Chapter 43
Rafe
The human nose can detect over a trillion different scents.
Yet the only scent I wish to smell is her.
It fades from her yellow dress, from my pillow, from my bed.
Each hour that passes by, she fades a little more, hurting my heart.
Fear is my best friend these days. Fear of the moment my memories wilt into mulch and new ones replace her beautiful face.
Fear, that when I forget her, a new woman comes into my life. Perhaps I’ll marry her, bear children with her, never knowing Lina existed in a time where all I saw, smelt and heard was her.
I should have asked him. Asked if we kept ourselves free for when, or if, she returns.
I can’t find her anywhere. Not a sniff of her in Alarithia past the portal master in Aphon.
Nothing back in Valandor. I even went to my echo; in case she got herself trapped there.
But all was as I left it. Not even the monarchy maids that frequent the café have seen her for a while. Said she was probably still sick.
So, I’ve resorted to stalking her wretched husband. Watching. Waiting. He too looks for her. The urge to string up him and his miserable looking mother is too strong.
Another fear courses through me. Fear of never remembering what this cunt did to her. His wrongdoings would be wiped, and I’ll never get to cut the bastard open and bleed him dry whilst his mother watched.
I can’t touch him until Lina somehow shows herself. I risk rippling the fabric of time, of altering too much for her if I make him disappear now.
But he will disappear. If it’s the last thing I do, he will be ended, I can promise that.