Page 74 of Bad Bunny
Not in fear.
In disbelief.
For a suspended moment, we remain joined by the blade that binds us, his lifeblood pouring over my hand, hot and relentless, painting the flowers at our feet until every petal turns red.
His mouth opens as if to speak.
Blood fills it instead.
I withdraw the sword in one smooth motion.
Rion crumples to the earth and lies still. Dead.
A hush floods the clearing, like even the birds have forgotten how to sing.
I rush to Nora’s side.
Veskar is already there. The snake hovers over her, his head close to hers as if even he’s concerned by what has been undone.
“Nora.”
She stares up at me.
Her expression is dull. Unknowing.
The emerald rests heavy against her chest. The silver threads inside it lie straight and separated.
Unknotted.
Each one of them.
Our bond—severed.
Gone.
But I do not need the necklace to tell me that.
I feel it in the hollow cavern of my heart. In the unbearable quiet of my mind. There is no warmth glowing between us. No thread pulling me toward her. No pulse of fear or trust or love.
Nothing.
I sink to my knees before her anyway. I crawl the last inch to her like a wounded animal and bury my face in her lap. The sound that comes out of me is broken. It tears from somewhere deep. A place where hope has gone to die.
I cannot stop it. The tears that pour from my eyes.
I watched my father fall.
I’ve been exiled. Hunted. Attacked.
None of it comes close to this.
She is here.
Yet gone.
My mind reaches for her and finds only silence. A vast, unyielding emptiness.
Her fingers slide into my hair. They move gently, instinctively. She strokes the length of the strands.
