Page 61 of A Dawn Of Blood

My dearest Anyi,

Thank the gods, because if you’re reading this, it means Nymeria has found you alive and well. The original intention was to leave you my diary, but after some recent events, there has arisen a need to preface it with this letter.

There’s nothing I wouldn’t give to be by your side right now, my love, but there’s something potentially unsettling I need to divulge, so if you could just imagine me holding you in my arms? I myself will take comfort in the fact that the information I’m about to share will be of use to you, protect you from harm and help you lead a long, happy life.

Long story short, I’ve recently had another encounter with Serra. Her intention was obviously to kill me. I’m happy to be able to say I’ve taken her life instead, but in the days that followed, I’ve managed to unearth another one of her endeavors.

Serra had been researching the nature of your mate bonds, my love. She had figured out that there is an order in which we — your mates — reincarnate, and had been trying to find ways to identify us. Or maybe not ‘us’ per se, because her search seemed to have been limited to vampires specifically.

I don’t know if this means anything, but I’m afraid that, despite my having succeeded in killing her, she had in turn already succeeded in setting some plan in motion.

There. I hope that this helps you somehow, my love, and that you stay safe from any harm that might befall you.

Now, before I leave you with the diary, I just have the need to tell you, once again, that none of this is your fault. As I suspected, the nature of time is such that things that have happened can never be changed. Neither you going back in time and finding me, nor you traveling back to your own time and leaving me.

And I sure as hell don’t regret anything. A single day with you, my love, and it would still all have been worth it.

Yours forever and ever, throughout both time and space,

Orpheus

By the time I finish the letter, I’m sobbing, sitting on the floor and clutching the letter with Nymeria sitting by my side. My mind is reeling and my body is restless — I want to read the letter again and again and again, until I’ve memorized every stroke of the pen, but the need to find out how he’s lived his life urges me on.

Dread and hope clashing within me, I put the letter back and open the first page of the diary.

My dearest Anyi,

This will not be a sad book for you to read, I promise. It’s been a couple of months since you left and I’ve spent that time locked up in my workshop — grieving, raging and drinking myself into oblivion.

But I urge you not to be cross with me yet, my love, because that’s not how my story ends.

It hit me a couple of days ago, how sad you’d be if you saw how poorly I was handling being without you, and I’ve since decided to come to my senses. This led to a conclusion I take great comfort in — that you being in a different time doesn’t mean I can’t be of any help to you.

So yesterday, I started my own research on Baldur and arranged to become the next Grimm Academy Archivist, so I can leave a book for you in the Lexarcanum — the very oneyou’re reading right now — as a means of communication, however one-sided, across time and space.

Though, to be honest, the thought occurred to me mostly because of how desperately I miss you, with every breath I take, and more so with each day that passes.

But I did say this wouldn’t be a sad book for you to read.

On a lighter note, you’ll be glad to hear that becoming the Archivist wasn’t the only thing I did yesterday. I even visited my mother in prison and had dinner with my sisters. Sylmarilla and Farryn miss you as well, but they’re closer than ever before. I know how much you wanted us to be a real family, so I’ll be putting effort into becoming a better brother as well…

Chapter 46

It’s my eighty first birthday, and all I could think about today was the cake you made me on my thirty fifth. My life is filled with so many things one can be truly grateful for — researching, teaching, spending time with my sisters and their families… There’s not much I can complain about, save for the fact I will never have a birthday as happy as when I had the honor to try your salty cake, my love.

Wherever you end up going, whatever you end up doing, and whenever you find me again, just remember what I told you the last time I laid my eyes on you…

To the ends of the universe, that’s how much I love you, Anyi. Like I found you in your original timeline, like I found you in this one, I willalwaysfind you.

My heart swelling, I turn the page only to find it empty. Then another one and another one. It’s as if someone rips my soul right out of my body, when I realize I’ve just read the last entry.

This is the last thing he wrote to me before he died.

Closing my eyes shut, I hug the book to my chest, lean forward and let out a low, dragged-out wail that shakes my entire body. I swallow and start rocking back and forth. For what feels like an eternity, I just remain sitting like that, trying to get it together.

Then I open my eyes, close the book and force myself to stop crying. Wiping my tears away, I glance around, realizing I’ve spent the entire night devouring his words. It’s the crack of dawn, the cold, mournful sunlight illuminating the cramped space around me.

“Thank you for this,” I turn to whisper to Nymeria. “You don’t know how much it means to me, to have a part of him with me, like the lighter is a part of Jericho. And it means even more, to know he ended up living a quiet life, just like he said he wanted to.”

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