Ankyra Sound There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon

Good, thought Ephraim as Raleska backpedalled through the sand. It was better if she thought he was a monster but never saw the damage he'd wrought in the blue light below. It was better if she was afraid of him than if she hated him more than she already did. It was better if she believed that Mom had gone somewhere else than to know with absolute finality that she was gone. It was better if she didn't know it was Ephraim's doing.

You murdered her.

I didn't, he weakly muttered, talking more to himself than to Raleska. Raleska might as well have disappeared for the moment; guilt was sweeping him down a tunnel in his head where she didn't exist. She could've got up and left or leapt for his throat and either way, he wouldn't notice.

Murderer!

I didn't, he said with more force, lifting his teary-eyed gaze to his long lost sister. That was when her vivid yellow eyes registered. It wasn't Raleska he was looking at. It wasn't the silver-eyed demon that had come to claim his mother's body in the end, either. It was the fierce, burning yellow of Caiaphas' glare that he looked into, reflected in his sibling's face, and it was her mouth that proclaimed it.

MURDERER!

I DIDN'T MEAN TO, he wept helplessly at her.