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“Tell me you’re… y-you’re g-going… to be okay. P-promise me,” I cry, my consciousness being robbed from me as the air thins in this small pocket beneath the rubble.
“I wish we could be together forever. That’s my wish, pup. I wanted it more than anything. But we can’t make that promise.”
My eyes snap open and I look up where his face should be. The little light coming from my aura lights his face enough for me to see. He’s smiling at me with the crushing weight of love. His entire face is covered in crimson, tears streaming down his cheeks and onto mine.
“N-no—Rune, y-you promised,” I rasp, sobbing, but he shuts his eyes and roars as a bright red light emanates from his body, blinding me. All I can do is shut my eyes. The weight lifts from us and a cool breeze brings new air into my lungs.
I force my body to push past the pain and sit up quickly. My now-white hair drifts over my face, blurring the carnage around me.
“Rune?”
I fight the light from the winter suns, beaming hard and reflecting off the snow. Rubble from the castle is everywhere and there’s blood… so much blood everywhere, bodies of so many guards and citizens buried beneath stone. Their bones are jagged and are still very much bleeding. The screams tell me that many of them are still alive but dying.
My jaw’s trembling and I can’t breathe. I can’t fucking breathe.
I catch eyes with Naminé. She’s with Greysil… and they’re both dead. Hugging one another. The Dreadius is leaning over my sweet Cypress friend in an attempt to protect her like Rune did me… but they were both crushed. Naminé’s amber eyes are hazing as the last light leaves them.
My heart sinks.
My stomach wrenches and I catch my mouth in a dry heave.
I look down at my hands. They’re shaking so violently and covered in crimson. I can hardly feel the pain of my own body anymore as the will to search for my drop of blood in the snow consumes everything I am.
Where is he… Where is—
Three crimson horns peek out of a pile of debris. I force my legs and arms to crawl to him.
Please. I’ll do anything.Anything.
Just let him be alive.
“Rune!”
My scream echoes through the many cries and shouts. I muster up the strength to move the stones covering him and pull his body until he’s as free as I am.
I land on my back and he falls beside me. I roll him over and—
He’s smiling. It’s subtle but it’s there. Dried tears run through the crimson covering his cheeks.
His red eyes gaze endlessly into the somber sky above us.
And a piece of my soul goes with him.
30
Elodie
I’ve felt loss.
I’ve survived so much.
But I won’t survive without him—not without Rune. I stare into his glazed eyes and can feel the blank nothingness that I watch him with.
Thisisn’thappening. I won’t let it happen.
It may be real… but I won’t let it stay this way.
I stand, my shattered legs cracking—bone slitting through my flesh—but I don’t as much as wince at the pain. My broken shin bonesclackagainst the stones beneath.
