*Name Pronunciation: Ríoghnach--ree-uh-na
Fate or free will? It's a common debate, but what if the answer was always both? What if I told you that fate places people and things in our path, but we ultimately choose if we want those things? What if I told you that every choice you make has the potential to haunt you for lifetimes and not just the one you’re living right now?
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I stared at a beautiful, bright blue sky full of fluffy white clouds. I could taste the cool salt air on my tongue and smell the soft fragrance of spring snowdrops and daffodils on the hills around us—the distant sound of crashing water and birds mixed with my shallow breathing. The soft bed of yellow clover felt damp against my back, and I could feel the weight of his head resting on my stomach, our fingers laced at my side. I blinked, and the current reality rippled a little around me. Internally, I battled a warm feeling of joy and a knot of dread in my stomach. Thoughts and feelings that were both my own and not. I knew this moment. I'd been here before, but I would have no control over the events about to unfold.
“What is it, my love?” The man lying in the grass beside me asked. I was sure he could feel the tension building in my body. This is how the sequence starts every time. I know the steps like a well-rehearsed dance number. The moment his unnerving, indigo blue eyes meet mine, I feel it. I see the thin silvery thread that connects our souls, and the connection snaps into place like electricity.
“Raul…this has to end. We can’t keep sneaking around, we are going to get caught-”
“No!” he growled as he squeezed my fingers in a painful grip. “You’re mine; I remember everything!” he insisted. I could feel his anger and refusal to accept any reality but his own.
“I know, but we found each other too late this cycle. I have children…I have…” The cold metal on my left ring finger felt so heavy as I spoke. “I have a kind man who tries his best to care for me.”
“You don’t love him.”
“He loves me, though,” I said with as much finality as I could manage. The anger flashed in his eyes, and he moved too fast for me. A black hand-carved dagger in his grasp, the tip of the blade pressed into my chest directly above my heart as a dot of blood began to bloom on my white blouse. His aura flared black as his eyes locked with mine, unyielding and daring all at once.
“I won't give you up. If I cannot have you, he won't get you either,” he threatened. His hands were shaking, and a hint of desperation colored his words.
“If you do this, I will never be yours again.” I half warned and half threatened. I could feel him pressing the knife further. I could feel his sorrow, and it mixed with my own as the energy around us started to buzz and crackle. He had so much potential for darkness in him—raw, uncontrolled power fueled and intensified by perfervid emotions— even after many lifetimes, he still had no control over it. With a shaky hand, I cupped his chin in my palm.
“Please…don’t do this…”
“Ríoghnach, give me another choice! I've dreamed of you my whole life. I searched the continent for you, chasing every story that could have led me to you, all for this moment. Now you tell me that because you didn't wait for me, it was for nothing?” His words intensified my internal battle. I didn't want to hurt him, but I also knew that he would likely lose control of himself if I didn't do something quickly. I couldn't let him harm innocent people.
“You know I couldn't wait, not in this lifetime,” I paused, trying to find the strength to do what needed to be done. “If you do this–” I took a deep breath, calling the magic that thrummed in my veins. “I bind you. You will no longer remember our soul connection or the lives we have lived, no matter how many cycles–” I was cut off as the blade slid into my heart, my magic still humming around us.
“Nor shall you. You will never find comfort, you will never find real love, and your womb shall remain barren without me! Until your curse is broken, we will both exist in empty misery.” his eyes hardened, the color shifting into pure blackness as they locked with mine. Then he pulled down harder on the knife, slicing through flesh and bone with extreme force.
“Silly witch, with your blood, I’ll seal both our fates,” he growled as he reached into the gash in my chest, pulling my heart free from my chest with a sickening squelch. My vision started to blur as I took in the scarlet of my blood splatter all around us. The last thing I see is a single tear running down his cheek as he lets out a broken scream. Then, blackness and nothing.
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