40. Chapter Forty #2
She closes her hand around the necklace. “Don’t worry. Evelia’s soul is already bound to this. I don’t plan on leaving it trapped. I’ve been here a really long time and know quite a bit more about binding souls than you.”
“Give to me!”
“They sent you to conquer me and finish destroying this world because I refused. It wasn't something I wanted to do after I fell in love and had my son. They said this world turned me too much like the pathetic mortals. That the magic here is harmful to our kind. It weakens us. They thought it was this world that changed us, but it isn’t.”
I keep my eyes on her hand. “Then what?”
“They teach us how to feel. The humans awaken our souls to something our kind has long forgotten. These humans that they insist are expendable remind us of what we had eons ago.”
“What was that?”
“Soul. Love. Call it whatever you want. A purpose to exist. You took my reason, and I can’t get him back.” She walks over and stares at Evelia. “Poor girl has to suffer because of you, but there isn’t any other choice.”
Fire erupts from my hand. “Get away from her!”
“Careful now.” She holds up the necklace. “We wouldn’t want to send her soul out a window like you did my son’s.”
“What do you want for it?”
“I want you to suffer. The hate and darkness the collective breeds into us are still very much alive in me. When his father grew old and died, my boy. My Valen was the only reason I didn’t burn this world to ashes.
You just took that from me! You will suffer, Zyon, because you will watch her suffer.
Lifetime after lifetime she will live, and you will watch her die. ”
“That’s not possible.”
She dangles the necklace back and forth.
“Oh, but it is. I have lived so much longer than you. Her soul is bound to this, and I will send it wherever I want, time and time again until you follow my exact rules. Because you see, I’m not as cruel as you.
There can be an end to this cycle I will put you in, but it is going to be very difficult.
And there will be rules. So many rules.”
“What rules?” I take a step toward her but stop when the necklace lights up.
“Many of them you will learn within the cycles you experience. You will watch her fall in love in every lifetime, but you will be a mere observer. What will make it crueler is that the one she falls in love with will also be you, but that half of you won’t remember that he loves her.
She will not even be able to look at the you who remembers her without it causing madness.
You will watch yourself be cruel to her because that side of you will not remember what it’s like to love her.
There will be nothing you can do about it because he will be the one in charge of you.
Anything he commands and forbids, you must obey. ”
“This makes no sense.”
“It will make too much sense, so much sense you will be insane with misery. You will come to despise yourself as I do, but as I said, I’m not as cruel as you.
There will be a way to break it. When Evelia can drop this necklace in the ancient waters that I have sealed, I will transfer control of her soul back to her.
Whatever body she is in at that time will get to go on to live the normal human lifespan she has lost. And all the other curses I build upon you and your kingdom will be severed. ” She vanishes.
The bond I have with Evelia snaps, and with all my power, I try to grab it, but it’s gone just like that. The emptiness knocks me to my knees, and rage and grief rise and rise and rise until they explode from me and kill every living thing within the walls of my castle.
I go to pick my wife up, to hold her, and my arms go through her.
It’s then I realize I’m not in my body. No, my body is on the ground cradling Evelia with tears pouring down his cheeks.
He’s screaming and rocking her as he pleads for her to open her eyes.
I am nothing more than a wraith, unable to even hold my wife.
It takes the king a very long time to let her go, but when he finally does, he lets the ocean take her. As she disappears below the water, he forgets everything, even her. He will not remember her again until her soul is freed.
I let go of the projection skills I gained when I took the prince’s magic and end the vision. He’d inherited them from his mother. There were traits I gained from all the mages. From the witch, I got her ability to change my eye color and to jump across distance and bring things with me.
When Zantara split me in two, she made sure King Zyon got the necromancy skills, so I’d never be able to bring Evelia back each time she died. She didn’t want me to grow the skill over each lifetime. Instead, she made sure the part of me that forgot Evelia each time she died, got the ability.
I return to the present to see the most beautiful eyes staring at me with confusion and rage.
It’s the first time Evelia has made it to the top of the mountain and has learned everything. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to finish my story, and it’s all thanks to the witch who should have hated me as much as everyone else.
Evelia blinks with the most unique eyes most people have ever seen.
Green with splotches of purple that help her see more colors than everyone else.
An ability that helped her see the world more magical and vibrant than everyone else.
Her red hair is falling from where she pinned it.
The color always matched my true eye color, and as a child, she insisted it made us soulmates.
No matter who Evelia became each time, Zantara always managed to make her look the same because she wanted me to watch the woman I love die over and over and have no doubt in my mind it is her.
I had to alter our appearances in the visions I gave Evelia, so she wouldn't figure it out too soon and end the cycle early.
“Have you figured out my regret?”
Her fingers curl around her dagger like she might throw it into my forehead for old time’s sake. “Is it not everything you’ve ever done?”
“It’s that in every lifetime I am responsible for killing everything you love.”