Chapter 56
Seasons [Rival & Cadmium feat. Harley Bird]
Eden Island: Pandora Hart
Light slithers into the room, dripping me in warmth through this sense of bitter coldness. Through groggy vision, I sit upright, push dark hair away from my face, and groan.
“Reen,” I yawn. “Reen, the poison didn’t work.”
I slap my hand down on him, only for it to feel like stone, cold to the touch and with no sense of warmth.
My eyes widen, and the hand on his chest tightens when the bite of tears slips down my cheeks.
Slowly, I turn my body to look at him. A bite of pain shreds down my lungs, and my nose flares when I see him lying so still.
“Reen?” I whisper.
“He’s dead,” a voice comes from the entrance.
I snap a look in that direction and notice Alad, his eyes red, raw, and burning, staring at Reen lying lifeless on the bed. His nostrils flare with every uneven breath he takes, and I know, like me, he’s struggling to breathe, too.
“Prince Reen knew that no matter how much he cared for you, unless it was under strict circumstances, he wouldn’t be able to resist killing you. So, he took himself out of the equation.”
My lip curls. “But I don’t want to live without him!”
“And that’s why I am here.” Alad takes a cautious step forward. “By the law of King Walkyer, I am to prevent anything from happening to you, by your hands or another's. Prince Reen ensured it was put in place.”
I slam my hands down on Reen’s chest. “Idiot! Idiot! Idiot, idiot, idiot, fucking idiot!”
Nothing happens. Nothing moves. Not even a stir that I could latch onto in desperation.
I want this to be a sick game—one of the many games he has played with me.
At any moment, the colour will flush his cheeks, the warmth will prickle stone-cold skin, and those vibrant red eyes will open and greet me.
I bow my head, pressing it against his chest. My shoulders tremble, and horrendous sobbing cries rip through my lungs.
Every aching memory fills my mind: the laughter in his eyes when they crinkled, a smirk that caused my heart to flutter, lips that pressed against his hips, tenderly brushing against burns from another time.
His fingers, and whenever they poked me, were for a reason: to keep his distance from me and to stop himself from falling.
The way he made me love myself, but in the end, he was the one who needed to love himself.
How could I be so fucking stupid in not seeing it?
! I should have cared for him more and opened him up until he could look in the mirror and see someone worth loving!
Snot sucks up my throat when I sniff. Rising, I wipe the tears, the ache, and the burning regret.
“What do I do now?” I say, and my lip trembles. “Where do I go if it’s not with him, Alad?”
He smiles, but a tear slips down his cheek. “I don’t know.”
I drag my hands down my face and throat when they hook onto something. My fingers pinch the pendant, cupping it in my hand. Through the pain, I hitch a breathy laugh.
* * *
Two Months Later
Wind chimes twinkle in the breeze, spinning an assortment of colours made of sweet honey and salt. Colourful stalls open in the early morning, and excitement fills the air with chirpy, friendly voices.
It’s been seven weeks since Alad and I stood over the open grave and said our last goodbyes. We were only staying for a week, but the more I roamed the streets, the more of a pull there was to wait. Also, being here, I feel a part of him, like he’s still with me through it all.
A man at the fruit stall comes to me with a brimming smile and hands me a piece of fruit. I graciously take it, dipping my head as Alad tells them I said, “Thank you.” He’s always there, opening the stall and smiling.
I met him the first day I came here after I buried Reen.
At the time, I didn’t realise I was crying.
The tears rushed down, but I felt numb and devoid of feelings.
Then the man approached me, cupping a yellow pear into my hands and pushing it to my mouth to eat.
Since then, he has found me in the crowd whenever I walk down this street.
The older man with greying blue hair always comes up to me, giving me a pear and pointing to his lips, gesturing for me to smile.
We enter the fish market. Filters splutter in tanks filled with colourful fish. I imagine Reen here, beside me, holding my hand. Like the kid he saw in his past, he would lean down, admiring the fish, lobsters, crabs, and every core memory that burned inside him.
While Alad buys fish for tonight’s meal, I lean down and admire the minnow in the tank beside the crabs.
White hair falls across my shoulders, twisting in soft curls.
I awakened recently, and I tried hiding it at first. I would put the contacts in, place a wig on and pretend to be something I wasn’t. But the elemny here has sharp eyes.
When I pointed to the fish in the tank once, a woman noticed, and the ice bit up the glass.
I thought I needed to fight my way out. Even Alad was prepared to body elemny.
Except she called me Hunter. It ached when she said it, but we sat at her home that night, and she spoke of the legendary story of Eden and Hunter.
She was of fire with a heart of gold, while he was made of ice and a heart of stone.
It was a fascinating story, but the food made me stay.
“Hunter, Hunter!” A boy, no more than six, grins at me when he points to my hair.
I’m not Pandora here. There’s no Hart to hear from. When I’m here, most call me Hunter because of the colour of my hair. But they don’t say it with fear or disgust on their faces. I’m someone from a story everyone seems to know here, and they accepted me into their way of life with open arms.
“Uh, uh…”
I rise and turn to an elderly woman with greying green hair, pointing at me. I eye Alad, and he moves until he’s standing beside me, the fish in a bag in his hands. He talks to her, and she nods, still pointing at me.
“Your pendant, Pandora,” Alad says. “She wants to see it.”
I approach her, and she touches the pendant until it’s pinched in her wrinkled fingertips. She rubs her lips together, and deep within her sea-green eyes, they waver, glistening in the sunlight.
“Ji-Sun,” she says, clear as day.
My eyes widen. Taking a step away from her, I move my hands behind my neck, unclasp it and raise it toward her. “This is yours.”
The elderly earth elemny looks at my hands, then at me, as I struggle to keep in the pain. Her hands move over mine, and she pushes my hands back toward me and talks, but I understand nothing except one word…Reen.
Alad says, “This is Ji-Sun’s step-grandmother. She said she wants you to keep it because you would only have it if Reen gave it to you.”
“Can you ask her why he gave it to me?”
Alad talks to her again. Her eyes soften, and she turns and speaks as if directing all her attention onto me when she talks.
“She says that it passes down to the one they love. Her husband gave her the necklace when they were dating, and then when they had their children, she gave it to Minson Kyong—Ji-Sun’s first husband.
” He stops and listens to her speak again, nodding.
“And when he met Ji-Sun, he gave it to her to keep until their first son came of age. In this case, it was Reen.”
“Tell her that if I keep it, there’s no one I can give it to, so it’s a waste.”
She shakes her head and pushes her hands and mine to me until they rest on my chest.
“She doesn’t care,” Alad says. “But she wants to have dinner with you and to know all about Reen. She heard about his…but wants to know about your time with him.”
I smile and nod. “Okay.”
She takes my hand tenderly with a brimming smile, but her grip is of iron. We move down the crowded streets, children with laughter in their eyes and elemny waving to me.
Reen, I wish you were here, too. Just like me, no one would have feared you. You wouldn’t be the hunter or the mutt. For the first time, you would have been you.