It was over.
She was gone.
I am Darkness. I am Shadow.
I am the Ruler of the Night.
I, alone, stand between mankind and those who would see mankind destroyed. I am the Guardian.
The Soulless Keeper.
Neither Human, nor Apollite, I exist beyond the realm of the Living, beyond the realm of the Dead.
I am the Dark-Hunter.
And I am Eternal... unless I find that one pure heart who will never betray me. The one whose faith and courage can return my soul to me and bring me back into the light.
If not for Camulus...
"Not all of us are given a second chance to reclaim what we've lost. If Nynia came back to you, maybe there's a reason for it."
Aching, he turned his back on the sight of Sunshine leaving him and walked back into his cabin. He shut the door and looked about.
There was so much emptiness here now that Sunshine was gone. She had filled his home with happiness. Most of all, she had filled him with happiness.
His gaze fell to her pink cosmetics bag on his desk. She had forgotten it along with her hairbrush and hair ties.
Poor Sunshine, she was forever forgetting things.
"Speirr?"
He turned sharply to see Ceara beside him. "Lurach, are you here to judge me too?"
"Nae, my brathair, I am here only to speak with you."
"About what?"
She reached out for him and then dropped her hand when she remembered they couldn't touch. "I just wanted to tell you before I leave that I have agreed with the god Bran to be reborn."
Talon's lungs seized.
He couldn't move.
He couldn't breathe.
Ceara gone?
Nae! The word tore through him.
She couldn't leave him. Not now. Not after all this time. She was the only solace he had left to him.
And at the same time, he couldn't bring himself to say that to her. To let her know how much he wanted her to stay.
How much he needed her to stay.
If he did, she would do as he asked and give up her future...
He could never be so selfish.