“No no no?—”
He drops to his knees hard enough to crack the ground beneath them, dragging her into his lap as blood immediately floods over his hands.
And gods.Seren has never seen anything so horrifying.
Not because Calira is dying.
Because Revryn looks like he is dying with her.
“She’s bleeding out,” Seren whispers, already knowing there is nothing she can do.
Calira’s breaths come shallow and uneven now. Blood spills from the corner of her mouth as Revryn desperately presses shaking hands against the wound in her stomach.
“It’s okay,” he lies frantically. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you, my Callie.”
My Callie.
Calira flinches at the name like it physically hurts her.
For a moment, she just stares at him.
And Seren watches the fight finally leave her face.
Not the Venomshade.
Not The Crown’s Blade.
Just Calira.
Just a girl who spent her entire life being turned into something sharp enough to survive. And gods, Seren realizes with sudden, brutal clarity that Revryn is only getting her back now because she is dying.
Her lips tremble.
“Dad,” she whispers.
Revryn breaks completely. A sound tears out of him that Seren will hear for the rest of her life.
“I’m here,” he chokes out, cradling her closer. “I’m here, baby. I’m right here.”
Calira’s fingers curl weakly into the front of his shirt.
“You came.”
Two words. Two words that break him.
Revryn presses his forehead against hers, sobbing openly now.
“Always,” he says. “I will always come for you. It does not matter the distance; my love can go further.”
But Seren can hear the grief inside the words. Because Revryn had never stopped trying to love her, and Calira had never stopped expecting love to hurt.
Calira’s eyes close slowly.
And this time, they do not open again.
Seren freezes, like an insect pinned behind glass, the world around her narrowed into a single vision. Revryn holds his daughter. The one he has grieved while alive, and regains as she passes.
Every sound mutes, save for the strangled sobs that tear from Revryn’s throat.
