Once we were fully clean, he wrapped me in a large black towel and picked me back up, cradling me in his arms. He took me to my room, placed me on the huge bed and laid down next to me, pulling my damp head on to his chest. His heart beat slowly as his chest rumbled with his contented purr.
This man had truly taken me as his. Body and soul.
My eyes slid shut as his warmth spread through my body, pulling me into a deep slumber as my twins’ faces flashed in my mind. Their big blue eyes begged me for help, begged me for my protection.
“They’re gone!”
I jumped up, heart slamming against my rib cage as I looked around the darkened room; the fire crackled and fog thickened outside the arched windows. Looking down at Rí’s sleeping form, I noted the small frown and downward tilt to his lips.
Confused as to what had woken me up, I slid to the edge of the bed and picked up the fallen silk pyjamas. Dropping the towel, I shivered as the exposed air hit my cold skin.
“They’re gone, you know.”
I snapped my head up, holding the top to my chest covering my nakedness. A luminous glow stood floating at the end of the bed. It flickered before focusing into a small child, her pin straight hair and purple eyes an obvious sign of her being a Dark Witch.
“Who’s gone?” I asked quietly, hoping not to wake my dragon.
“Everyone,” she answered in her small childish voice.
“Who?” I whispered as I quickly donned my sleepwear. Shuffling around to the end of the bed, I stood facing her. So far Jerry had been the only ghost I’d come across.
Her eyes lowered to my chest, where the jewel Rí had given me rested between my breasts, warming the skin there like his touch always did to me.
“They all burned you know. They all burned and now they can’t be with us.Youare all that’s left.”
She had to mean the witches; Jerry had said they all turned to dust. This could be my opportunity to ask her things only the Dark Witches knew.
“Who betrayed them? Why did they shut the portals?”
She sighed and twirled in a circle, her glow floating off her like whisps of fireflies drifting into the night. The bright whisps glided through the black mist in my eye before disappearing completely.
“Well, they couldn’t let them have the humans, could they? Greedy little things.”
The humans? The witches were protectinghumans?The very beings that had looked upon me as a stain on their perfect lives. The very beings who had abused me and created the noise in my head.
Why would anyone want to protect them?
“Why were they protecting the humans? From who?”
She spun and spun, making me dizzy. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her; I wanted to yell in her little glowing face and demand she answer me. I stood still and mentally told the voices to piss off.
“Why, the humans are innocent of course!” she giggled as her puffy dress spun and flared out around her.
That was something the humans were not; and that was innocent. They all lied, cheated, abused and slid their way around life.
Ihatedthem.
“Without them, there is no us.” Whispered so close to my ear, the cool breath of its owner made me shudder.
I spun around and stared wide-eyed at the elderly lady stood before me. Her black gown glowed in the same manner as the little girls, and she stared at me with familiar purple eyes. Another ghost.
Were the witches finally answering me? Had they actually heard my beg of help?
“What do you mean?” I whispered watching her as she gazed around the room as if remembering a fond memory. This could have been her room; she could have sat in this very room and lived her life.
“The humans are life; we are them in death.”
The fuck? Did all ghosts speak in riddles?
