THE SOUNDS WERE ANIMAL: wild sounds in the savage darkness, sounds of ragged, tortured panting. Fingers had crooked into claws, flesh tearing at flesh, fists flailing. She saw the clenched flash of teeth, lips drawn back, human no longer. And their eyes: predators’ eyes, killers’ eyes. Human killers, more dangerous than animal. She heard a scream: her voice, her scream. But the sound was lost, only a whimper, stifled in her throat. Strangler’s fingers, his flesh on hers: murderer’s flesh, no longer a lover’s. She must break free. Legs thrashing, arms lashing, she must—
The first crash, metal on bone, ignited the kaleidoscope, an incandescent shower cascading through the darkness behind her eyes. She’d seen these lights cascading through this same darkness only once, when she’d fallen from her horse. She’d—
With the second crash, perspectives were changed. She felt sensation leaving, felt herself falling away—slowly at first, then faster, a sickening spiral, accelerating.
With the third crash, the incandescence flickered, faded, finally failed. Her last moment of consciousness registered the particular smell of the rich, loamy earth—and the sound of her horse’s hooves as he trotted away, riderless.