Page 109 of Heirs of the Cursed

Darcia shook her head in denial as she waited for Caeli’s heart to respond to hers, yet she couldn’t hear her heartbeat. Looking back at her face, she realized her gaze was lost in the sky, terrified and in a silent prayer.

She lowered her face to hers, and their foreheads brushed against each other. The hot tears that rolled through her cheeks fell down to Caeli’s like raindrops of an unwanted farewell.

Because Darcia couldn’t—would never—accept that her love was dead.

Not her.

“Caeli, please look at me,” she implored in a painful whisper, shaking her gently. “Cally.”

Her fingers lowered to her throat, to find nothing at all.

Not a heartbeat.

Not a sigh.

Nothing.

Darcia screamed and felt her heart tear as reality set in. She embraced her softly, fearing that she could hurt her even more. For a moment, she forgot about the flames that devoured the tent and the screeching noises that alerted her of the soon fall of all that she had known and loved. There was no world she’d want to survive without her, and wherever she went, Darcia wanted to go with her . . .

Caeli, her love.

“Please,” she begged in tears. “Come back to me, Cally. I promise you that we’ll leave for good, so please come back.”

But there was no salvation for Caeli Ndyaie. She was gone, and part of Darcia had just died with her.

Darcia didn’t give up. She called out to her, to anyone, screaming for help. But nobody came to her aid. As sheembraced her tighter, blood soaked her hands, her face and her clothes.

She cried out to the goddesses to bring her back to her. Because they hadn’t had enough time and Darcia wanted to make the most of it with her. She hadn’t been able to show her the world as she promised. She hadn’t been able to tell her enough times about how much she cared, how much shelovedher.

“Don’t leave me,” Darcia cried, caressing her girlfriend’s limp face with trembling hands. “Please, don’t leave me.”

She should have agreed to the plan. They should have fled. She should have given everything of herself, should have been selfish and happy by her side. That was a bitter punishment, the fate that the Triad had sentenced her to.

With one last piercing scream, Darcia embraced Caeli. She clung to her, almost unable to breathe.

She wasn’t ready.

She wasn’t ready to let her go.

The smell of fire and ash rose, alerting Darcia of the danger ahead. She summoned all her strength and, after tearing off the braided bracelet that Caeli wore on her wrist to safeguard it in one of the pockets of her dress, she tried to lift her up. She wouldn’t let her burn there, alone and abandoned. She had to bury her, she had to tell her mother, she had to do something.

The weight of her body made her knees give way. The fire had already taken over the entrance of the tent. She had a couple of minutes at most to escape.

‘Let her go,’ her magic commanded.

“No!” she shouted. “I’m not going to leave her.”

‘You won’t make it out alive.’

“Shut up!”

Her magic had awakened, roaring like an enraged tiger. The power within her grew and grew, and overflowed her emotionsand thoughts. The bitter taste of rage, the doughy taste of sadness, the sour taste of despair. An uncontrollable, insatiable black hole.

At her shattered soul, she began to lose control, but Darcia didn’t stop walking. She pushed all her anger into her muscles to hold Caeli’s body against her. Feeling her touch still slightly warm, the tears spilled out on their own.

Had she arrived earlier, perhaps she could have saved her, protected her. Still, it had been too late.

The fire continued to spread and Darcia prayed to the goddesses.

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