Tobias led her to the front row. Rowan and Saffra on one side, Alys and Sienna on the other. Kara didn’t register anything at first. The priest’s words, the crimson banners – it all blurred through her tears. She didn’t look away from the coffin. That was all that mattered.
That was him.
Some of the words reached her through the haze, though muffled by grief. Tobias spoke first. The First Commander of Vallenna’s deadliest men – and even his voice shook. “...my son, who stood where others would have fallen. Who faced the Drakens with a courage I will remember until my last breath. He was Thorne. He was Vallenna’s shield. For peace, he sacrificed.”
Rowan’s voice followed, softer. “...he was the one who put a blade in my hands when I was a child, who laughed when I fell, and who made sure I got up again...”
Next was Saffra, who broke into tears more than once. “...we used to race valmares across the fields at dawn... he always cheated, although he swore he didn’t... he was my brother, and I’ll miss him every day.”
Kara hadn’t realised Saffra had stopped speaking until Tobias was beside her again. His hand settled briefly on hers.
“Do you want to speak?” he asked quietly.
“I can’t,” she whispered, shaking her head.
But she couldn’t just sit there. Couldn’t let them take him without something. Even if words failed, she should stand for him one last time. She didn’t know how she got to her feet, or how she moved. She knew only that she needed to be close to him. She climbed the steps to the coffin and placed a shaking hand against the crimson-draped wood.
“I’ll love you forever,” she mouthed. The words were meant for him alone, even if he couldn’t hear them.
The echo of him burned in her soul. Only a memory. But enough that the ripped edges flared with agony.
The temple was silent. No one dared move. Her grief was its own eulogy. Everyone knew that they had been Soulbonded. Her grief on the battlefield had proven it beyond doubt. Many looked away from her, unable to bear the sight of her pain. And then the tears came. Not as violent as the day he’d been struck down, but bad enough to force her to her knees. Tobias rushed to her side, catching her for the second time. True to his word, he didn’t let her fall.
“It’s not fair,” she sobbed into his shoulder.
He drew her into his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head. Now he wasn’t a commander of an army, or the head of a House. He was a father burying his son. “I know. Gods, I know.”
He gently guided her back to her seat. There was a hand on her arm. Sienna, she guessed, by the faint calm that tried, hopelessly, to ease her pain. The ceremony finally ended, though Kara couldn’t have said how long it lasted.
The bells tolled again. Slow. Final.
And the coffin was lifted once more.
They walked slowly through the street, the crowd bowing their heads respectfully, until they were at the burial ground. It was a place of honour; where Thorne’s soldiers and heroes were laid to rest beneath carved stone.
And it was there, underneath the grey autumn sky, just as the rain started to fall, that they lowered him into the earth. Kara stared in a kindof numb horror as soil was thrown onto the wood of his coffin with a dull thud, until even that was taken from her too.
The Warrior was gone.
And the Healer who remained was only half alive.
The mourners left in silence. The only sound was the crimson banners fluttering softly in the wind. But Kara stayed. Her knees sank deep into the damp soil, her hands against the cold gravestone that now bore his name.
Sebastian Thorne.
Commander. Bondmate.
Hero of Vallenna.
Her fingers traced each letter, so gently, as if he could feel it.
It was the closest to him she could be.
She didn’t leave that night.
Or the next.
Or the one after that.
