Chapter 58 I Should Have Remembered
I Should Have Remembered
Desdemona
I
walk through the halls. I want to run—to Leiholan, hug him, talk to him, be remembered. But when I open the doors to his combat room, he’s not there.
“Leiholan?” I call.
He’s always in here.
I walk to the back. The armory, normally full of alcohol, is empty. Like he’s been erased.
Dropping to the floor, I decide to wait for him to come back. Maybe he’s just getting more alcohol. My knees tuck to my chest as I sit in the spot I have so many times before with him. There’s no way he left Visnatus. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go.
When the door opens, I rise to my feet. But a different man walks in—with a beard and scruffy hair. He could almost be Leiholan, like I’ve stepped into an alternate reality. Except his leg is intact.
The man eyes me suspiciously, and I tip my head down.
“I was just leaving,” I say.
The man nods, eyeing me with deadly intent. I wonder if he’s scared of my eyes.
When I exit the room, I stop just outside the entrance, leaning against the wall. Frozen. Leiholan is gone—but where did he go? Back to Nepthara? Back to the place where his life once was, the life that was ripped from him?
I have to find him. I begin walking down the hall, not entirely sure where I’m headed, when I see Aralia ahead. She walks toward me with her head down, and I don’t know what to do. Is it my place to say something to her?
Then she looks up, her wide gaze stopping on me. Her voice is small and familiar.
“Des?”
Aralia watches me, her eyes filling with tears, just like mine. I nod, up and down and up and down, not meaning to and not able to stop.
I’m Des. That’s who I was—who I’ve always been.
How have I let her get so far from me?
Aralia runs and wraps her arms around me, just like Damien used to. She hugs me fiercely—so tightly for someone a head shorter than me. I hug her back.
I hug who I think might be my best friend.
“You’ve been here,” she says into my chest. “I feel terrible for not realizing it.”
“It’s okay,” I reply, hands wrapping around the back of her head, cradling her carefully.
“I just”—she shakes her head, and I feel her tears against my chest—“I should have remembered you.”
I pull away from Aralia, meeting her gaze and holding tightly to her shoulders. Gently, I whisper, “I’m glad you do now.”
People remember me. Everyone does. They remember me, but my mom is dead anyway. My mom, who is the reason I brought back everyone’s memories in the first place. She died for this.
I may have made the decision out of spite, but it ends with love.
“I don’t know how I didn’t,” Aralia whispers.
I grab her cheeks, holding her face fiercely, just like my mom held mine before she died. “I’m glad you do now,” I whisper again.
Subtly, Aralia smiles, offering a small nod.
I nod back, releasing her. “Do you know where Leiholan is?”
She shakes her head, puckering her lips. “He couldn’t teach combat without a leg.” Aralia shrugs. “Guess they figured that out.”