Epilogue
D usk closed in around him. He ran without a destination, just escape, through a cluster of trees, their shapes and species unknown to him as a dweller of the Evergloom.
What in me was dark, she brought forth into the light. I looked upon the sun and dared to hope once more. I thought that this time it was real, and it would last, and that despair would never again darken my thoughts.
Now that hope was gone, ripped from him. Happiness was forever dead, and only pain remained. The burning chains no longer bound him, and the charred remnants of his flesh regained their healthy glow, all because she had healed him.
Instead, his pain was the torment of never being able to look upon her face again. It was no different than being cast down into the darkness of the Evergloom as his ancestors had after their defeat. Never hoping to glimpse the light, or to feel its warmth against his skin.
All around him, there was nothing but despair. The trees that were once full of colors were now muted, ashen. The shadows that lay between them did not bring him comfort but were a dismal reminder of his failure.
He should have foreseen this. He should have been the one to save her, and not the one who needed saving.
Her eyes, the color of the early morning sky, soft and pale, blue and silver and full of promise, like the start of a fresh, new day full of fresh, new hope. The kind of hope that no longer blessed him with its light.
She had gazed down upon him from that balcony with those eyes, but they did not speak of hope, only of sorrow.
Yet, even through her sadness, there was solace.
When their eyes met, she’d exhaled a breath of relief.
She was trying to tell him it would be all right.
She was trying to give him hope despite it all.
He’d wanted to climb those walls and whisk her away. He couldn’t let those sad eyes be his last glimpse of her.
But then, she turned away into the arms of that Ljósálfar who kissed her hand and stole her away from him.
That was his hand to kiss. The lovely hand he had kissed just moments before all this pain began.
Had he known that was to be the last touch of his lips on her skin, he would’ve done something, anything.
Run away with her as they’d planned to do.
Fought back. Killed that bastard before he had a chance to strike.
But now was not the time to think about that lest his wrath consume him.
He knew she had freed him and that she had made a deal with a devil to do so.
Remembering that he’d been too weak to protect her—that his failure had driven her to strike a deal with that Ljósálfar—tormented him .
The devil with blue eyes.
He couldn’t let this happen … again. He couldn’t let his failure, his weakness, take away the only thing that mattered in his life.
Anger erupted inside him as he remembered the eyes of triumph, his fucking eyes. The eyes of a man who had won. The eyes of smug, baneful pride in vanquishing his enemy, knowing full well he took from him the one thing he cherished most of all.
The thief. He stole her from him.
His light.
His love.
His hope.
And now he was all the more wretched for it.
As he tore through the forest, his legs burned, each stride fueled by desperation. He wanted her back in his arms now. He couldn’t bear the emptiness creeping into his heart. That familiar feeling. Abject loss. Something forever gone, taken from him.
He refused it. He refused this.
But he had to keep running. He had to go on or he would die and never be able to save her.
The sun had nearly finished its duty for the day, surrendering the sky to the silent shadows of twilight. That Ljósálfar had sent his guards to hunt him down and kill him, and they were closing in, their pursuit relentless.
He had no weapon. His leathers hung open in tatters, offering little protection from the creeping cold. He stumbled through the unfamiliar wood, blind to the path ahead, every breath ragged with exhaustion. Death was at his heels .
And yet, all he could think of was what had been taken from him.
He would get her back. No matter the cost.
She’d chosen to save him, and now he made his choice: to tear down the walls that separated her from him, kill anyone who stood in the way of their happiness, and burn the world until it accepted their love.