CHAPTER 59
WREN
∞
She hates me. Alex warned me and he was right. My heart hurts as I replay the words in my mind over and over again. I did the same thing to her that was done to me. I burdened her with the same pain and hatred that has crushed me for the last five hundred years. I broke her further and more thoroughly than death ever could.
I’m alone. She left me and for good reason. I’m regretting not telling her why I really did it. I love her. I love her and I couldn’t just sit back and watch her fucking die in my arms without doing something.
It worked though. The turning worked and the virus now courses through her veins. She’ll leave me. No…she’s already left me. She fucking hates me and ran at the chance to get away from me because of what I’ve done to her.
I lurch to my feet and stagger as I try to pull myself together. I can’t let her go like this. I can’t let her go without explaining myself to her completely. How can I make her understand why I did this, if I can’t even tell her how I feel.
I rush through the door and swear the entire ride down in the elevator. The door opens to the lobby and my body freezes. Chess is sitting on the ground with someone pulled in against her lap. Her eyes meet mine and anxiety rolls through my chest. Her eyes are red, and sobs wrack her body as tears pour down her cheeks.
“Wren,”
she sobs, cradling the body closer to her.
My eyes drift back down to her lap and my heart drops. Dread pools in the pit of my stomach and I stumble forward towards her.
No.
I close my eyes and open them again, willing this moment to be a dream…but it’s not. The dark webbing across Alex’s throat is slowly inching its way into his face.
“Alex,”
I whisper.
His head turns towards me slowly, and I drop to my knees in front of Chess, pulling him from her arms into mine. I cradle him close and a new pain rips through my chest. Heartache. This is excruciating. This numbs my body and my senses, and I have no idea where I am or even who I am in this moment because the one who has been with me through every battle and every dark moment in my life, is dying right in front of me.
I knew it. I knew my happiness would be short lived. The Fates give, but they also take, and their sights have been set on Alex. I can’t help him. There’s nothing I can do when he’s been tainted by the venom like this. This is a cruel death, and he never deserved this.
He lifts his hand weakly to my face and struggles to smile. “Alex, tell me who did this to you.”
My voice is choked and broken.
He shakes his head slowly, his eyes fluttering as he fights the pull of death. “I love you, Wren.”
His voice is breathy and ragged, and then…there’s nothing. His hand falls away from my face, settling against the floor. His eyes close. There’s nothing left. His final words to me were his love for me and not a name for the vengeance I so desperately desire.
“Alex!”
I sob. “Please! Please don’t leave me!”
I desperately shake his body, willing him to return, but it’s too late. He left me…just like Chess. I officially have nothing left in this world.
My eyes burn and my chest throbs. I hold him closer to me, kissing his forehead as he lays limp within my arms. My sweet Alex. I’m breaking. My soul feels like it’s being ripped from my body and crushed within darkness as I watch.
How could this happen? Who would do something so fucking cruel to someone who only ever showed kindness and mercy to those around him. Alex was good…he was pure and happy and the only one I shared my life with.
My mind breaks along with my soul. I did this. Everyone around me dies eventually or leaves me. I am hollow. I have nothing left to give.