AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Most might dismiss such a claim as childish imagination or madness, but I feel the truth of her words as they strike with the force of a hammer.
“You have changed, Alaric.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I am the same. I’ll prove it.”
Again, Rosalie laughs as if I said something utterly ridiculous, but there is no mockery behind it. “I did not mean that as a bad thing. Do you remember when Mother used to say?” She sends an apprehensive glance over her shoulder. “For better or worse, love has the power to change us.”
From some place far away, someone calls my name.
“You finally allowed yourself to claim happiness. I just never thought you’d be quite so literal about it.”
“Alaric?” The distant voice causes my heartbeat to stutter, though I can’t pinpoint why. Rosalie and I turn toward it.
A woman appears, walking along one path. Her head moving side to side, searching, as if she can’t see the two of us standing directly ahead of her. Over and over, she calls out. Then she stops as her gaze finally lands on me. She bites down on her bottom lip.
Clara.
Her name is as clear and bright as the summer sun. It’s filled with meaning and emotion. Then she is running, racing toward me.
“You have a decision to make, Alaric. It’s not one many are fortunate enough to get.”
“Decision?” My head whips toward Rosalie. “What do you mean?”
But Rosalie is backing up, going down the second path. As I wait for her to explain, she is farther and farther out of reach. The distance between us increases. Still, she doesn’t answer.
“Rosalie! What choice?” I ask again.
She stretches her arm out for me to take. “You must choose.”
“Alaric!” Clara calls.
I am rooted in place, not understanding. I am caught between them, looking from Rosalie and the warm smile she always wore to Clara with tears streaking down her cheeks. Each one is a hot needle piercing my chest.
“Clara?” Her name falls from my tongue.
I look at my sister. She continues to walk away, holding her hand out, still waiting for me.
The choice I am supposed to make is obvious now, and I know what I must do–what Iwantto do. Though I will always love my sister, my heart is so deeply entrenched inside the woman running deeper into the Otherworld.
I take Clara’s hand, opening my arms to her, and she falls against me with a sob.
***
Thousands of stars wink down from an inky black sky. Winter air scrapes down my throat, frigid enough to form ice crystals in my lungs.
The warm hand clasping mine is an anchor, to the earth, to life. I flex my fingers and squeeze gently. I turn my head to the side. Fingers entwined with mine, Clara lays beside me. Tears have stained her cheeks and clumped her lashes. I watch her for a moment.
The final piece of something powerful slips into place.
Her eyes flutter open. For a while, neither of us move.
“Alaric?” The way she says my name is tinged with uncertainty and pain.
This moment is like a dream, the last hallucination of a dying man’s mind. Strange and unreal.
“Am I… are we… dead?”
She presses her lips into a tight line and shakes her head.
