The Chalice and the Crown by Kassandra Flamouri

Author:Kassandra Flamouri [Flamouri, Kassandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2020-06-04T22:00:00+00:00

Fondu

That night, my visions return. I don’t feel glad, but I don’t feel frightened, either. I don’t feel anything, because I’m not me. I’m her—the other Sasha.

* * *

A man sits beside me, his large hand folded gently over mine. My fingers twitch and flex into claws, then spasm under the force of an invisible string pulling them outward, then flex again in an endless, erratic cycle. But the man doesn’t seem to mind. He has a name. I knew it once, but not anymore.

“I have to ask you something, Sasha,” he says, and when he says my name, I know his. James. He’s James.

“I know you can’t answer, but I still have to ask. You know how much I love Emily. She’s…she’s my whole world. When I look at her, it’s like seeing my own soul walking beside me, and it gives me more hope and—and peace than anything ever has. Because she’s so pure and strong and beautiful and good, and if she loves me, there must be something beautiful and good in me, too.

“I’m going to ask her to be my wife, and I’ve come to ask for your blessing. I don’t know if you can hear me, or understand me, and even if you do, I know you can’t answer.” When he laughs, it sounds more like a sob. “I guess I was hoping for, I don’t know, a sign or something. Pretty stupid, huh? But I brought the ring to show you. I think she’ll like it—she’s been dropping hints about a princess cut…”

My eyes roll toward a sparkling stone set in velvet. It seems to flicker in and out of sight, overshadowed by other images.

Someone is crying, someone buried deep inside me.

Yes, the voice weeps. Take care of her. Love her, since I can’t.

I don’t like the crying. It plucks at the stitches holding me together, threatening to pull me apart, and so much of me has already unraveled. I don’t like it. I want it to go away.

The man is talking to me again.

“Don’t give up,” he says. “Please. Come on, kid. There’s so much left for you to live for. Come back to us.”

* * *

“I’m trying.”

My eyes are open, my lips parted, but I can’t tell if I spoke aloud.

Beside me, Kirit yawns and stretches, his paws rumpling the blankets. He cocks his head at me, little more than a black silhouette against the slightly lighter darkness of pre-dawn. On my other side, Pretty Girl slumbers on, a heavy weight pressed against my back. My eyes flick to Dove’s bed, but she too is fast asleep. It makes me worry: There was a time when the slightest sound or misstep would earn me a sharp glance or a pinch on my arm. But now she lies still and silent as the grave, insensible to my mistakes and the danger they pose.

I can do better. I must do better, or risk losing my chance to go home. I’ll never see Emily get married.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.