Candace
"No! No, Evan!"
His wife's scream shattered whatever composure I had left. She lunged forward, arms outstretched, fingers clawing desperately at empty air while two guards restrained her.
Blood streamed down Evan's chin, and his head hung limply forward. He was gone.
A low gasp escaped my lips, and my legs buckled beneath me.
Before I hit the ground, Ragnor caught me from behind, and the world blurred. His strong arms wrapped around me as a wheezing sob tore from my chest, and pain coiled around my insides like barbed wire, tightening until I thought it might crush me.
Samantha had collapsed onto the stone courtyard. She clutched her daughter against her chest while agonized sobs ripped through her body.
The sound tore straight through me.
Suddenly, I was no longer standing in the courtyard. I was back there, three years ago, back to my mother screaming, begging, crying, watching my father's head roll across the ground.
