My heart is racing, what did she hear? Having no chance to move, she straddles me, pinning me down. Shaylo takes my wrists holding them above my head. While glaring at me, she roars, “You killed him?” I am shaking, trying to force myself from her grasp.


    “Shaylo I,” I am still fighting to break free. The sudden burst of rage from her slams my wrists back into the dirt. The back of my hands sting from the pebbles scraping my skin.


    “You are nothing to me.” She hisses, red in her eyes. I am trying to roll over and wiggle free. Her weight is too much for me.


    “I could take you right now; maybe step on your throat?” She holds me firmly as I struggle; Shaylo is stronger than I am, I am panicking, struggling to take a gulp of air. “I don''t want to die.” I manage to choke out.


    “Why?” She screams in a raspy voice, but tears are streaming down her face. A couple of them drop onto mine and trickle into my mouth. The salty taste of a tear, there is no mistaking what it is. She shakes me hard and screams, “Why?” Angry sobs, with her hands on my wrists she punches my own hands into the dirt, and I start to feel the warmth of blood.


    I whisper, “Please.”


    She looks at me “What?”


    I gently say, “Please, he attacked me.”


    I set her off the deep end and she yells at me, “Liar!”This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    My heart is still pounding in my chest more so than the night her husband Shrago attacked me.


    “Please” I say in a raspy voice, “Look at me,” I cough on the saliva mixed with dust from the struggle going down the back of my throat, “Yes, I kept things from you.” Shaylo is shaking; I can feel with the weight of her body that her muscles are tensing up more than they already are; she is getting ready to let me have it.


    “Understand; he attacked me while I slept. Remember the wound on my throat when I first stayed in the stall next to you?” I am panting, but she is starting to listen. “Do you remember?” I need her to acknowledge.


    “Yes” She answers.


    “It was Shrago that did that to me.”


    “No!” She screams, but the red is fading in her eyes.


    “Yes” I whisper.


    “No” She repeats, only this time the rage is being replaced with sadness. The muscles in her body start to relax.


    “Please let me explain.” I test her by trying to lift myself and manage to sit up from the ground. It is as though she forgot that she was pinning me down. “It wasn’t my will; I didn''t wish to hurt anyone.” I pick up her hand and cup both my scrapped hands around hers. “Please look at me, I didn''t wish his death.” Shaylo looks up at me, tears flowing down her face. She is ashamed of them. Shaylo tries to stop them, but it is not working. “Please let me explain, will you listen?”


    She breathes in and forces the words out in a sob, “Yes, I need to know what happened to my beloved.”


    My own heart starts to slow to a steady beat, we sit cross-legged at the base of the tree, face to face, and I have not let go of her hand. All I see is the faint sparkle of her glassy eyes in the darkness. She is still a shadowy figure, and I tell her everything. I don''t know what has come over me because she could try to kill me after I finish. I have the feeling that more than just Shaylo''s eyes are on me. I gamble and sneak a glance in the direction where I sense it and sure enough, there is a shadow in the darkness not far off, watching. It comes as a relief to me in case something goes wrong. I know that it is Sitrus.