“Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
--William Shakespeare, The Tempest I.ii.
PROLOGUE—NOT YOURS
They had been walking the grounds for nearly an hour in silence. “Dagan?” Bowen said.
“Yes, sire.”
“May I ask you something personal?”
He replied with a little reluctance, “Of course, sire.”
“What is your interest in her? I see the way you watch her.”
He exhaled and picked his words carefully. “She robbed me of any peace I had with one question.”
“And what was that?”
Dagan walked without responding for a long while. “She asked, ‘How could you give up heaven for this?’ She knew what I was and was daring enough to ask it.”
“Of course,” Bowen said with a muted sense of awe and sadness.
“She is like the Helen of myth…” Dagan noted.
“But Helen deliberately used her power. I don’t think Aleria knows she even possesses it.”
“And when she learns of it?”
The question, double-edged, sliced into Bowen and he didn’t know how to respond.
“Your mother fears her.”
“My mother fears no one,” Bowen retorted, but a slight shake in his voice betrayed his doubt.
Dagan shrugged, feeling no need to defend any of his statements. They walked for another length and peered out over the moonlit cove. The water looked black under the dim light as lazy waves lapped at the shore and stone dock below.
Bowen looked over at Dagan and spoke, his voice low and rough, “She’s not happy, is she?”
“No, sire,” Dagan answered directly.
“I thought not,” he breathed.
“Her care for you is genuine…”
“But?”
“She is not yours to have.”
Bowen bent and leaned forward on the wall, feeling stricken. “Will she ever be?”
“Love can grow from obligation…but you will always have doubts, as will she. If she stays, you will never know why.”
“My mother will never allow her to leave,” Bowen responded with sad bitterness.
“No, she will kill her, even if she is not needed as a sacrifice.”
“Then why say I have to let her go?” Bowen asked, frustrated. He looked out at the distant ocean.
“Your mother cannot control everything,” Dagan stated flatly as he turned and walked away. Bowen stood feeling stricken by the conversation, his world crashing. He watched as Dagan disappeared around the corner and wondered what Dagan knew that he didn’t.
YOU ARE READING
The Sacrifice: The Watcher Series Book Three (First 50 pages)
Teen FictionWhom can you trust—if trusting yourself is not an option? After being held captive for months by the French Coven, Ali Hayes escapes only to find that her world has turned upside down. The Watchers, who once trusted her without question, now eye her...
