Page 63 of Framed and Forgotten
Instinctively, my hands reached for the wound, but the blood kept flowing, slick and unstoppable between my trembling fingers. I tried to hold it in. To stop it. I failed.
This wasn’t just bad. This was fatal.
Kea could have helped heal the cut, at least partially. She could have prevented our frail human body from bleeding out. But the poison still burned in my veins, keeping my wolf under, suppressing all our powers. I couldn’t shift. I couldn’t heal.
I couldn’t even scream for help.
My weak knees failed me, my body too weak to hold its own weight. I collapsed, helpless, using what little was left of my strength to pathetically press harder against my wound. Before long, the remainder of my energy waned, and I stopped fighting. After a lifetime of fighting, my efforts would be rendered useless. It would all end here.
Like most of my kind, I would die alone.
Until…
Suddenly, warmth rushed in like a rising tide, colliding with the cold that had begun to hollow me out. My heart, weak and barely holding on, was encouraged to give one fragile beat. Then another, as his voice broke through the numbness, ragged and desperate. And another, as his trembling hands cradled my head as gently as I’d ever been held.
I wasn’t alone - Koen was here.
Ever since our night together, I’d been trying to understand what he meant to me. What I’d seen in him. Why I’d risked everything just to be with him. The attraction was undeniable, but what flipped the switch inside my head? What made me decide love was worth a shot, for a life without it sounded too miserable after I was reunited with him?
As he whispered sweet promises to me, clutching me close to his chest with both desperation and tenderness, as if it was his very heart he was holding in his hands, the answer I’d been seeking finally dawned on me.
I wished I could speak. Thank him for caring so much about me. For sticking around even after seeing me weak and vulnerable. For staying with me as I took my final breath.
I wanted to remember what we once were. Everything we used to be.
And as if the Moon Goddess herself had been listening, she answered my final, silent prayer.
“Is that what we are? Mates?”
His voice echoed through my mind, softer now, like a memory that refused to fade. And then I was somewhere else - in the village, in the safety of our secret haven, staring into those emerald eyes that sparkled with hope. A last glimpse of clarity lit up my head.
In a blink, I was teleported to another moment.“What I want, Avril…”His lips brushed mine, the waterfall murmuring behind us, fading into silence as everything became him.“…is to be with you. Whatever it takes.”
My heart thudded, his essence keeping me alive for a second longer, and another memory played.“I love you, Avril. More than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything. I always have.”
One by one, the memories returned. Each one crashing through the darkness like stars reborn. Every kiss. Every whisper. Every stolen moment. My soul filled with everything I’d forgotten, everything I never wanted to lose again.
And by the time death wrapped its arms around me, I wasn’t empty anymore.
I was whole.
As darkness finally consumed me, I felt peace. Maybe I hadn’t been given forever with the man who taught me what love truly meant, but I got to die in his arms.
And that was enough.
There was no concept of time or space in the afterlife. No sound to fill the silence. No thoughts to keep me company.
All that existed was an endless void.
It seemed Heaven didn’t exist after all, but I suppose I could say I’d found peace. Would it really be so terrible to be trapped here for eternity, when I couldn’t feel the days pass? When guilt, sadness, and regret no longer touched me? Neutrality meant there was no joy, but at least I was free of pain.
Until my lungs suddenly burned, and I shot up, gasping for air.
My hands flew to my throat as adrenaline alone made me hold onto my senses. Everything inside me was set alight, Everything inside me was on fire, as if the flames of the underworld were incinerating me from the inside out. What the hell? I was supposed to be dead.
Yet, somehow, I wasn’t.
And the slash in my throat? It was completely gone, no scar to tell the story.
