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Aurick orders the men to pull me away and contain my hysteria, but I’m thrashing against their hands, howling in despair as the realization hits me. Blood pours over my legs. His eyes stare up to the gray sky vacantly.
The hands let me go, dropping me back down to my seated position as something like a black storm cloud slams into them, throwing the men a few feet back. DaiSzek snarls, throwing his body over Dessin. Protecting his family. Growling at anyone who would try and tear me away from him.
And it’s the way he guards us, the way he bears down and shields the body soaked in his own blood, the way he howls in despair that has me looking down at the lifeless eyes in my lap again.
Dessin. Kane. Greystone. Aquarus. Foxem. Syfer. Kalidus. Dai.
Dead.
They’re all dead.
“I’ve lost them…” I utter, staring down at him in shock. “I’ve lost them all!” I bellow, my screams shredding through the forest line, clashing with the angry waves. My cries are loud and heart wrenching, a plague cast to all who can hear me. My devastation infecting every vessel, every organ.
The group stands back as DaiSzek’s howls turn into whimpers, like that of a puppy. And I’m not the only one who feels the loss. He looks back at me with large cinnamon eyes, telling me he knows. He senses that their souls are gone.
We’ve lost them all.
We sit there for what feels like hours.
And I can’t move. I can’t fathom leaving this moment. The moment I let them pull me away is the closer I’ll get to never seeing this man again. He’s in my arms, growing colder by the second. And my tears don’t stop falling. I feel I’ve lost my mind. This is my own personal hell. Maybe I never left Albatross’s cage. Maybe this is all a trick.
But his dried blood makes my fingers stiff, and I know this is all really happening. The understanding numbs my insides. And I am a lifeless doll, a poisoned pawn, sitting with a dead body in my lap, caressing his hair absently.
“I love you so much,” I whisper, eyes glazed over, looking at nothing in particular.
I look down at DaiSzek, who is resting his big head over Dessin’s waist, whimpering softly every few minutes. And then, my gaze lands on each person surrounding us, waiting patiently for me to come to terms with this.
“I don’t know how to let him go,” I weep.
Ruth inches closer, careful to stay away from DaiSzek. “We can help you.”
I glance back at Warrose, who is still staring at my hand wrapped around Dessin’s. His eyes are red rimmed, tired, and devastated.
“He’s dead,” I say to him, voice raw and raspy. “He’s not coming back.”
Warrose doesn’t meet my eyes. “I know.”
“I don’t know—how to let him go,” I say again.
He seems to snap out of the trance he is in. “You’ll hold on to me, okay?” He leans closer. “Let go of him and wrap your arms around my neck, Skylenna.”
This makes me cry harder. But I nod, slowly unclenching my hands, sliding them away from his hand and chest, sobbing uncontrollably at how hard it is to part ways. To no longer be connected.
Warrose guides my arms around his neck, scooping me into his strong embrace.
But the second my hands touch his skin, I fall. A quick slip into the darkness, into an endless hole. Air is knocked from my lungs, and my entire body clenches tight, preparing for gravity to crash into me.
But I don’t land. I’m standing upright in a dark room only lit by a candle. Two boys sit in a corner, holding a gas lamp and a book. One is older with long dark hair, and the other one is—the boy from Ambrose Oasis.
“Kane,” I gasp.
Young Kane.
Warrose and Kane.
My mouth falls open.
“And he conquered the ocean,” Warrose reads, voice less deep and husky than usual. “Destroyed his enemies and ended the war.”
