He was rambling. He had no idea of what had passed above. Cara felt sick. She tried to open her mouth, felt bile rising, and her legs lost their feeling. The young woman stumbled forwards, found an open tomb, and simply fell against it. She collapsed and Dalius looked at her, breaking off from his monologue.

The [Knight]’s wretched face went to wrath—then, as he looked at her, a dawning horror. Dalius licked his lips.

“No. Surely—he raised such a small army. Surely they broke—surely—it was only thousands. Only Ghouls. Only…”

His voice stuttered and trailed off. Cara’s own was leaden. She wanted to throw up. Part of her was still disbelieving as she said it.

“Dalius. I came from Afiele. Lord Lantal and Lady Risel. And Sasi—everyone but Culin—they’re all dead.”

She watched as the [Knight] took the news. First, Dalius froze, his eyes wide.

Then he began to shudder. His body strained against the magical bindings. He twisted, trying to break free, gave up—and then began to shake.

Uncontrollably. Dalius did not know Lantal, Risel, or Sasi. He did not know their family and Afiele’s living people. The [Knight] had never known Lantal or Risel’s kindness, or the children.

Yet he had sworn to protect them. He tried to move. Tried to stand, and the bindings forced him to stillness. He knew death. Unlike Cara—he knew what she had seen, and he looked at her face, saw the dumb horror there, and knew.

So the [Knight] threw back his head and howled. Cara clapped her hands to her ears, flinching back. Her skin crawled. She felt an instinct to run. The keening shriek wasn’t a sound she had ever heard before.

The sound wasn’t Human. No mortal voice could have made that sound. When the scream finally finished echoing, the ghost looked at Cara.

No fondness was left. He snarled at her, his face contorted, shifting into…something else. Something less than the [Knight]. Changing. As if his wrath and loss and despair were overpowering his memory of himself.

His voice as well, changing far below the normal register of sound. He threw himself against the spells again, and Cara stumbled back, falling to hit the ground. Two burning eyes glowed at her behind a Wraith’s face.

“Dalius?”

“I should have never let you live! I should have killed you the moment I saw you! But for you, Afiele would have lived! Trickster! Deceiver! Did you work with him?”

The [Knight] had gone mad with despair. He looked nothing like Dalius. Cara drew back. To run? Where?

There was only the quiet tomb. So quiet, the dignity of the dead gone. Outside? Afiele ruined. The fault of it, the cause of it all—

It was their fault.

Her fault.