Epilogue
“They were stronger than us, and we knew it.”
- JOY
From the look on Florence’s face, I knew death now lived inside of her. When Khol and I finally joined the others, she was waiting for him, Raf’s body lying limp in her arms, his head rested on her knees. They had found his body in the wreckage, SkyChangers, EarthShakers and MindWonderers working in unison to return each body home.
It was the least they deserved.
Two hundred dead and more injured.
“He told me,” Florence choked on a sob, she was drowning in her tears, in her grief and mourning. “He told me to tell you, he loves you. He will always love you and he will always be with us,” Florence spluttered; Rafael’s final wish fulfilled.
Jameson sat beside Raf’s body, his hand constantly gently brushing through Raf’s hair. Tears fell, never stopping, not even when he smiled briefly when I returned.
“I loved him,” he whispered when I sat beside him. I nodded.
“I know,” was all I managed to say. “I was waiting for you to tell me.” I smiled through my tears. I had known Jameson loved Rafael since the moment I saw them together. I was so excited to share their future together, whenever they were ready to share it.
They would never have it now; their future was now buried under tons of rubble.
Khol had fallen to his knees before his brother’s body.
“Don’t leave us again,” he rasped, his voice hoarse from crying. “I can’t do this without you.” Raya sobbed silently behind him; she lit a fire when day turned into night. Never once asking Khol and Florence to leave their brother’s side.
We stayed together as the smoke cleared and The Circle scattered.
They were going to various hideouts and safe houses, Elian had explained. But he stayed with us. He burdened some of the grief we felt, he stood strong, helping us to stay upright.
As though her tears had finally dried, Florence looked up at me and smiled weakly.
“What do we do now?” she whispered, her brother’s body cooling beneath her hands.
“I don’t know,” I whispered back. Our group remained quiet. The once busy forest, now only populated with our group. The eight of us still in the places we had met in earlier in the day. I passed a tin of water around to each person.
“What do we do now?” I looked to Raya this time, my voice louder for everyone to hear. “What do we do?” Although I was asking for the entire group, I hoped Raya understood what I truly wanted to know. What would we do now? Raya and me. We were a prophesied pair and yet all we had done was watch as chaos unfolded around us. We hadn’t been able to save Rafael, or any of the hundreds of people that had perished that day.
How could we be their leaders? Their Celestial Queens?
Looking at each of us in turn, Raya stood from her sitting position, nodding to herself.
“I don’t know what we do now, I don’t know how we’re going to stop the humans or The Temple or the Sage Guard. I don’t know how to protect us.” Her words were soft but mighty as she summoned a flame in her hand and watched it burn.
“But…” her voice picked up and blood pumped through my veins quickly, my heart hammered, and my new power sang. “I know that we are the grandchildren of the Sorcerers they could not burn.” A lightning bolt stuck the earth behind Raya.
“And I know one more thing.” She looked at us each in turn, her gaze snagging on Rafael for a moment longer.
“We Will Not Burn.”
The adventure continues…
Get ready!