Twenty-Seven
Kaius
Numbness overtakes my body at what Adelasia has done.
I watch the dagger clatter to the ground, splattering drops of her blood on the floor.
She looks at me with a distant gaze, and huffs as if she can’t believe it herself. As if the regret settles into her and she realizes I wasn’t worth it after all.
My own injuries and pain disappear with the numbness, and the world begins to move again. Her body falls limp and I barely catch her before her knees hit the marble. I hold her face tenderly in my hands, but she does not focus on me. Her hand clutches her stomach, blood beginning to spill over the top of her fingers.
She hisses and jerks away from me to curl on her side in the fetal position. A painful moan escapes on an exhale of her breath. The air grows colder around her when a black mist begins to spill out of her stomach along with her blood, followed by a loud crack.
Adelasia whimpers, and another loud crack follows. Then another. And another. She rolls slightly to lie more on her stomach, her chest heaving harshly between the pain.
With one more crack, a pool of blood seeps through the delicate fabric of her beige gown. Slowly, the scar down the length of her back morphs into the color of fresh blood, and from the blood, a hand pushes through her skin in a pool of black mist. The long fingernails grip her skin and push through her spine, the mist flowing upward and outward until landing with a soft thud on the marble.
This is Yekaterina’s soul escaping from Adelasia’s, and only through her death will the Priestess return to this plane.
Adelasia’s time is limited, but without my Bloodstone, what can I do to help? I couldn't even save her from a werewolf bite without that dark magic. How could I possibly hope to save her from this certain fate without it?
“Kai…”
I hold her to my chest and wipe the tears from her eyes. I’ve never seen them so lifeless. The vivid royal blue I’ve always been so fond of has faded into a vacant gray. Her lips have gone purple and her skin a ghastly white.
“Kai…”
she chokes out again. “Change me.”
My lips quiver and I can’t help but deny her. “I can’t.”
I shake my head. “I can’t Adelasia. I won’t do that to you. I won’t take your life from you.”
“I’m dying anyway.”
I shake my head and squeeze her gently even tighter to my chest. “What if you don’t come back to me?”
She does her best to give me a reassuring smile through her tears, but I can see the emotion stuck in her throat, bubbling up and making her lip quiver. She doesn’t know the answer, but I do.
If she doesn’t come back, then I shall chase her into the afterlife when the sun rises.
She notices when I crumble, ready to risk everything on the minuscule chance that it could save her. “Will it hurt?”
she asks quietly.
I tenderly brush her hair away from her neck to comfort her. “No. No, it won’t hurt. I promise.”
I close my eyes and press my fangs through the delicate skin of her neck. She tenses up for a second before she begins to fall limp into my arms as the euphoria takes her. It masks her pain and her fear.
Her blood does not bring me pleasure. Not this time. Not when I’m stealing her precious life from her. I want to stop. I find myself fighting the urge to gag, fighting the urge I have to stop drinking from her. I don’t want her to die by my hand, even if she’s already doomed.
I’ve already ruined her life. I don’t want to be the one to end it, too. As she begins to fall limp from the loss of blood, her soft breath fans across my neck on the opposite side.
“I love you, Kaius. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
My brow furrows and ice shoots through my heart as I softly hold her head. I let her take one last peaceful intake of breath before I quickly and seamlessly jerk her neck.
With a soft click, she goes fully limp and still in my arms. I taste my salty tears as I remove my teeth from her neck and the devastation hits me all at once.
I tenderly kiss her temple. “I love you too.”
A hand grabs me by the back of my head, twisting into my hair and pulling it backward.
“What have you done?!”
Amatisi yells into my face, her veil billowing slightly from her words getting caught on her breath.
Yekaterina’s summoning mist has begun to crackle like a storm cloud. Black lightning flashes through the air above us. Amatisi lets out an exasperated sound somewhere between a shout and a growl. The ground shakes below us through her fury. Her hand flicks to her side, pulling Adelasia’s still body out of my grip. Amatisi holds me by the front of my jacket.
I grit my teeth, no longer trying to hide my sorrow. My eyes leak tears freely. I have nothing now. No mortality. No Adelasia.
What else could I possibly lose?
“There is no hell deep enough for you, Kaius Voroninov. The next time you look upon me, my crown will be made from the bones of your lover.”
Amatisi clutches her fist, and like a candle snuffed out from the wind, the Priestesses are gone, taking Adelasia’s body with them.
The only sounds that can be heard through the valley are my wails, drowned out by the harsh sprinkle of a heavy rain.