That stupid nickname, he used it every day no matter how tall she grew. It used to annoy her to no end.
Hearing it now... seeing his face, she missed it—she missed him.
The wrenched sob she let out was a combination of agony and elation.
“What are you doing here?” Her words were strained as she choked out the question. Tears began to well in her eyes.
“We’ve been waiting for you, Laina, waiting for you to get out, to leave that place behind,” her sister’s elegant voice said. “We’ve always been right here, leaving this light out for you, hoping you’d follow it out.”
In all the times she dreamed of that dark room, she had never heard their voices. Never seen a light.
“You wereneverhere.” Helaina squeezed her eyes tight as a single tear traveled down her cheek. She had just felt unmeasurable power; now she felt so small as the faces she had so horribly wronged stared back at her. Thin streams fell from her eyes.
She was finally crying.
“You left.” She tried not to sound angry, but she was so sick of them not being where they should be. They didn’t belong in the ether, not now. They belonged with her. “I can’t even remember what it feels like to be who I was before. To be who I was when you were with me.” She hung her head, wiping her eyes as another strangled sob left her mouth. “You should be here.”
“Oh, Laina,” Krysta’s gentle voice sang.“We never left you. We reached for you every night, leaving our light to guide your way out.” Krysta’s other hand reached out to wipe the tears from her sister’s cheek. “You were just stuck in a place so dark that you couldn’t see.”
Helaina’s shoulders shook uncontrollably as she tried to fight the urge to come undone.
Adriel took the hand that hung limp at her side.
The flickering flame became stronger.
“You’ll never get back to that place, kid, to the person you were before all this. That person is gone; let her go. Something greater has always been inside you, begging to come out.” He squeezed her hand again in earnest. “We should have never made you hide it.”
He smiled that one-of-a-kind smile.
Adriel let go of her hand, then pressed a piece of parchment to her palm. His smile retreated a bit as his eyes grew somber.
His note, she had left it in the pages of a book, but somehow it was here.
She kept one hand on the candle, afraid that letting go would end the hallucination. She jumbled the piece of old, tattered paper apart. The handwriting was jagged and rough, not his own. Like he was struggling with himself to write these final words.
In the light she read:
This is the one fight I cannot win.
But I know you can.
Helaina’s anger rekindled for that undead bastard. For all the death he had played a role in. He had held her brother’s mind hostage for years before finally taking him from her.
“I knew who it was. His voice was so clear, commanding my body. I promise I fought him every day, until the end.” Adriel let a single tear fall. “I wasn’t strong enough.But you are.”
Krysta sat back, allowing some of the dark to overtake her features once more. Adriel did the same. All three of the Ironblood children grasped that candle, their connection burning bright for one last time—one last breath.
“I’m sorry for everything, I’m so sorry,” Helaina whispered.
As the light began to flicker, their faces blended into the darkness. They were fading.
Adriel spoke, his voice distant now. “You never owed us those words a day in your life. We’re gone, kid. Nothing can undo it.” His reassuring smile returned in full. “Go, fight for something youcansave.”
Krysta nodded as the wetness on her own cheeks grew.
Their faces blurred into obscurity as that single flickering candle finally went out.
“I love you,” Helaina whispered in the night.
