"I wanted nothing but silence, black woods, decay, cold winds; to lie twisted and turned as a serpent, to be in unison with a dying earth."

-Segovia Amil

…

I really should have been afraid. There should have been some semblance of intuition inside my stagnant, unchanging body that feared this looming death.

But I was not afraid.

In fact, I felt nothing—nothing except the urge for everything to stop.

Perhaps I hadn't realized just how much pain I'd been in while Beau was still alive. Perhaps part of me couldn't bear to take myself away from him, despite the fact we'd been worlds apart for months now. Perhaps my small vestige of self-preservation had been as thin as a thread, as frail as the mortal, transitory life of the human boy I'd left behind more than half a year ago—but had never stopped loving, even for a moment.

On either side of me, the tall, foreboding vampires moved silently across the silver-soaked cobblestones. My skin glowed dimly in the silver bath of the moon, as did the walking stones underneath our soundless feet. Their skin did not catch the rays of the moon—their faces were hidden behind the veil of their thick, velvet cloaks.

Their thoughts, however, were not hidden.

Why does she do it…? I don't understand… The first one was thinking.

I hope she takes a stand, the second yearned. She doesn't look like much, though… Hmm… How disagreeable. I've been waiting so long for one to fight back.

Neither one of the sentries knew what my fate would be. Sulpicia, Marcus and Athenodora had made this decision on their own, and I awaited their verdict with great expectancy. I could not say I was eager to know what Sulpicia would say, but I could say I welcomed it.

Nothing about me was eager now—anticipatory of the end, yes, but there was no hint of excitement left in the frozen shell of my body.

I just wanted the pain to end. But to call it 'pain' did not do it justice. Pain was something that was merely temporary, to be avoided, or, if it could not be, at least endured.

This kind of torment was entirely unendurable. I could not tolerate it.

Not only was it anguish to think of Beau dead, to realize that I was the reason he was dead, but there was something else not so easily explained. The absence of his precious, pure life was a void, a black, sucking hole, in the center of my chest. I could not escape the ghastly hollowness, I could not see around it; I could not overcome it.

There was nothing, now. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to be. I was absolutely nothing without Beau. My mind and heart had already died with the knowledge of his death. All that was left to accomplish was the physical death of my body.

The larger, more well-muscled vampire of the two, Fern, stepped forward to pull open the elaborate chamber doors in front of us, and I stepped forward, to attend my execution.

…

A/N: Just a short little preview of what's to come! See you all soon! xo