Wood and…
Bodies. There are bodies everywhere.
“Lachlan!” I scream. My voice echoes around me.
The silence is still heavy.
I see Mina first, her small body tucked into Harald’s side.
Dead.
Tears stream down my face.
A fist clenches my heart—my lungs.
The very life inside of me feels like it’s being ripped out through my throat. And it does not go easily.
Burning, screaming, clawing.
Evander and Luna are hand in hand, their bodies side by side. A swarm of demons lay around them.
I puke, the bile pours out of my mouth and splashes to the floor.
Mathilda lies on top of Tane, as if she crawled to him.
Piominko lies surrounded by the mottled corpses of at least a dozen demons.
Freya is still alive. Her wounds seep blood as she pushes up onto her elbow. Odr presses his hand against the wound, staunching the blood flow. His gaze is hollow. The magic in the land is slowly stitching her back together, but her eyes are empty as she looks up at me.
“He fought the longest,” she whispers.
My knees crack loudly as I fall to the ground. The painlurches up my thighs and spine, but doesn’t compare to the inferno splitting me in two.
Lachlan.
He lies motionless on his stomach. With one arm outstretched towards the hallway, I fled down.
“No,” I scream, clawing and scrambling my way across the floor to him. “No. No. No. Lachlan!”
His eyes are still open. But there is no life there.
No charismatic smile tugging on his lips, or a sparkle in his eyes, as if he’s about to tease me.
He’s gone.
I wail. Throwing myself on top of him, I cling to him.
“You promised we’d go together.” My voice cracks. “You said I wouldn’t have to doany of thisalone.”
My tears fall rapidly, mixing with the crimson puddle on the floor.
The world around me falls away.
It’s me and him.
I grip his still-warm face in my hands as my tears fall upon his skin.
I don’t know how long I sit here. In the ruin of all, that was my life and my future.
