Page 97 of Kilthorne
I felt a little lighter in Svealin. Though we still had one more thing to take care of. We stood on the other side of the portal, my eyes lingering on the writhing rubies for one last time. They clashed together, breaking apart with an eruption of light.
Sebastian held up a dagger, reaching for my hand.
“I can do it.”
He paused, looking up to meet my eyes and giving the biggest smile I had ever seen from him. My mouth fell open at the sight, at the sight of his impenetrable exterior, that perpetual blankness, giving way to a lightness I had never seen from him.
“That’s my killer.”
I smiled back at him as I took the dagger. I dragged the edge along my palm, sanguine beads trailing after it. The red pooled together. I held what had started it all in my hand. My other hand went to the base of my neck, tracing the raised flesh there. It ached beneath my skin, the source miles beneath, transcending worlds and astral planes.
I extended my hand out to the portal. It disappeared into the void. A deep cold froze me to the bone, wrapping around my arm, reaching in and spreading throughout my body until I shivered. Prying fingers prodded against my rib cage, rifling through me, stealing a breath as it withdrew, leaving my lungs vacant.
I choked on nothing until I finally managed to heave in a breath. The portal dissipated, my hand still raised to the forest beyond. The blood was gone, just a trail of pink left behind from mended skin.
Sebastian wrapped his arm around me, and I realized I hadn’t moved, my hand still raised, my eyes locked upon what once was. I relaxed into his hold as he pressed me into his chest. His fingersbrushed the side of my face. I leaned into it. He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead, sending sparks dancing across my skin.
“I have something to show you.”
The sun hung high in a sea of cerulean. The warm air flowed around us like velvet as he guided me down a path carved through waving grass. Through a tunnel of oak trees, we came to the end. A statue carved from what looked like red jasper stood just above us. It was a veiled woman in a floating gown. There was a name inscribed on a plaque at the base of the statue. Alaric.
“The Red Woman?” I had meant to keep my voice lighter, though sorrow was close behind.
He smirked. “It was one of my favorite memories with him.”
I nodded, looking back to the statue, then the ground beneath it.
“I had buried him back in Kilthorne. He wouldn’t have wanted to come back to Dreigo.”
“No, he wouldn’t,” I whispered.
We sat down on the cool grass shaded from the sun. Golden rays spilled through the canopy above, falling across the Red Woman. Silence enveloped the three of us, and I sat between all that I had gained and all that I had lost.
Though a piece of me would ache for eternity from the empty space in my soul, my bond with Sebastian grew everyday, soon it would be bigger than me, than us. Soon the ache would be an echo of the past, one I’d be happy to carry with me forever. Because Alaric deserved love, the absence of it plunging him into a darkness he couldn’t escape. He fought against monsters until he lost himself in his own fight. I would reserve a piece of my love for him, a light to hold through the dark.
After a long moment of silence, Sebastian tugged on my arm, helping me up.
He smiled. “I have something else to show you.”
We walked further into the trees, until a distant bubbling drifted in. We came across a small creek that weaved through flowing grass speckled with flowers of white and yellow. He guided me down, sitting before the water, the sun draping over the land in a crystalline gold. I glanced around as I recognized what was no longer a dreamscape, but reality.
“This was the first illusion you showed me.” It was just as beautiful and magical as he had once conjured.
“It was the first moment I thought I saw a shift within you. When you might have started to see us, me, as something other than a demon.”
Sebastian pulled me onto his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he cradled me. He rooted around his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, velvet box. I looked to it, then to him. My lips parted slightly at the look in his eyes, the way he looked at me with a reverence. The bond pulled us impossibly close. I knew my eyes mirrored his.
He opened the box with one hand, and I gasped.
In it sat a delicate, silver ring with a circular moonstone rimmed with celestial rays of diamonds.
“Our betrothal may not have been real, but it was always real to me, and I want to make it real to us, if you’ll accept.”
I didn’t hesitate. “I would love nothing more.”
I removed the first ring he gave me, placing it on my other hand. Though it was a sham, there was a part of it that had always been real to me too, even though I had no idea how to face my truth at the time. He placed the ring on my finger, and we both stared at it for a moment.
Our eyes met, a union between worlds, a melding of souls.
He pulled me in closer, our lips meeting in a slow, lazy kiss, my body melting into his. He paused, his face hovering above mine.
“So, mannyenska, what would you like to do in your new world?”
A croaking broke my attention to the raven perched in the oak above us. For the first time, the sight didn’t fill me with dread. I smiled, looking back to Sebastian.
“Everything.”
