Page 100 of Diamond Kisses

But no one came.

Everything faded.

A sunburst of light appeared in the night sky. A circle of pinks and golds, whites and starshine. It glowed brighter and brighter, building and building until everything was gilded and glittering.

My heart kept beating, slower now, turning into a winter sculpture made of icicles.

I looked at Peter above me.

Peter haloed in white bright light.

And my heart no longer fought the glacial creep. It went quiet inside me. Calm inside me. The coldness that’d plagued me for so long went wonderfully warm.

“Ily…” Peter’s eyes welled with tears, his chest heaving, lips dripping in blood. “I’m—”

“I know.” The bright light above grew ever more brilliant, luminescent and iridescent, pure and home.

His hot blood seeped onto my chest.

His essence soaked into mine, stinging the matching hole within me.

The hole where everything faded, quieted, slowed…

We stopped fighting the fear, the instinct, the pain.

We looked at each other one last time.

I wished I could’ve said goodbye to Henri.

To tell him not to worry.

To promise him this wasn’t the end.

But as more jewels crashed around us and hands tried to staunch Peter’s bleeding, I sighed with acceptance that this was always the way it was meant to be.

I’d come here to save them.

I’d done my very best.

This life was not in vain.

It was blessed.

I sighed as I floated into a warm, cloaking comfort.

Death was so warm and soft andhappy.

Death was goodbye and hello, an ending and a new beginning. A changing of garments from one form to the next…

And as that white light claimed everything and the tangible world shattered into diamond dust, Peter pressed his bloody lips to mine, and together…

…we were finally free.

Chapter Eighteen

………………………….

Henri

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