Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales #27) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,81

in the Med Center with his hand on the door of her room…and then he had gotten hold of himself and forced himself to go back to his own suite.

I have hurt and demeaned her, he reminded himself grimly. She deserves to be free of me. No matter how much it pains me, how bleak my life will be without her, I must let her go.

It was only sheer determination and the knowledge of his own guilt that kept him going, that allowed him to dress himself like a bridegroom while knowing that after today he was never going to see the female he loved so desperately again.

They were not celebrating the beginning of a life together but the ending—a relationship cut short by his own selfishness and foolishness.

This is my own fault, he reminded himself. Everything that happened to her is my fault and this is the only way to make things right. My honor demands that I set her free.

Your honor demands that you cut out your heart, whispered a little voice in his head.

Yes—that was how it felt, Roark thought, looking at himself once more. There was one more thing he lacked.

Going to his dresser, he picked up a black sheath and drew a gleaming ceremonial dagger from it. The blade was curved and there was a stone so red it was almost black set into its hilt—a blood stone.

This was the blade he would use for the Blood Letting part of the Severing—the part of the ceremony where he confessed his sins against the woman he was freeing and asked for forgiveness from her and from the Goddess.

Not that he could be forgiven for the things he’d done, Roark thought grimly. He sheathed the dagger again and fastened the sheath to his belt. It was time to be getting to the Sacred Grove so he could set Samantha free.

It was the only thing he could do, even if doing it made him want to die.

Sixty-Three

“My children, it saddens me greatly to have to perform this ceremony.” The Elder Priestess who was performing the Severing looked at both of them with sorrow in her green-within-green eyes.

Sammi had never seen a Kindred priestess up close and it occurred to her how strange it was that both the whites and the irises of their eyes were green. Even the woman’s silvery-white hair was streaked with emerald, as though it had been colored by the rays of the artificial green sun which shone down through the green and purple leaves of the trees that filled the Sacred Grove.

But it wasn’t the priestess she wanted to be looking at. Her eyes strayed to Roark, who was standing across from her like a bridegroom about to say “I do.” He looked stern and sad and he was devastatingly handsome in his dress uniform.

Sammi herself was wearing a pretty pale green dress that brought out her eyes. It was no bridal gown, but it was one of the nicer things she owned. She hadn’t wanted to wear it, but Meg had insisted that she dress up and look fabulous—both to honor the Sacred Grove and to show Roark that she was just fine without him. So her hair and makeup were also perfect—Meg had seen to that, as well.

Speaking of her best friend, Meg was currently standing to Sammi’s right and a little behind her.

Like she’s my maid of honor, Sammi thought, struck all over again how like a wedding this was. Though of course, it was the exact opposite. She looked at Roark again.

How can he want so badly to leave me that he’s willing to do a public divorce ceremony in the middle of the Sacred Grove? she thought sadly. Is it all just an excuse to never see me again? To not have to help raise the twins when they come?

But Roark had never seemed to dislike the idea of children. In fact, he was all about trying to help women who wanted babies have them. And he’d come from a large family himself—considering that he had two brothers and two fathers. So Sammi didn’t think her pregnancy and the impending birth of her daughters was the problem.

It must be me, she thought. He just doesn’t want to be with me. I’m defective somehow and he doesn’t want me.

The thought brought her so low that she could scarcely pay attention to the Elder Priestess’s next words.

“From the beginning of our people, this ceremony has been one fraught with pain and