32. Cin
Cin
Willow is dead.
My beautiful, wonderful, brilliant mate… is dead.
All around us, the cavern has been set back to normal. There are no bodies. No carnage. The roots growing along the walls and ceiling pulse a bright, healthy blue.
It is like the whole thing never happened.
But my angel is dead.
I look down at her, and I do not think I will ever be whole again. Her face holds none of the pain that took her, the lines gone smooth, and her eyelids do not so much as flutter. Her chest does not rise, nor does it fall. Her heart is silent. The thread of the mate bond is limp and cold.
I reach down and brush my knuckles against her cheek. Still warm. Though I know that will not last.
Take me, I beg the Welwig. Take my brothers and me. Just give her back.
The Welwig does not answer, and I know it never will. It doesn’t work that way, and nothing will make my mate open her eyes.
Rhune is inconsolable, curled into himself a few paces away, sobbing quietly into the ice.
Dravik and Nyx sit huddled together beside him, and I have never once seen either of my brothers look so thoroughly broken.
Dagny and her mates stand watching from a distance, none of them daring to move closer or speak.
Even Vhalthor is hunched over, his expression drawn tight with grief.
We all understand exactly what we have lost.
I rise from my knees with her body cradled against my chest. My legs carry me forward, one slow step after another, toward the black mouth of the pit. I stop at the edge and stare down into the darkness.
I could join her. One step forward, and this would end.
Except…
Willow gave everything she had so the rest of us could live. If I throw myself into that dark now, I make her sacrifice worth nothing at all.
I cannot jump, but I cannot make myself turn away, either.
My knees give out beneath me, and I go down at the very edge of the abyss, still holding her tight. I’m shaking, my chest heaving as sobs tear out of my throat, filling the cavern with the sound of my soul breaking.
“Willow… my Willow…” I sob, curling around her small, broken body. “My angel… I cannot… I do not know how I’m supposed to go on without you.”
Rhune sinks beside me first, then Nyx, then Dravik, until the four of us are huddled together at the edge of that endless dark. Rhune's wing settles over my shoulders, and we sit there together, wrapped in the same unbearable grief.
But then…
Tha-thump.
“Did you hear that?” Nyx’s voice shakes.
We sit there, utterly still, praying for another sound, a confirmation for what we all desperately want to be true. There’s nothing for a while, but then we hear it again.
Tha-thump.
“Was that…?” Rhune doesn’t finish, too scared to voice it aloud.
Without warning, the bond thrums to life. Beautiful, wonderful, endless warmth, spreading through my veins and bursting from my pores.
I stare down at Willow, holding my breath. Her eyelids flutter, and then…
Green. Rare, deep, beautiful green.
Eyes I fell in love with. Eyes that cause my soul to ache whenever they look into my own. The ring of red is more profound and, somehow, subtler all at once, like it’s melding with her iris instead of surrounding it. And I know, deep down, that something inexplicable has happened.
Something has changed her.
I reach out and touch her, needing to feel the warmth of her cheek. “Are you real, angel?”
“I’m real.” Her voice is a weak croak. “I’m here.”
I touch her even more gently, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Why are you crying, angel?”
“Because,” she says. “Because we’re alive.”
Her lips curve in a faint but genuine smile, and all of the tension bleeds out of my shoulders. My brothers crowd around her, maneuvering so all five of us are embracing at once.
Rhune presses his face into her hair, his whole body shaking. Nyx grips her hand and does not let go. Dravik holds us both, his forehead pressed to the crown of her head, whispering her name over and over.
Dagny and her mates come over and join the pile without hesitation, folding themselves in around the edges. Vhalthor lingers at first, watching from a short distance, before he finally steps forward and joins the rest of us.
For a long moment, none of us move. None of us speak. We simply hold her and each other. For now, that is enough.
Willow looks at all of us, a warm, genuine smile lighting her eyes as she says, “Let’s go home.”