My Darkening Ember

Chapter Forty - Seven

I returned to the mansion not long after Selene had left. The cold night had started to make me shiver and as I turned the corner to my room my thoughts were scrambling. So many decisions and people who relied on me. Could I afford to be selfish? Maybe I could.

The door was wide open and I continued, assuming Selene hadn't finished setting everything up for me to go to bed. I almost wanted to insist on doing it myself but fearing I would see the sadness in her eyes I had kept my mouth shut each night. She didn't mind it, I guessed.

"Selene? I called as I walked in. The room was lit by a few candles hanging on golden cups on the wall.

Her golden hair was what I saw first, not the knife nor the terror in her eyes. My gaze then fell to the hand around her throat, where the knife was. I froze and stopped breathing, my eyes widening.

He was cloaked, his eyes the only thing staring through his hood, the rest was covered in a dark cloth concealing anything familiar about him. His eyes, marked with black, were staring right at me. He held her in front, one hand at the base of her throat while the other held a black knife right beneath her jaw. Her eyes were pleading, searching for mine, her sulks almost quiet. I couldn't react, she was too far, standing at the end of the room, her hands clamped together.

"Please," I begged.

"My lady," she whimpered.

It was a quick move. One that sucked everything from my lungs. Terror.

"No," I whispered as his blade slit her throat open. Selene's eyes went even wider than before and she sank to the floor. I took a step before he threw the knife.

It flew toward me, slicing my arm and making me fall to my side. I clutched the wound with my other hand as he jumped over me, disappearing through a window behind me.

It was hunting, her breaths. Already it sounded as if she was drowning.

I scrambled onto my hands, my blood coating the floor as I crawled to her.

"No no no no no," I shouted as if it couldn't be true. I pulled her up by her arms until she lay in my embrace, my body wrapping around hers.

My bloodied hand closed on her throat leaking blood, a lot of it. I didn't even notice how black my own was compared to hers.

"The gods please no!" I begged, in full tears, towards the ceiling hoping desperately this was the time the gods were listening.

"Oh..." I stuttered my breath and my hands slipped off her wound. She kept gasping and with every breath, the blood poured out but I put pressure back on it. It was unreal.

"Help please, help her!" I screamed till my voice burned out, hoping anyone was listening.

She trembled in my arms. Frightened she tried putting her shaken hand over mine, but to no avail. Neither she nor I could stop it. Her bloodied hand raised and she looked at it with gasping words at the glove of blood.

"Don't speak, you're going to be alright." I tried to force the roaring storm inside me to rest, I shouldn't cry in front of her. I shouldn't terrify her any more than she already was. But I couldn't hold it. The drops poured out like rain, coating my face.

Her struggling breaths slowed and her hands relaxed to her sides. 

"I'm so sorry," I whispered before her lips curled upwards one last time and her beautiful ocean eyes shut.

I felt it the moment she let go, the moment her soul left. I was just holding a shell. A beautiful shell.

Another one.

The storm hit land, crashing in, destroying everything in its path until it couldn't be contained and I let out a horrendous scream. 

A useless final plea.

She was lifeless in my arms. Her curly blond hair was stained red by her own sea and her small face rested in my arms as if she had just gone to sleep. A sleep, she would never wake from.

"Elora!" Someone shouted.

I didn't know who it was before she stormed into the room so fast, that she almost stumbled as she halted.

My pleading eyes went to Mayra's. The same terror came to paint her face as she saw Selene in my arms.

"Help her," I begged.

It was useless, I knew that but I couldn't think.

"We have to get a doctor. She...she is bleeding too much," I stuttered, focusing on pressing my hand against her wound.

Mayra's breath was stammering as she knelt on the other side, her eyes gliding up and down Selene's body as if trying to see if her eyes were deceiving her.

"Who?" Her voice said, frail with anger.

"He jumped out, but I don't know what to do. Tell me how to save her. She's..." I trailed off, now crying hysterically but as my eyes fell into Mayra's, her grief-stricken face told me it was over.

"No," I said again, "No..." I whispered, grazing my bloody hand against Selene's soft cheek, caressing her brow with my thumb.

I held her until guards stumbled into the room, accompanied by a dishevelled Sarvin. I didn't look up, didn't break away from her sleeping statue.

Even as Sarvin knelt to tear me from her, I didn't let go. I refused to let her go, rocking back and forth as a mother would.

"Give her to me," Mayra said softly, her eyes calm but teary. "I'll be gentle, just give her to me." She promised, sliding her arms under mine.

Sarvin tried again, grabbing my shoulders, to remove me. I lifted myself and he took my place.

Knees to the floor, his hand, slowly, caressed her forehead. His face frowned from pure anguish. I suddenly realized she must have been like a daughter to him.

Her face was haunting. So beautiful yet so haunting. I turned as uncontrollable sobs began in my stomach. My legs carried me out, I didn't know where I was going but I couldn't look back.

Down the hall in a drowsy state of mind, I clutched my stomach in pain. I didn't even feel the wound on my arm, still bleeding.

She was gone. Gone. Dead. Was it my fault?

Yes.

Her whimpering plea cut into me and I almost buckled, steadying myself against the wall. Her eyes had been so afraid. She died in pain and terror. I had failed to comfort, failed to reassure her everything was going to be fine and she had smiled.

As if knowing she wouldn't make it, she had given me the last thing she could muster. A comforting smile.

I stumbled down some stairs, going round and round until a door blocked the way and I pushed through. Suddenly surrounded by her canvases I buckled to the floor. She would never finish them now. She would never live to see a better future as she had wished. I collapsed, bawling like a child, curling up with only myself. Accompanied by her dreams and memories.

Her now abandoned world was left behind to crumble.