Chapter Twenty-Six
If you had once told me that the most cruel Realm Guard this universe had ever seen would captivate me, I would have laughed you out of Coven Haven.
Nay, I would have laughed you out of the entirety of Wylionis.
Nilsorn’s words were uttered so heartbreakingly, that I cursed the dark shroud for destroying such a man.
For as complicated as this situation now was, I felt something for him that I never expected to.
Pity.
I pitied the sable standing before me. A creature who had likely sparkled once from the hold love had on him, who now had a heart so black, it would crumble to dust should he ever perish.
The images of losing my mother flashed through my mind.
The sallow sinking of her skin. The suffocating cough that encompassed her.
The way she breathed her last breath, as though there would never be anything as sweet as oxygen as she moved on from this life.
The day we said farewell to her body and left it in the temple where it would be taken care of for the next life.
There was no crueler way to pass than by the grip of the dark shroud.
And there never would be, even as I stood facing the dark being I would spend my life with and likely pass next to.
“Did she leave anything behind?”
His eyes whipped to me, the spell of her nearly broken. “Our possessions were shared.”
“I meant inside you. You say she was the best in you. Is any part of her remaining in you? To mourn so deeply, so passionately…surely, it means there is a part of her still deep within.”
I couldn’t read the look in his eyes, but he walked closer to me. He was mere inches away when he stopped. A hand reached up to gently stroke my cheek, softer than I expected, and I held my breath, not knowing if I should speak again.
“I hope to be reunited with her.”
I felt the crinkle on my forehead as his words washed over me. “What do you mean? You wish to perish?”
“No.” His eyes were sharp and clear, the haze of mourning gone. “But they say those who possess the shard of a star can find ways to live forever.”
“Possess the…?” Horror filled me as my eyes widened, shock washing over me like an ice-cold waterfall. “No,” I whispered. “No…” It was too awful for words, too horrific to say out loud.
“When the moon is but a sliver in the sky, all I must do is sacrifice an elf of star descent to claim my place among the immortals.”
It was then I noticed the long dagger at his side, pointed at me. My breathing quickened, but I didn’t dare glance at the sky.
“Judging by the moon tonight, you have a few moments of wedded bliss before you make me immortal.”
“But… But…” I sputtered, trying to find anything I could say to wake up from this nightmare. This couldn’t be real. “What will that solve? It won’t bring her back!”
“No,” he stated, a smirk seated on his perfectly, terror-inspiring face. “But once I'm immortal, it will only be a matter of finding another star shard elf and a bargain with the afterlife Realm Guard to have my sweet Fiorra returned to me. Forever.”
I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream, throw a tantrum, cry out to the wind in an effort to be rescued. But there was nothing I could do. He’d said so himself, and we were in the dark, haunting forest with no one around to hear my cries.
I was to be sacrificed to the afterlife Realm Guard, and I’d be dead before I’d even had a chance to mourn Aleixo, to mourn my own life.
There was nothing more.
I was done.