30. Taken.

30. Taken.
"What if you were not actually dreaming, Catherine?" He asks me again, making my pulse quicken despite how I am now struggling to breathe.

The intensity of his stare forces me to close my eyes and all I can do is simply shake my head at his suggestion, before abruptly standing to remove myself from this situation.

"Tell me, what did this man look like, exactly?" He pushes again, having suddenly stood and closed in on my space, before I could get away.

"Please forgive me, Lord Varun," I pause flustered, "I mean Varnur, I have held your business meeting up long enough, I should be going." I state, trying to move away while swallowing hard at the bile rising in my throat.

You, he looked like you.

Internally my mind is screeching it, but I cannot say it. To voice it would be preposterous. I move to scramble away from him, but before I make it a step his hand clamps onto my wrist preventing my escape.

"Please, do not go, Catherine. I am sorry I scared you, it was not my intention, My Love," he says it gently, triggering off more flashbacks to that day.

Was I not a dreaming, how can this be? It is too much.

"I am engaged to the future Duke of Erneska. Please, I must leave," I state, yet find myself making no attempt to remove his hand from my own.

Why won't my legs move?

"Yet, you are fit to be a Queen, Catherine," he responds, closing the distance between us. "My Queen, and I will not lose you a third time, I cannot." He whispers, so softly I almost miss the words.

He is real. I close my eyes briefly in acceptance of all my traitorous thoughts and beliefs. Everything I have tortured myself with over the past months has been for nothing. It was not just a dream, Lord Caspian Varnur is the horse from the sea, and he he is also the man who laid his claim on me when we last met. The man who left the taste of the sea on my skin and in my soul. The man I have dreamt of longingly; it is him.

"You kissed me?" I question him, "It wasn't a dream, was it?" I ask before he can answer my first question.

I feel as though reality is unravelling thoroughly around me.

"It was as real as this moment is, here and now," he affirms with a nod, before placing a soft kiss to my forehead.

I cannot help but lean into him at his actions, my body yielding completely to the comfort he seeks to offer.

"You came back for me?" I ask, still struggling to process all of the information presented to me.

"Twice now," he smirked gently, "And I would do it again if I had to, you belong to me, Catherine. You are my tethered mate."

His finality gives me pause, and my next words fall off my tongue without thought, "But, I am engaged to Edward now."

His grip tightens on my wrist, before he raises my left hand to my face, "Yet, you removed your ring the moment we started to speak. Your soul is mine, Catherine, just as my soul belongs wholly to you."

My ring is indeed gone, and it shocks me to see it. I turn to look down where his coat still sits, but he grabs my chin before I can.

"It is irrelevant now," He states, frowning as I begin to struggle.

"How can you say such a thing?" I ask in horror, appalled by my callous behaviour, as the guilt begins to claw at me.

Lord Varnur simply sighs, "Because you will not see Edward again."

"What have you done?" I ask disturbed by his implications, "Have you hurt him?"

He laughs at my question. He laughs, and I can't tell if it is down to the absurdity of my questioning or the fact that I am concerned.

"No, My Love. I do not need to hurt him; I have what I came for now. Although I was tempted, and believe me he would deserve it too." Lord Varnur explains, though I do not fully understand him.

"Please, let me go," I beg of him, tears welling in my eyes as a very real fear begins to creep its way up my spine.

I am fearful of what is to come.

He seems to stumble slightly at my tears, wincing as though they are bringing him considerable pain, and before I know it he is embracing me with reverence and tenderness. Holding me as if he would protect me from everything in the world, even my own tears.

"I am so sorry, Catherine. I failed you all those years ago, and now I cannot protect you from the pain that is still to come," he whispers regretfully.

"What do you mean?" I ask, openly weeping now.

"I am intending to take you home, and I am afraid the journey will neither be easy nor pleasant," he explains, pulling back to wipe at my tears stained cheeks.

"Catherine!" I hear Edward's voice in the distance, "Catherine!"

But I'm too afraid to talk, too afraid of what everything means, too stuck to even turn my head in the direction of my fiance's voice.

"Our time here is over now," He states, as he lifts me in his arms.

I cannot control my trembling as he cradles me into his chest, holding me tightly all while gently shushing my sobs. I know what he is about to do, we are headed in one direction, and one direction alone.

The sea is calling and he intends us to answer it.

I feel as though I have stopped breathing in anticipation.

Then when we are poised at the edge, and I can hear the water churn beneath where he cradles me; just as I think he is about to jump and doom us both, he stops abruptly. I feel him kissing my head and then the pain in my ankle begins to flare up and throb for the first time in days.

It is excrutiating, and I cry out feeling utterly betrayed by him for some unknown reason. But, before I can object or cry out in protest at whatever he is doing, I am free falling on my own. I scream during my descent, loud and hard, the feeling of hurt that he would throw me away like that is soul crushing. I want to curse at him, but before I am able to I am engulfed entirely by the water. The coldness seeps into my bones instantly, and I feel my chest constricting tightly at the violence of the shock. Not enough though to halt the large amounts of water my screaming voice has vacuumed straight into my lungs.

It burns.

With my mouth tasting so much of salt that I want to vomit, I finally gain my senses and try to swim upwards, opening my eyes to the blurred surroundings I am submerged in as I try to orientate myself. Stifling my need to throw up I try to reach for the surface, my chest burning as my body desperately tries to force me to cough the water back out. But, without the acess to the air above me I will gain no quarter by choking out the water too soon.

The pain in my leg is slowing my progress, yet I am getting closer to the surface. Just a few more kicks and I can breathe again, one, two, thr... But my injured leg has gotten caught, and panic washes over me all over again. My ankle, that has plagued me for nearly thirteen years is stuck on something, I have no idea what though. I reach downward, hoping to figure it out and gain my freedom before my time runs out; that's when I see him. He is blurry, but completely recognisable.

I could never forget that face.

The horse is as magnificent as I remember, yet now his eyes hold a guilt I cannot comprehend.

If he feels so guilty why is he doing this to me.

My vision blurs further as my own tears add to the already salted water around me. Then I see it shining, silken strands wrapped about my ankle, under my saturated and twisted skirts and petticoats. I follow the line to discover it's part of his mane.

That's why he called it a tether, because I am literally tied to this beast and I will drown because of it.

"Please," I try to say, my body wracking with coughs, and taking on more water as I run out of time.

He doesn't respond though, instead he turns away and begins to swim. My vision is failing, black dots are beginning to coat my sight just as my skirts fold back over my head from the force of which I am being dragged further into the depths of the sea.

I'm am lost, drowning again, in a claustrophobic mass of material that signifies the type of life I now will never lead. Constricted and damned, I finally stop fighting it. As the darkness takes me, I hope for relief. I wait for Lord Varnur's act of murder to stop hurting, for my chest to stop burning, but even in the darkness the pain lingers on. Setting me alight as I burn up in the agonising freezing temperatures of the deep.

Yet still, I am refused sanctuary, refused the peace of death.

I had no idea drowning would take so long, I had always thought it seemed like a peaceful death... I was wrong. My body is writhing out of my control as it contorts under the pressure of the sea. The weight above me is crushing and yet still I feel every burning moment.

It goes on and on; I have no idea of how much time has passed. But, eventually the pain does become too strong and I pass out from it, hoping I will never have to wake again.