Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Hanna was so horrified that at first she couldn’t speak.
“Wraith, no!” she gasped, finally finding her voice. “No, you can’t trade yourself for me—you can’t.”
“I can and I will.” Wraith kept his gaze fixed on the glowing red eyes of the Dark Entity. “Take me and let her go, Demon,” he challenged. “I’m nearly twice her size.”
“But will you be as much fun to fuck, I wonder?” the Dark Entity mused.
Wraith glared at it.
“Don’t you like a challenge? You can try to fuck me, but nobody says you’ll succeed. Or is it only helpless females you like? Are you too much of a coward to take on a warrior?”
This taunt seemed to decide the Dark Entity.
“You swear to come with me to the Pit without a struggle?” it demanded.
“I give my word as a Kindred warrior. My sword stays here.” Wraith kicked his bright silver blade away. “As for the fucking, there’s going to be some fighting first, but you can try.”
“I think I like that idea. Very well…”
The clawed fingers suddenly unwrapped themselves from around Hanna’s arm and the shadow body moved towards the big Kindred.
“No!” she cried again, reaching out for Wraith. “No, Wraith—you can’t do this! You can’t sacrifice yourself for me! I won’t let you!”
“Hanna, get back to the Land of the Living and stay there.” Wraith’s voice was hard and his eyes never left the Dark Entity’s. “Go now, while you have the chance!”
“I won’t! I won’t leave you!” she cried.
“You have to.” Wraith pointed at the open doorway. Even now it was just a few feet away. “Go—don’t let the demon take us both! You must go while you can!”
“No!” Hanna was sobbing by now. “No, Wraith! I can’t let you do this—I can’t let you give yourself for me! Stop this and come with me now!”
“I can’t, little one. I’ve given my word.” He looked at her earnestly and she could see that his heart was breaking. “I love you, Hanna,” he said in a low voice. “And I’ll never forget you or the time we spent together. Now please—go.”
Then the Dark Entity wrapped its shadowy substance around the big warrior and suddenly both of them were gone, leaving Hanna alone and weeping in the Shadow Lands.
24
HANNA
Somehow Hanna staggered back through the doorway to the Land of the Living. She hardly knew how she managed though—her eyes were almost too blinded with tears to see anything.
When she woke up the second time in Uncle Bruin’s arms, she found that he and Aunt Luna had taken her out of the little girl’s hospital room—which was now crawling with medical staff—and they were all in a hallway of the hospital.
“Oh thank the Goddess!” Aunt Luna exclaimed, when Hanna opened her eyes. “I was so afraid we’d lost you forever! But here you are, back in the Land of the Living and you’re all right!”
“No, I’m not!” Hanna said, and began to sob.
The next few weeks were as dark and horrible as the previous weeks had been bright and wonderful.
Hanna spent every minute of every day thinking of Wraith—imagining the horrors that were being done to him, the torment he was enduring. And all because she had stupidly left the door to the Shadow Lands open instead of closing it after she’d found Little Luna!
My fault—everything that’s happening to him is my fault! He’s being tortured right now—maybe even raped and devoured alive—all because of me! she thought over and over again. It became an obsessive thought—an endless litany of guilt in her head and the worst thing about it was her imagination insisted on conjuring horrible images to go along with the terrible words.
Hanna barely slept anymore because when she did, her thoughts turned into the most vivid and horrible nightmares she’d ever had. But she refused to let Aunt Luna give her calming potion because she felt she deserved every bit of the torment.
“My dear, you know Wraith wouldn’t want you to punish yourself this way!” Her aunt said desperately, when Hanna had refused any kind of help yet again several weeks after she had lost her ghost warrior. “He sacrificed himself because he loved you!”
“I loved him too,” Hanna said dully, pushing away the calming sleep draught Aunt Luna had concocted just for her. “He’s the only man I’ve ever loved and now he’s gone. But he’s not just dead—he’s being tortured for all eternity, Aunt Luna! And it’s all my fault!”
“It’s not your fault!” her aunt tried to argue. “Please, sweetheart—don’t keep blaming yourself!”
“Who else should I blame?” Hanna demanded. “I’m the one who left the door wide open! I’m the one who let him take my place in the Pit. I deserve every single sleepless night…every single nightmare. No matter how bad they get, I can’t ever be in as much pain and agony as he’s suffering right now.”