Chapter 32
Braxton
Everything is still black when I open my eyes.
I yank the blindfold of my face in one movement and jump up.
Some people in the crowd yell, others cheer.
I don’t see anything because of the change of light.
I hurry towards my left, to where I remember Eliane was sitting.
Blinding panic rushes through my veins, an emotion I don’t recognize.
My gaze scans hers, fingers touching her skin.
I pull her blindfold off her face, but her eyes are closed.
“I need a healer!” I turn around and scream. My brother’s gaze meets mine and he turns towards the crowd, only showing a small moment of hesitation before he does so.
“Is there a healer?” he shouts, clearly some panic in his voice as well. But he shakes it off, turning into a command. “If there is a healer, you need to come.” He looks at me. “And that’s an order.”
People start climbing down the crowd. Eliane sits there unconsciously. A wound on her temple was as big as the palm of my hand. I brush her skin.
Normally she burns under my touch, but all I feel is a cold body.
I break her wall down and find some light in there.
She isn’t dead. Not yet.
“Please, Honey,” I beg, fighting the urge to fall down on my knees.
“Stay with me.”
She will not die, not today or any day in the nearby future. I will make sure of it.
Because I know there is something between us.
Because I want to see her after the trials.
Because I want to call her mine one day.
My hand brushes through her now shoulder length blonde hair. People stand around me and a hand touches my shoulder. I look over my shoulder to see Fintan standing behind me with tears in his eyes. Other hands touch her body, and I get dragged back. I struggle. I don’t want to leave her.
I scream, until my lungs give out, feeling her pain as our minds are connected. Fintan drags me back, and I fight, but refuse to hit him. Three men and women hurry towards Eliane, but it feels like they are moving in slow motion.
“They have to do their work, kid.” Fintan’s voice tries to comfort me. As he drags me further away from her, hurting words leave my mouth.
“Why don’t you care more?” I blurt out. Guilt crashes in me because all this man did was care for a child that wasn’t his by blood. He got us out of there. He doesn’t seem to take it personally.
“Because we knew this trial was coming for sixteen years,” he explains. “Because she is a lover who was born to fight, but dreams big, dreams of her well-deserved freedom after this.” He holds me together, a tear rolling over his cheek.
“Because if this is the way she will get her freedom, I will have to accept that.” He swallows hard, not believing those words have just left his mouth.
“We have to fight for her!” I yelp out in a sob.
“We already did,” he whimpers.
Despite the fact that I can’t find peace in his words, he is right about one thing.
A lover who was born to fight. A girl who dreamed big and would always get lost in her own thoughts and imaginations.
A dreamer, that’s what she was. Until the world turned her dreams into her biggest nightmares.
No, she still is a dreamer. She has to fight for her dreams.
She will fight for her dreams.
Something shimmers inside of me. I have to check twice to make sure I am not imagining things. Despite that she isn’t moving, I feel her. I let her in. The door peeks open. Not as hard or as fast as normal, but it opens.
Light bubbles through my veins.
“What is it?” Fintan asks worriedly, clearly noticing me holding my breath.
A smile starts appearing on my face, the corner of my mouth twitching up, letting the salt of my tears enter my mouth.
“She is alive.”
Fintan gives me a smile as he sets me loose. Before my legs can drag me over to her, something interrupts me. No, someone interrupts me.
“Hi, Brax,”
She is alive.
Alive.
Alive.
Alive.
“Hi, Honey.”