Chapter Forty-Seven
Iris
The destruction of a planet is eerily beautiful.
Every element that exists swarms together as Remus calls upon it to destroy.
Lightning and thunder continually crackle across the sky, and now that the sun has begun its ascent, a red trail of streaks splits through the clouds.
It’s frightening and beautiful all at once.
The air is still, but so heavy. With each passing hour, I can feel Remus’s control settling over it all, making the air thick with his presence—his terrifying presence.
“Ngh!” I groan in pain as I crawl to the top of the hillside.
The wound that we burned shut has torn in places, causing me to bleed on what’s left of this dress.
I’m pouring sweat, my eyes burning from how dehydrated I am.
But no matter how helpless we felt near the shore, we couldn’t remain there.
The water was beginning to rise much higher than usual, likely the result of Remus’s path of destruction.
“Let’s stop here,” Sky says as we both remove the makeshift ropes fashioned from our dresses.
It was the only way we could drag Ezra up the hill along with us.
Since last night, he’s been mostly unconscious.
The few seconds that he is conscious always end in him convulsing.
Whatever their mother did to save his life must have been a quick fix.
He needs more. He needs medical attention.
I collapse as my legs finally give way. I am exhausted.
If not for the small bit of adrenaline fueling me at the idea of Remus destroying an entire planet, I’m sure I’d have passed out ten times over by now.
Neither Sky nor I know what to do. All we can do at this point is try to survive for as long as we can.
I flinch as another crack of lightning strikes through the sky. It stretches for miles, disappearing over the horizon.
I laugh bitterly to myself, and Sky notices.
“Should I work on a backup plan in case you check out sooner rather than later?” she asks. I shake my head, my attention remaining on the insane elements surrounding us.
“It’s just funny, is all. I never imagined Remus would destroy this place.” I shift my attention to Ezra. “But I guess he did.”
Ezra and Xion were cautious about the situation, knowing that the possibility of Remus retaliating was on the table.
I feel stupid now for ever thinking it was out of touch that Remus could do something like this.
Xion and Ezra obviously know a side of him that I ignored because of our more recent days before their mother interfered.
I figured that Remus knows this place is important to his siblings, and I guess until now was important to him.
“Why would he do something like this, is my question. What’s happened since the celebration that’s resulting in the destruction of a planet they conquered worlds in the name of?” I ask.
Sky shrugs, sitting next to me.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” she says, taking a deep breath. “I guess Earth was taken for no grand purpose in the long run.”
I don’t respond as the world around physically begins to shift so much, that words are lost on me.
Although the sun is rising, the sky slowly begins to darken.
The air grows chilly, and I shiver as fear coils in my belly.
It takes thirty seconds total for the entire sky to grow pitch black… until there is nothing.
“Sky?” I whisper, my hand shakily looking for hers in the dark. Her touch is as frightened as mine as we find each other, squeezing in terror.
We both jump as the air crackles, and bright blue beams of light streak across the sky.
They grow, and I tense when I realize they are descending to the ground.
Tears form in my eyes, and I lean against Sky’s shoulder, trembling as the ground shakes.
As I close my eyes, my tears spill down my cheeks, and I try to hide my sobs as memories of my family appear in my mind.
They’re brief, which makes me sad. I barely remember them. I can’t even imagine their faces any longer. With Cypress, however, all I see is his hate-filled expression. And as the shake of the ground turns into a violent crack of it breaking beneath us, Remus’s face appears in my mind.
His soft smiles, his breathy laughs, even his serious expressions.
“Ah!” Sky and I scream in unison as trees rip from their roots near us.
But I still think of Remus. The comfort his quiet presence brought, the warmth and certainty of his touch, and his way of seeing the world through my eyes towards the end.
I can’t say whether what I feel for him is love.
But it isn’t hate. Not any longer. Even now, as we fall victim to his power, I don’t feel hatred.
I don’t know if this is his doing or a result of more control by the people he trusted most. It doesn’t matter now.
My battle for him has ended. Maybe someone else will take up the sword in the future.
I only hope that he will no longer be a slave to his mother.
We scream as the loud thunder of rock and debris surrounds us. It drowns us out, the violent crash making our bodies shake with the ground. My heart pounds wildly in my chest, my ears ringing.
