Dark Reality 7-Book Boxed Set
Page 46
Chapter 16
Heat warmed Arianna’s face. She blinked and tried to open her eyes, her vision bleary as though she’d slept for far too long. But she hadn’t slept. She’d been unconscious, and not for long. Night had not fallen yet and the brightness of day made her eyes tear. Sporadic rain still fell. She could feel it on her face. A scent infused the air, acrid and foul.
The smell of burning flesh struck her, burning her nasal passages and the back of her throat. She concentrated on seeing more clearly, willing her eyes to focus. When finally the fuzziness lifted, she saw that her mother burned before her, still tied to a stake. The flames had reached her mother’s waist and her body still twitched as she moaned weakly, suffering. But the twitching and moaning faded quickly as the fire swelled suddenly and consumed her head. Arianna watched, frozen, a prisoner in her own personal hell, as the last bit of life drained from Cathy Rose. She watched as her mother’s head lolled to one side, her beautiful face blackened, gone forever.
A sound escaped Arianna from a deep, primitive part of her. The sound tore through the courtyard, her soul crying out. She felt as though a hole had been punched in her chest, a bottomless pit of pain and loss that would never heal. Tears spilled down her cheeks and a lifetime of memories rushed to her mind. In each were she and her mother.
“Why did you do that?” she heard herself ask Kane. “It’s me you want, you monster!” she cried.
Howard materialized beside her, his face gruesome. “I am no monster,” he hissed in her ear. “It is you who are a monster. And that woman,” he pointed to her deceased mother, “that sinful, wretched woman, she birthed you. She raised you, readying you to begin your dark mission.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” she screamed and felt her anger swell. He had murdered her mother and continued to insult her as she dangled lifelessly from a pole.
The grieving hole in her chest began to fill with the purest of rage. The world around her became awash in a crimson glow again.
“Your powers will be of no use to you, Arianna,” Kane said. “Your wrists have been shackled with restraints designed more than two hundred years ago for the sole purpose of containing the Sola, you.”
Kane watched her, apparently waiting for some kind of reaction. But she would not give him the satisfaction, so he continued.
“And I have one more surprise for you before I end your mission before it ever truly began,” he said theatrically.
He signaled to the tree line and Arianna saw a man approaching. He walked slowly and was followed by another, larger man who pointed a gun at his back. As both men drew closer, she gasped in horror and saw that the man with the gun trained on his back was Luke.
“Arianna!” Luke called to her. Tears streaked his dirtied cheeks and panic filled his voice. His eyes were wide with terror as they searched hers for answers.
“Leave him alone!” she yelled. “He has nothing to do with this!”
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that. He helped you kill two of my men, two servants of the Lord. Their deaths cannot go unanswered,” Kane said and withdrew a pistol from his robe. He aimed it inches from Luke’s forehead and Luke began to cry uncontrollably.
“No!” Arianna screamed but the sound of her voice was stifled by the deafening sound of a gunshot. Luke’s body fell to the ground, his once lively silver eyes now vacant.
Howard gestured to the men who lingered in the courtyard and each of them began igniting torches they held. Then, one by one, they threw their torches into the kindling at her feet. The kindling began to burn immediately, the flames growing and expanding. But Arianna did not feel the heat of the flames lapping at her ankles, and she did not feel sadness or grief. A new feeling had overtaken her, surging and coursing through her being. It melted each of her emotions, the ache in her chest, her anger, and her need for vengeance, each seeped from her, until all that remained inside her was pure power. Her entire body began to radiate red light. It shone as if the power within her could no longer be contained by her flesh, pulsing vibrantly, harshly, hissing like fiery snakes from her skin. In that moment, she realized she was no longer Arianna Rose. She was the Sola.