Soul Ties

Chapter 57: An Image Worth A Thousand Words

My head breaks the surface of the water. The force from Scorpius's throw was too much for me to stop it. I try to look back down underneath me but the house is too far. The cliff covering it locks my view, the only thing I can see are the ships the guards called floating by. In a matter of seconds I watch all of them board. Seren and Scorpius both have their hands behind their back, chains linking their ankles together.

I crawl out of the water and onto the field of blue flowers. Quickly, I dunk my head back in, watching the ships travel out of view. I stare in a state of shock. Or is it horror? Slowly, I lift my head out and crawl on my hands and knees away from the edge of the water. My stomach churns and I empty everything I have in it on the field.

I throw up until my throat is raw. And then I scream. I scream just like the time I thought Seren was no longer mine. Only this time the pain radiates my chest. It's like my heart is being squeezed over and over with every beat that follows. I gasp for air but my lungs are only filled with the humidity surrounding me.

Laying on the ground, I wait for one of the guards to burst out of the water and take me. I even expect the ship where Seren and Scorpius are on to appear. I feel crazy enough to think maybe I didn't actually see them being taken away. Maybe the guards made a mistake leaving me behind and would come for me here.

But the longer I lay here inhaling the suffocating air, the more pathetic I feel. They weren't coming. No one was. They knew they didn't have to because I wouldn't just let them get away with it. It was obvious, even without them knowing who I would choose in the end, that I would come for them. I wouldn't just let them be taken.

What was I going to do? I wasn't strong, I was barely fast. And right now I feel like I could just die in this field. I wanted the flowers to consume every inch my skin, drowning me in the sorrow I already felt. Ironic that the petals were blue.

I'd done this. This was all my fault. I was the one who told Seren we should come here. I was the one who suggested it to Scorpius, even rushed the process of leaving Ocura. They were taken because of me. I was the one who wanted to search the treehouse's. Me. All of it landed on my shoulders. I was the reason Scorpius got stabbed.

I dry heave, my stomach straining from my muscles contracting like this. Every part of my body feels sore, as if I was the one fighting. I heave again thinking about how I didn't do anything. How Scorpius and Seren fought to get me out of there and all I could do was stand there frozen, mainly getting in the way.

I gag again, the blood inside my throat coating my tongue. The thoughts swimming around in my head don't make sense. It's all a blur of what I want to do, what I need to do, and what just happened. How the guards no doubt tracked Scorpius to find me and how he was the one they took instead.

What did Demien Crypt want with me? Why did it seem like he was out to get me for some reason I couldn't grasp?

I roll over and lay on my back, the soft petals caressing my skin as a warm breeze rolls over the field. The empty sky matches my stomach, both bare and stretched out. But as I stare up into the vast blue, anger licks my insides until my hands are trembling from the rage that's forming. The more I think about Seren, the more I replay Scorpius being stabbed, the more my jaw clenches.

I have to do something. I was wasting time feeling sorry for myself. And the more time I wasted the farther away Seren and Scorpius got from me. The more pain they could be experiencing. My stomach churns with the thought of the guards torturing both of them, bile rising to the back of my throat. I immediately swallow it down and push myself to my feet.

Another breeze moves around me, the heat making me dizzy but also pulling me out of my pity. I needed a plan. Was I confident that I could get both of them back? Of course not. Not by myself at least. But it was either I make a move now, or just accept that Scorpius and Seren would continue being hurt or worse, killed.