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Chapter 80

Minutes pass while I watch in tense anticipation as Coal battles the pain, his entire body rigid with anguish, shaking with pain, but he himself remains deathly silent. Suddenly, an agonized roar escapes through his clenched teeth, a cry that freezes my blood and sends my head spinning, that must shake the entire mountain and stop the rain from falling for an instant. An endless, drawn out moan ripped from his throat and tearing through the storm. The sound of absolute, and complete suffering.
I find I can't move. The roar of pain penetrates through my skin like a dagger, paralyzing me even as Coal involuntarily grips my arm tighter and tighter for support, his claws digging deep now, so much I have to blink constantly to empty my eyes of tears. But I never move to pull away, or even let the thought cross my mind. For as long as I can humanly- and inhumanly bear it, I'll be here with him, I'll have his back.
Then abruptly, silence.
The wind howls, the lonely, longing cry of millions of ghosts, tearing with invisible fingers at my ragged, bloody dress, my hair, trying to drag me away with them. The rain beats out the percussion on wet fabric and clothes, on skin and fur and stone. It's lonely, lost music, the backdrop to my life. Suddenly, the fierce grip on my arm vanishes, and Coal's hand drops lifelessly to the ground, as the tense muscles bulging in his neck and arms go slack, and his head sags to the side, mouth slightly open, eyes shut tight.
"COAL!" I scream, now more terrified with the silence that I was with the agonized screaming- That's just how it works with me, you know. I snatch his cold, loose hand off the ground and frantically shake it, slamming his fingers hard into the mountain, making them bleed after about of minute of this, then desperately hammering my clenched fists on his chest, over top of his heart, begging aloud in gibberish for him please to come back, not to leave me, to stay with me, be with me- forever.
A hand on my shoulder makes me jump, then furiously whirl and glare up defiantly at Glass, daring him to try and make me move. 'Cause we all know I'm not stubborn. At all. Yeah.
"Ash," He begins awkwardly, eyes darting from Coal's agonized, lifeless form, to me. "I-It's for the best..."
"No, no it's not." I say in a voice much to high-pitched for my husky tone. "No."
A slight furrow creases Glass's tall brow. "I understand you, er..." He looks back to Coal with a crinkle in his nose as if he's looking at something that disgusts him, searching for a word that evades him. "sympathize with the young Prince, and I respect that, but, really Ash, did you think he would actually change his evil ways, even for you?"
I turn away from Glass so I don't give him a nice scar across his face. I know he means well, after all, he just doesn't know all that transpired since the divide. "He already has."
Then I lean down and gently kiss Coal the last farewell.