Chapter 134
(Cassiane POV)
I remember the pain.
One moment, my fingers were wrapped around the Heartforge; the next, something tore through me with such violence that I forgot how to breathe. It wasn't simply pain. It felt as though an unseen hand had reached into the deepest part of my soul and begun pulling everything apart.
Then the visions came.
Blood spilled across unfamiliar floors, lifeless bodies lay where people had once stood, and kingdoms burned beneath skies filled with smoke and ash.
I heard screams that belonged to no one in the forest around us and watched people I loved disappear before my eyes.
Every vision brought another wave of grief, another loss, another unbearable moment that felt real enough to break me.
Through all of it, I could hear Rhaevan somewhere beyond the darkness.
His voice reached me as though I were buried beneath an ocean-distant and muffled, yet unmistakably his. I could feel his arms around me as he desperately tried to hold me together, casting spell after spell in an attempt to pull me out of whatever nightmare the Heartforge had dragged me into.
I could even feel the darkness closing around us.
Hostile magic lingered in the air, striking his barriers, tearing through them, and draining what little strength he had left. I wanted to move. I wanted to scream at him to run, to leave me behind if he had to, and to save himself before whatever was coming reached us.
But my body refused to obey.
All I could do was lie there in his arms and watch him struggle.
Then, somehow, I surfaced.
The visions receded just enough for me to see him.
Rhaevan was wounded.
Blood stained his lips and streaked down his face. His breathing was ragged, his clothes were torn from the attacks, and his hands trembled as he forced a portal into existence. The blue light flickered violently before him, struggling against the chaotic magic radiating from the Heartforge.
My mind slowly caught up with what I was seeing.
A portal.
He was opening a portal.
No.
He had told me what teleportation cost when magic was unstable. He had warned me that forcing spatial magic under the wrong conditions would drain an enormous amount of mana.
And he was already exhausted.
He was bleeding.
He could barely stand.
Why was he doing this?
I tried to push myself up, but my body wouldn't respond. I tried again, forcing my fingers to claw weakly against the dirt.
"Rhae..."
My voice was so faint that I wasn't even sure he had heard me.
He had.
His eyes found mine immediately.
There was something in his expression that frightened me more than the agony ever could. He moved closer, slipping an arm around my waist as he helped me toward the portal.
I tried to stop him.
My fingers caught weakly against his coat, but he only tightened his hold around me.
Then he leaned down and rested his forehead against mine. His skin was warm, his breathing unsteady, and despite everything that was happening around us, he gave me the smallest, gentlest smile.
"You'll be all right. As long as you're safe, I'll be fine."
I wanted to tell him that I knew he was lying. I wanted to tell him that I wasn't leaving him here. More than anything, I wanted to hold on to him and never let go.
But before I could form another word, his arms tightened around me and he pushed me through the portal.
The world vanished beneath my feet as I fell backward into the swirling blue light, reaching desperately for him while the portal swallowed me whole.
The last thing I saw was Rhaevan standing on the other side.
He was bloodied and exhausted, yet he was still facing me.
Dark magic raged around him, tearing through the forest as he stood between me and whatever had followed us, refusing to let it reach me.
For one brief moment, everything was quiet. I saw the familiar path leading toward Benedict's cottage, a path I knew by heart, and realized that I was almost there. The portal's light flickered faintly around me, now reduced to nothing more than a tiny point of blue in the distance.
Then the world exploded.
A deafening force tore through the portal, and the blue light fractured violently around me. The familiar path disappeared behind a storm of crimson and violet energy as something seized me and dragged me forward with such force that up and down ceased to have any meaning.
My body was thrown through collapsing space. Light burned through my vision, heat scorched my skin, and pressure crushed the breath from my lungs. I reached desperately for something-anything-but there was nothing to hold on to, and I hit the ground.
The impact drove every remaining ounce of air from my lungs, leaving me unable to breathe for several agonizing seconds. Pain erupted through every bone in my body as I lay sprawled across the hard earth, completely unable to move.
Something slipped from my hand.
The Heartforge.
It rolled across the dirt before coming to a stop a short distance away. I stared at it through the blur of my tears, desperately trying to stretch my fingers toward it, but they wouldn't move.
My vision began to darken at the edges. The world tilted beneath me, slowly dissolving into an endless abyss.
Then I heard footsteps.
Several of them.
They were fast and urgent, coming straight toward me.
I tried to lift my head, but all I could see were boots rushing through my fading vision. Someone shouted something, but the words were already drowning beneath the roaring silence of my own pulse.
My heartbeat began to slow.
The darkness crept closer.
And the last thought that crossed my mind, burning brighter than all the pain, was Rhaevan.
I had left him behind.
Then everything disappeared.