Kolton left.
The sight of him walking away was like daggers in my chest, it was the final punctuation mark in a chapter of my life I had believed was eternal. It was a lie, and the severance didn't just hurt, it was an act of internal psychic violence.
Where our souls had been woven together, a massive, jagged void appeared. It wasn't emptiness, it was a hungry, vibrating absence that sought to consume the edges of everything left behind.
Niobe came over to me and clapped, her face looking excitedly.
''Right,'' She said, ''Time is short, let's start your first training session so we can focus on the curse transfer.
''Alight,''
''Let's go to my garden.'' She said as she led the way to the small courtyard filled with flowers I'd never seen before.
''What flowers are these?''
''They'
