In His Shadow, in His Bed
She just walked, her footsteps steady and sure, disappearing into the deepening twilight, leaving me standing alone on the sidewalk, the phantom sting of the blade a cold, permanent brand on my soul.
I had tried to haunt her. I had tried to force my way back into her consciousness. Instead, I had forced her to show me the monster I had created. I had backed a queen into a corner and made her reveal the claws I never knew she possessed. And I knew, with a certainty that settled deep into the marrow of my bones, that I had lost her forever. Not just as a lover, but as any kind of presence in her life. The ghost of Amelia was gone, exorcised by my own hand. In her place stood Eva Rossi, a warri