69. Chapter 69
Chapter 69
Emma
E mma had promised herself that she would never kill. She hadn’t thought herself capable of it, but it turned out she was wrong. She fought with Thomas at her side for what felt like hours, soldier after soldier falling to their invisible attacks. She realized about halfway through their fighting that she wasn’t seeing the spirits of the soldiers they were killing. Wasn’t seeing any spirits at all. Except, of course, for Thomas. But there was no time to think about why that was. Only enough time to hope, for just a moment,that maybe it meant there was a way to save him.
They didn’t speak as they fought, their breaths heavy and their limbs tired. Emma avoided looking at where her body lay, Thomas still on top of her, protecting her with his body even in death. That image would be burned into her mind for the rest of her life.
A bright flash of light lit up the sky, and suddenly, Emma’s vision went black.
Emma awoke to a bright light and a crushing pressure across her rib cage, the weight of Thomas's death as heavy on her body as it was on her soul. She knew before even opening her eyes that he was really gone. She couldn’t sense his emotions. Couldn’t feel even a speck of life within him.
As gently as she could, she rolled out from beneath him, flipping him over and cradling his face.
"Come back. Please," she whispered, grabbing a petal and pushing it between his lips. Emma knew it was futile. But it didn’t matter. She had to try.
Holding her breath, she waited. Ten seconds. Twenty. But he didn’t stir. He was gone.
Gone. Emma’s heart beat harder as she twisted around, jumping to her feet to search for his spirit. She should be able to see him, shouldn’t she? She could see the dead. Thomas could stay here. Remain on Earth. So where was he?
She collapsed back down at Thomas’s side, shaking his shoulder. "Come back! Where are you? Please, come back," she sobbed, shaking him again. A vial rolled from his pocket, clinking against a twig and settling into the mud.
With trembling hands, she picked it up, noticing a thin roll of parchment inside. Had it been there when she’d taken the potion? She wasn’t sure. Hadn’t had time to look inside after she’d swallowed it down. Emma uncorked the vial and shook the note free, taking a deep breath as she unrolled it. A sob burst from her throat as she read the words scratched out in black ink.
You will not find him again, nor any others. It is better this way. No one deserves to carry a burden so heavy as yours...
He will wait for you.
—Eudora.
Emma squeezed the letter in her fist, throwing herself on top of Thomas as a raw sob tore from her throat. His body was growing cooler by the minute, another reminder that he was really and truly gone, but she couldn’t pull herself away.
As her grief crashed over her, threatening to consume her entirely, the sky grew brighter, the sun slowly sliding from behind the moon and toward the horizon, illuminating the bloody battlefield around them in a wash of red—all the men she and Thomas had killed. Bile rose in her throat. There were so many... so much death. But the potion—was that why she hadn’t seen them? She read the letter again, her body shaking as she read and reread the words.
Never again would she see the dead.
"Emma?" Erik's voice broke through her haze of grief. She sniffled but didn’t look up.
"He’s gone," Emma whispered, the words burning as they passed through her throat. Someone choked back a sob behind her, but still, she couldn’t look away from Thomas’s face.
"He loved you," Lea said, her voice shaking with tears.
"I know," she said, squeezing Thomas tighter, rocking back and forth. They didn’t rush her. Didn’t beg her to stand, to come with them. They simply stayed there with her in her sorrow, allowing her to mourn. And she was grateful.
Emma didn’t know how much time passed, but finally, she stilled.
"It’s over?" she asked, turning her swollen eyes to her friends. "Alaric’s dead?"
Lea moved to her side, placing a hand on her back and nodding. "It’s over."
Emma swallowed, allowing Lea to take her hand as she knelt next to Thomas's body. The others joined them, lending her their strength in silence as the sun continued to set.
When the last glimpses of the sun’s rays began to disappear, Emma leaned forward, pressing one final kiss to Thomas’s cheek. She stood, choking on a sob as Janelle and Lea held her up, supporting her as she took her first steps away from him.
Emma paused. "Will you bring him back? To bury him?" she asked Gray.
"Of course," he said, bowing his head, and Emma nodded. She couldn’t stand the thought of him lying out here alone for even a moment, a cold body amongst the hundreds scattered through the wood.
Stars blinked into the sky as the last of the sun fully set, the horizon turning into a tapestry of pinks and purples and oranges, a wave of shimmering magic washing over the land with a force Emma had never seen before. The trees bent and bowed as it rushed past, magic returning to the earth as it had always been intended to be, and as if breathing life into the very soil, the trees of the Wicked Wood began to bloom.
Tiny green buds appeared on the branches, popping open into bright green leaves and small yellow flowers. Before their very eyes, the dead, rotting ground transformed, wildflowers blooming beneath their feet as far as the eye could see.
Emma cried out as the skin above her heart began to tingle, then burn. The sensation took her breath away, and she looked down, gasping as she examined her skin. With a sob, she turned back toward Thomas, reaching forward with shaking hands to pull the corner of his bloody shirt away. And there, on his blood-stained skin, was a new mark—a moon, the twin of the one now tattooed on her breast.
Proof that she had been loved by a man who had sacrificed everything, including his life, to keep her safe.