Page 125 of Of Blood & Stone

Still, nothing. Elnok’s lungs squeezed.

Heart slowing, he removed the thick comforter. Black porcelain shattered onto the stone floor as Elnok stumbled backwards. Two necks bleeding deep crimson, dried bloodcovering the white sheets and blending with the maroon comforter. He meant to yell for the guards, but he couldn’t speak, wheezing too much, lungs unable to hold any air.

Vacant eyes. Pallid lips. The faces of his dead parents staring into the heavens. The bright hazel of his mother’s eyes blown out like a candle.

“Elnok?” Tosh’s warm voice sounded from the door as guards rushed in.“What’s the meaning of this?”

Another glass shattered on the floor.

He turned to Tosh, his brother’s green eyes wide, his body trembling. Guards yelled as they swarmed the bed. Elnok backed up until he slammed himself against the wall, clawing at his face.

“No.” Tosh choked. “Elnok, how?”

Shaking his head, Elnok slumped to the floor, unable to form words.

“Elnok…” Tosh held onto the large doors as his legs gave out. “This… this wasn’t you, was it?”

Elnok whipped his head to his brother. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“The guards didn’t know. You came in and now… now they’re…” His brother’s eye twitched. “They’re dead.”

“How can you even suggest that?” Elnok yelled, returning to his feet. “What’s wrong with you?”

He shoved past him, sprinting down the hallway, his mother’s blank hazel eyes haunting him as he ran until hot, scorching sun coated his skin, burning his neck as he ran through the dusty, cobblestone streets.

Suddenly, darkness swallowed the sun, its heat gutted into cold, damp stone walls, a single flame burning in the corner. Heavy chains dug into his wrists, blood dripping from his chapped lips as he scrambled away from Tosh.

“You killed them.” Tosh whispered, the iron rod’s tip a glowing ember, a wine bottle in his other hand. “And you’regoing to kill me, aren’t you? You’re going to slit my neck and take the Crown for yourself, aren’t you?”

“Tosh, just listen to me!” Elnok begged. “The guards confirmed the windows had been tampered with. Someone, or maybe multiple people, broke in and killed them. I don’t know how they got past the guards outside, but I didn’t kill our parents and I’m not going to kill you. I don’t even want the fucking Crown?—”

“Liar!”

Skin searing with flames, Elnok yelled into the darkness as his brother’s green eyes spilled over with tears. Their voices echoed against the stone walls as they both cried for their mother and father.

Breaths labored, heart slowing down until he only had a few beats left, the memory faded into poison black as ink. He’d wanted death all those years ago… maybe this would finally bring him the peace he’d been reaching for ever since his escape.

Maybe, all this time, he’d still wanted to die.

“By Aretta’s blood,” someone’s deep voice echoed somewhere far away from his burning flesh, “He’s almost gone, Sylzenya.”

“Then pick him up andrun,Kharis. We’re making it to that tree.”

That voice.Hervoice. He wheezed a deep breath. He couldn’t control himself as tears spilled from his eyes.

Sylzenya.

She’d survived. She’d survived and somehow turned Kharis. Her plan hadworked.And just as he’d accepted his death, Sylzenya showed up in time, just like Orym.

The flames in his back ebbed as her familiar touch ran across his numbing face. She whispered words he couldn’t understand, his reinvigorated will to live causing his lungs to burn and heart to beat faster; it took every ounce of will to just breathe.Pain,pain, pain.But he wanted to live, godsdamnit—for the first time in his life, he wanted to fuckinglive.

He wanted to see her face, kiss her lips, fuck her breathless. He wanted to adventure across every sea until they’d drunk all the salt and travel through every piece of land until she had filled them with flowers. Life amidst death. Laughter amongst tears. He wanted to experience it all, and he wanted to do it with her.

“The compass is still pointing east, but it looks like it’s shaking,” she said, her breath brushing his ear as Kharis’ strong arms hoisted Elnok from the ground, “What if it’s about to change locations?”

“Then we make it before it does,” Kharis responded, “I’ll carry him, and you hang onto me. Elnok, this is probably going to hurt.”

He meant to tell him there was nothing to hold, especially since his arms were shit, but all he could manage to spit out of his numb mouth was:

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