Emma turned and walked out of the room. I got up, and realized that I was fully dressed in my father’s hussar uniform, his crown sitting atop my head. I had not remembered putting any of it on. Shaking off the odd feeling, I followed Emma out the door and through the palace hallways.
These doors, these walls, these windows and these statues…. they were so familiar, yet something was off about them. I couldn't place what.
"Did we pass our Trial?" I asked Emma as we drew near to the throne room.
"Of course we did,” Emma replied. "This is what you've always wanted, isn't it, Ethan?"
I thought it was. Yet I couldn't shake this odd feeling of instability that was circling around me, like a vulture ready to feast.
Emma wasn't looking at me the same way. What had passed between us?
We entered the throne room. There was no one inside. I realized that we hadn't seen a single soul since exiting our quarters. It was strange not to see a servant, a diplomat, a guard, or anyone else amongst the palace walls. It housed hundreds of people. That we had not seen another person was beyond eerie.
I turned to Emma as we stood before the great chairs at the head of the throne room. "What is it you wanted to show me?”
"This," Emma said, and she stepped aside. My gut twisted in revulsion as I saw a bloody and naked boy lying on the floor. The child did not move. I gasped at his appearance, not expecting to see such a gruesome sight.
"Who has done this?" I asked in rage, certain I would behead whoever had harmed such an innocent child. But as my attention turned to Emma, a cold feeling crept through my bones as I saw she was clutching her stomach. Her middle had been split open, and her innards were pouring out of the slit. Blood gushed onto the floor where the child lay.
"You have done this to me," Emma rasped. She held her stomach tighter before falling over, curling up on her side against the child. Her red hair splayed behind her as it soaked into the blood, and before my very eyes, I watched her cheeks begin to slowly pale.
"Onawilke,” I gasped. I toppled to my knees beside her and crawled toward her body. I reached out to pick up the child, to cradle it against my chest. Maybe if I did so, the child would awaken, and this would be nothing but a horrible dream.
But the moment I touched the child's pale skin, it vanished completely, leaving me alone with nothing more than Emma's broken form.
Emma stared resentfully at me, as if she hated me, and everything I was.
“You have ruined me, Ethan," Emma sneered. "You have failed me as my mate. It was a mistake not to break our bond. I wish I had cut myself off from you. Now you have destroyed me, and because of this, you will lose everything."
"It was never my intention to ruin you," I pleaded. I could not handle this hatred from her, the pure spite that held her gaze. I regretted that she had saved me from the demon. I regretted my very life, for what worth was life if your actions caused the people around you to wish for your demise?
"I could have been happy," Emma raged. “I could have beenmore. Yet you took and took from me until there was nothing left to give, until I was a husk, a shell, a ghost of myself. Now I am trapped here, sworn to you for the rest of my days.”
“If there is anything I can do to reverse what has been done to your soul, I will do it,” I pledged. "You are my mate.”
"You are no mate of mine," she seethed. "You are a monster. I did all of this because I loved you. And now it has led to my doom.Youcaused my death.”
I reached out for her, but it was useless. Once I took her into my arms, Emma’s skin dissolved into liquid. Her muscles melted away, and her body became nothing more than a limp skeleton in my hands. I went to draw the skeleton close, but as I did so, the bones broke and became dust scattered across my clothing.
She had not even left me a body to bury, to grieve over once she was gone.
Tears broke free from my eyes and landed upon the floor. I pounded my fists into the marble and wailed for the whole palace to hear, though no one heard my cries.
It was then I knew. I was completely alone, left to war against the darkness outside of the palace and within myself. I needed my mate, but she no longer wished to remain at my side. We had saved the country, but I had failed to save her. Emma’s prophecy had come true, and she had lost her life.
The ground beneath me began to shake. I scrambled backward, and realized that the floor was caving in. A hole appeared in the floor of the palace. Flames shot up from the cavern, red-hot and singing my skin, even at a distance.
As I gazed at the fire, I thought about throwing myself in. I was a king, but the ability to stop death was not a power that I had. I could save my kingdom, but I could not save Emma from this prophecy, or our dark fate.
The fire grew even hotter than before, until it burned with all the agony of the Underworld itself. I had a thought that Emma could be down there alone, and I decided then I would not lose her. I would cut my own throat before I abandoned my mate, and allowed her to succumb to the whim of a prophecy that had cursed us from the beginning.
It was then I understood. The naked, dead child that I had seen… that wasme. It was the part of me that I’d neglected, the child that had died within myself because I’d chosen to turn my back on who I once was, in favor of transforming into an illusion of who I wanted to be.
That child still needed saving. Perhaps if I made a sacrifice, I could resurrect him.
I reached up, and felt the crown upon my head. I took it off, and held it in my hands. Without a second thought, I tossed it into the fire.
Once the crown hit the flames, the entire room ignited, as if I’d tossed a bomb into the fiery pit. The flames swelled out of the hole and consumed the entire room— the tapestries, the sculptures, the great thrones, until everything was devoured in seconds. The palace began to crumble around me, stones falling from the ceiling as if some great beast had smashed into it, turning the building to rubble.
