring it seemed. With the end of the year quickly approaching, surely she deserved a small respite. Or maybe not so small, she thought to herself. After all, she didn’t have much holding her here.
With her parents gone and with no love life to speak of, surely she could get away for a while. She could work anywhere, so that wouldn’t be a problem for her. She could always ship back her finished paintings for her agent to display. A change of scenery might do her good, maybe she could find some new inspiration. Her mindset she reached for the phone to call her assistant, and jumped when it rang.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Gail.”
The cool voice on the other end of the line had her heart sinking. She hated when he called her that, hated that he still called her at all.
“I thought I asked you not to call me that Emit.”
“Lighten up. Jeez Abbs, wake up on the wrong side of the bed?”
“No, I’m just fine.” She lied. “What do you want?”
“Just checking in to see how my lady is doing.”
“I’m not your lady. Haven’t been for quite some time now. Three months, if I remember correctly.”
“So what if we are on a break? Can’t I call and see how you are doing?”
She knew better than to disagree with him. Confrontations made her uncomfortable as it was and she knew f
rom past experience that he wouldn’t let it go. He would just continue to argue with her until she ultimately gave in and agreed with him just to get him to shut up.
“Sure, thanks for calling.”
“How about dinner tonight?”
“I already have plans.” She smiled smugly at the phone. And you are not invited. She added silently to herself.
“What plans?” The tone in his voice had gone from cool and collected to angry.
“Another gallery opening.”
“Oh, well why don’t I come by after work? I’d love to see the new art.” The smooth tone was back. His mood swings had always annoyed her and unfortunately it seemed as if they had only gotten worse since they split.
“That’s really not necessary, I’m fairly certain we have a full guest list for the evening. Have to go, bye now.” She hung up the phone and immediately dialed her assistant.
“Molly, I need you to make sure a name is not on the list to the opening tonight. And make this my last one until I tell you otherwise. I’m taking a vacation.”
Chapter Two
Ireland
Working with his hands had always seemed to relax him when nothing else would, and lately, it seemed as if Aengus O’Brian needed all the help he could get. His brain would not seem to stop running, he knew why of course. The anniversary was coming up and he knew that when it arrived it would bring trouble. If Aine really did come back to him, Myria had warned him that she wouldn’t retain any of her previous memories, which meant he would have to act as if he didn’t know her. As if they hadn’t shared so much together.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and continued shoveling out the horse paddocks. Not the most pleasant job, but somebody had to do it. He was exhausted already and hoped that if he continued working until he passed out, then maybe he might actually get some sleep.
He worried about how he may act around her when he saw her again. He had to make sure he was extra cautious, he didn’t want to scare her away. Probably wasn’t best to lead with an ‘I have died inside every single day that you have been gone. Ever since the day you died in my arms’. He shook his head and snorted out loud, no he should probably be a bit more subtle than that.
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