33. Sorrows
Sorrows
Raijin
R aijin slowly pulled the phone from his ears and didn’t move.
“Raijin, is that them.” Sabina entered the room, her eyes looking at him with worry. “Did they find Lanias and Eliza?”
He nodded. “They did, but…” he murmured, trailing off, unsure how he would tell Sabina the terrible news. He averted his eyes, gripping the phone tighter. He couldn’t look at her; for some reason, he felt the heavy weight of guilt fall on his shoulders.
“But, what?” Sabina demanded, fully entering the room. She searched his face, “Tell me.”
“It’s Lanias,” he said, finally looking at her. He watched her confusion grow. “She didn’t make it.”
He didn’t think she’d heard him for a second; then her knees crumpled from beneath her. Startled, he jumped forward, catching her before she hit the ground.
Sabina stared ahead blankly. “I’m sorry,” she said, pushing at him as she tried to rise. I-I—” She shook her head, looking at him with the confusion still there. “You must be wrong, my sister. She—she’s like a two-headed snake. She wouldn’t—she wouldn’t leave me.”
“Love, I—” What could he do for her? He dropped his head down. “I’m sorry.”
“You are lying,” she hollered as she continued to try to get back up, only for her knees to refuse to hold her, resulting in her collapsing into his arms once more. “You’re lying to me,” she accused, like a child lost. “She’s not gone,” she repeatedly said to herself, raising her voice more and more as if the louder she was, the less likely it would be true.
“She’s not,” she yelled once more
Over and over, she repeated this until, eventually, she broke down and wept.
The room was filled with her long and drawn-out sobbing as Raijin held on to her.
As it was all he could do for her.
Sabina couldn’t stop the emotional pain that was drowning her. There was nothing even as she tried to reach out to feel her sister’s magic. There was nothing.
Lanias was gone.
She started hyperventilating, and before she knew it, she could hear Raijin frantically calling her name, but it was too late. Sabina felt her consciousness slip away.
Her sister was dead.
Lanias, who’d been both a mother and sister to her, was dead.
Nothing the enemy could have done could have destroyed her more.