Chapter 749: Lines Crossed
In the darkness of Nyrielle’s bed chamber, the Harbinger of Death’s eyes fluttered open as she drew a deep, cleansing breath before exhaling the last of the cold, dead air that lay in her lungs during the day.
Next to her, Ashlynn started to move as well, stretching out her arms and legs like a cat waking from a nap in the sun. Her hair hung in knotted clumps and the ache of exhaustion clung to her body after the previous night’s exertions, but at the moment, in the few breaths between asleep and awake, everything felt distant and fuzzy. It was as if the world beyond the bed she shared with Nyrielle was only a dream and this dark place was all that was real in the world.
"I’m sorry, my darling," Nyrielle said as her midnight eyes blazed in the darkness, casting a faint blueish light across the luxurious bedchamber. A heartbeat later, Ashlynn’s eyes glowed a matching midnight blue as Nyrielle withdrew her power from her lover’s mind.
"What, what happened?" Ashlynn asked, clutching her head as the events of the previous night suddenly became much clearer in her mind. Isabell, her outburst in her sitting room, the long walk through the forest at night in the middle of a furious rainstorm... all of it came back to her in a flood, as if Nyrielle had removed a dam holding her feelings at bay.
"If you’re angry, please, let yourself be angry at me," Nyrielle said gently, reaching out to brush a lock of tangled blond hair out of Ashlynn’s face only for her hand to freeze half way there, hanging in the air uncertainly, caught in the fear that her touch might upset Ashlynn. "Last night, I did something to you that I promised myself I wouldn’t, but, forgive me, my darling, I didn’t know what else to do."
"What, what did you do?" Ashlynn asked, scooting toward the edge of the bed and fumbling on her side table until she found the crystal lantern that Nyrielle had given her. Releasing a thread of power into the lantern, a soft, greenish blue light filled the room, revealing a look on Nyrielle’s face that Ashlynn had never seen before. Guilt.
Desperately, Ashlynn prodded her mind, trying to think of what her lover could possibly have done to feel guilty about. She remembered falling to the earth and sobbing, shouting at the skies and pouring out her grievances as the storm raged around her. She remembered Nyrielle’s arrival, descending from the skies on her dark, feathered wings before she carried Ashlynn away.
Was there something she’d said last night that she felt guilty about? But words alone couldn’t make Nyrielle feel so... desolate, while she looked at Ashlynn. Something much worse must have happened for Nyrielle to feel this way, but what?
"You understand Zedya’s mesmerizing gaze, Ashlynn," Nyrielle said, lowering her hand and clutching at the blankets. Ashlynn’s confused, trembling emerald gaze felt like daggers to hear heart and for a moment, she wondered if Ashlynn would ever forgive her for what she had done.