Recent content by Keres

She swallowed hard on purpose. Steel kissed her throat and bit in, just enough. A sharp sting. Warmth followed, a thin bead of blood welling and sliding down into the hollow at her collarbone. Her breath hitched, but she did not look away. Dark eyes locked onto Agravayne’s face, unblinking...

Pain flared through her scalp as Agravayne fisted her hair, wrenching her head back. But no sound came, her body betrayed her utterly, slack and useless in his grip. Kill them... The thought was not shouted. It was whispered. Her own voice, cold and vicious inside her skull, stripped of...

The last thing she saw as they hauled her from the room was Threnody. The hands that had held her, that had played her music, now slick and red, pressed futilely to his ruined belly. The sound her name had made as it left his lips in a trembling breath of stunned disbelief. That look on his face...

Keres stared up at Raith as understanding dawned on his face, her vision swimming as the room seemed to tilt. Totems. Balance. The words slid past her without meaning, slipping through a mind already splintering under pain and panic. 'Are we killing her..' Her heart lurched violently in her...

Threnody. "No!” The wore tore out of her as spiders flooded her mouth, skittering over her lips, her tongue, her teeth. She gagged violently, hands flying up to claw them away, smearing blood and silk and black bodies across her face as tears burned hot in her eyes. “I’m s-"” The word died...

The sound Agravayne made as he folded in on himself was deeply, viciously satisfying. Keres kept the sword up despite the tremor in her arm, the point wavering as she tracked each of them with it, her grip tightening until her knuckles ached. The voices surged the moment fear slipped its hooks...

She couldn’t argue. He wasn’t here. And yet she wanted nothing more than for him to stride through that doorway right now. But she was alone, always, and perhaps she was a fool for thinking he'd actually 'care'. Her breath quickened as the brute stepped into her space, the shadow of him...

Keres flinched at the first heavy slam against the door, her breath catching. She was on her feet before she even realised she’d moved, backing away, palms seeking something solid until her shoulder blades collided with the cold stone wall. The draft from the narrow window played through strands...

“Yes.” she snapped, the sound sharper than she had intended and her brow knit tightly. “Thank you for reminding me,” she added bitterly, as if he’d scraped a fresh wound open. “I didn’t want to kill them…” she muttered, as though saying it aloud might wash some of the blood from her hands...

Can you get stronger?.. Keres’ chin dipped in a small, hesitant nod at the question. She didn’t know the answer, not truly, but she’d felt the rush of tearing a soul from a living body. A terrible, devouring power. A high so fierce it had nearly ripped her apart. If she learned to control it…...

Keres let out a slow, exhausted sigh, her shoulders rising and falling in a shrug. His answer wasn’t what she’d hoped for. No shared madness, no shared ghosts. Just stones that screamed at her and her alone. Her gaze dropped to her knees, pulling tighter into herself. “I always hear the dead,”...

Her brow knitted, a tight, pained crease forming as his words sank under her skin like hooks. Her stomach twisted at his shame and regret. He thought she blamed him. He thought she needed to forgive him. As though either of them had been given choices. Keres swallowed hard, forcing clarity...

Keres hadn’t expected how deeply the music would cut. How quietly it would move through her, slipping between the bruises and the raw places inside her chest like water seeping through cracks in stone. When was the last time she’d heard a song? A tavern somewhere, with Roul beside her, tankard...

Keres jerked her hand back the instant he flinched, fingers curling into a fist before she drew her knees in tight, arms winding around them as if to make herself small. The air between them felt suddenly too fragile. “Threnody…” she echoed softly, eyes lowering. “Alright. If that’s what you...

Keres sucked in a sharp breath as his voice broke the quiet. Her spine stiffened, her blood running cold as the world seemed to tilt beneath her. She turned her head slowly, meeting those soft green eyes now bright with pain and confusion. “I…” The word fell out of her, thin and useless.. No...