This is it. This is how I die.
Suddenly, everything stops.
I no longer feel Sky’s touch in my hand, and I can hear my sobs again. I flinch when I feel a warm touch on my cheek, like a caress. I jump, opening my eyes to see that I am face to face with an ethereal set of purple and blue eyes.
It’s Remus.
My breathing hitches in my throat as I look at him, not knowing whether to feel fear or relief.
He looks different, but somewhat the same.
There’s no blood, no wounds; he’s completely healed as if his battle with the Celestivine never happened.
His eyes have changed drastically. They glitter like jewels, the calm now replaced with chaos.
If not for the tears in them, I wouldn’t know if he recognized me in this moment.
His hair, usually flowing down his back has shortened significantly, coming to his shoulders.
He’s really here. But my body won’t let me believe it, not after everything I’ve gone through. I try to move away, trembling.
“Don’t…please,” I whisper.
I don’t know what I’m begging for, but Remus ignores my words, his arms wrapping around my neck and waist as he pulls me into him. Warmth radiates from his every pore, covering my body. The pain, the exhaustion, all of it decreases to a dull ache as he heals me, his body trembling against my own.
“You’re alive,” he says.
I must be dead. I died. I died, and for some reason, Remus is the one to greet me in the afterlife. But his grip tightens, and his sobs grow more intense, making me think this isn’t a dream. This is real.
“I…” I trail off, not knowing what to say. All this time I wanted him back, and here he is on the cusp of a world’s destruction. He pulls away from me, and I’ve never seen anything as painfully beautiful as tears in his eyes accompanied by a smile.
He’s smiling.
I’m in shock, I realize as I reach for his face, and he lets me. I press my palm against his cheek, and his skin is warm beneath my touch. He doesn’t pull away, and there is no force field blocking me from his skin. It’s him. He’s real, and he’s here.
I slowly shift my attention around us. Wherever this is can’t have been on Xyrannis.
We’re surrounded by a blue sky that gives nothing else other than the intense color.
And we’re atop a singular mountain, it looks like.
My brain can’t seem to comprehend anything as it tries to readjust itself from being on the brink of death.
It slowly becomes real. My tears return, my body jumping into Remus’s as I relay everything to him.
I cry and sob, begging him to stop what he’s doing, telling him that Ezra and Sky are still alive and that Noah sacrificed his life to save us.
I cry for him, begging him to forgive me for not doing more.
And while I do so, I spend every second inhaling his scent, squeezing the fabric of his clothes so tight that they bunch under my nails, letting me know that he is truly here.
He’s come back to me.
He holds me through all of it, his voice the only thing that can lull me out of my hysterics. It takes me a second to realize my body grows heavier by the second, my eyes becoming too drowsy to keep open. He’s putting me to sleep.
“Don’t worry. I’m here. I’ll be here when you wake up,” Remus murmurs.
It’s the last thing I hear before darkness encompasses me with Remus’s voice to carry me.
Remus
Death is so finite. It is one of the few things to elicit clarity in those who experience it through those close to them.
The darkness I felt has been quelled by Iris’s life.
I was hasty with my anger and once again almost contributed to her death.
Lucky for both of us, with my newfound basic understanding of Celestivine power, I sensed the hairpin I gave her.
I was able to sense it from entire continents away, and I was able to confirm that it was attached to something that was alive.
Iris doesn’t stir as I gently push her hair away from her face.
She must be exhausted. The wounds littering her body were gruesome by the time I found her.
If the planet’s destruction didn’t kill her, the injury my mother gave her would have within a few hours.
They closed it by burning the wound shut, trapping the decomposing energy my mother used inside her body.
Her death would have been slow and painful.
I’m sure she was already experiencing its effects before I found her.
I release a trembling breath as I keep my hand against her cheek. Her body is warm, and the sound of her breathing is a sound I will cherish forever. I lean over her, placing a soft kiss on her cheek, and she still doesn’t stir.
“I’m not giving up on you, Remus.”
I smile as the memory comes to me. On Earth, I loathed her incessant desire to fight for hopeless causes. But having her in my corner, fighting for me even when it was useless, makes the love I have for her expand all the more. It makes anyone who would dare come between us an enemy.
“I’m not giving up on you either, Iris. Never again.”