Sooner or later, Camulus would find them and then she would die.
He took her backpack as she reached for it. "I've got it."
She nodded, her eyes bright and shiny.
Neither one of them spoke as he led her outside to where Acheron was waiting. He handed her backpack to Ash.
"It's, uh... it's been fun, Talon," she said. "Will I see you again?"
He looked at Ash, who watched him with an arched brow as if he wanted an answer to that one himself.
"No," he said slowly.
She cleared her throat, but didn't speak. Instead, she walked over to Acheron. "I'm ready."
Ash stepped back and let her lead the way to the catamaran. "Celt," he said, "if you change your mind about our discussion, call me."
Talon nodded.
His heart breaking, he watched Sunshine strap herself in. Ash started the boat and then headed them out into the swamp.
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.
"What made you agree to it finally?" he asked, taking care to keep his voice level and smooth.
"It is time, Speirr. I want to live my life again. To find all the things I didn't have the last time. Love. Children. Even a job and a mortgage."
He couldn't smile at her attempt at humor, not while the pain inside him was so raw. So debilitating.
But he knew in his heart that she was right. It was time she had the things that had been denied her all those centuries before.
He wanted her to have all that and more. She deserved every happiness life could bring her. "I will miss you."
"And I shall miss you too, my brathair."
He offered her a smile that he knew was hollow. "I wish you all the best, lurach. I send my heart with you."
"I know, Speirr. I love you too, but you have Nynia now. You won't be alone without me."
Yes, I will. Because I can't keep her either.
He nodded stoically. "I'll always remember you, Ceara."
Her eyes sad, she sighed regretfully. "I had best be going. Goodbye, Speirr."
Talon choked on his goodbye. He couldn't say the word. It hurt too much to say it. Saying it would make it real and he desperately didn't want this to be real.
He wanted this to be a bad dream he could wake up from.
But it wasn't. It was real. All of it.
Sunshine was gone.
Ceara was gone.
He had no one.
Feeling forsaken, he watched Ceara fade out of the room.
His heart shattered, he sank to the floor on his knees and did something he hadn't done since the day Nynia had been buried.
He cried.
In his mind, he could see his father cut down by the Saxons while the boy, Speirr, had kept his mother and sisters safe from the murderous warriors.
He saw his mother and sister sick from a ravaging pox. Saw him working for Gara as hard as he could while the old woman took pleasure in making him suffer. At night, he'd cared for his sisters. And during those last few months of his mother's life when she'd been too ill to care for herself, he'd taken care of her too.
He saw Ceara as an infant who had been inconsolable as he tried everything to care for her. He remembered Gara turning them out into the dark night while they had no place to go.
It had been snowing that night too, and all he could think of was keeping his sister alive.
She was all he had.
And so he had carried her through the snowstorm while she screamed and howled. Through the leagues of frostbitten land until he had found his mother's people.
For his sister, he had begged and pleaded and allowed them to beat him until he couldn't stand.
He had never asked anything for himself.
Not until he found Nynia.
He had taken her and made her his, and by his own stupidity he had lost her.
They could never be together. Never.
I am solitude.
I am sorrow.
Talon bellowed in anger.
Suddenly, something to the right of him caught his attention. Talon frowned.
There was something sticking out from under his bed.
He moved toward it and pulled it out.
His heart stopped beating. Then it began pounding.
Sunshine had left them for him. There were three paintings of his cabin and dock and the view from his porch.
He stared at the vibrant, crisp colors that captured the scenery in the light of day.
They were beautiful, but nowhere near as beautiful as the woman who had given them to him.
A woman who had given him the greatest gifts of his life.
He found a note sandwiched between two of the paintings.
Opening it, he felt his stomach knot.
This is the swamp as I see it, but what I can't capture on canvas is you as I see you.
No brush or paint will ever show the hero that you are. It will never be able to portray the sound of your voice when you whisper my name. The way my skin tingles when you touch me.
The passion of you inside me.
I love you, Talon. I know that I can't keep you. No one can ever tame a wild beast.
You have a job to do and so do I. I only hope that when you think of me, it'll bring a smile to your face.
Love always,
Sunshine
He reread the note four times.
For centuries, he'd loved Nynia. But what he felt for Sunshine was so much more.
"Yes, you can win battles with a god." Acheron's words hovered in his mind.
Talon drew a ragged breath.
Yes, he could win. He would go out tomorrow night and take care of Mardi Gras for Acheron.
But once it ended...
He was going to summon Camulus and end this once and for all.
By Wednesday's dawn, either he or Camulus would be dead.