Page 143 of The Lands Defying
Silence.
Nothing.
Despair.
Forty Three
Darius
I hold her to me, the cotton dress clinging to her wet skin as I bury my nose in her wet hair. Magic pours out of me and along the water’s surface as her coldness sinks into me.
Her body is limp in my arms. I can’t feel her magic within her, her essence, her soul.
I failed her. I failed her in every fucking way since we met.
I harmed her, and was cruel to her.
I didn’t protect her.
I don’t deserve her.
This is my punishment, it must be.
All these thoughts swirl in my head as my chest tightens, pain flowing through me.
I’ll never get the chance to make her happy. To show her that I can be her everything. I wanted to give her a stable home, lands to be safe in, a reason to smile, and laugh and play in her field of flowers that she loves so much.
Now she doesn’t get to see the future that is planned out. To have the wrongs righted as she has been told many times.
She gets to see none of it because I didn’t fucking protect her.
“I’m sorry, Vihnarn.” I squeeze her tighter, my lips press to her forehead.
Wetness coats my cheeks, but I ignore it as it passes to her. It’s the visible bleeding of my soul coming out, and nothing will make them stop.
I squeeze my eyes shut and grit my teeth to stop another pained sound from escaping me. The cool water coming up to my waist feels like blades stabbing against my skin every time it sloshes against me, and the ringing in my ears feels like they are about to explode.
I deserve it. This pain.
I deserve this pain until I go to the below.
A glow penetrates my closed lids, and I slowly blink my eyes open. A small wisp hovers in front of us, the one that first came to me in here that day.
It bounces a little as I watch it, then it moves closer, resting just in front of Rhea’s face. The small glow from it lights up her features, making her look ethereal.
Laeliah.
Too beautiful for these lands that have hurt her.
The wisp moves closer, almost touching her nose until it seems to shiver, quickly moving back and zipping to the lilk trees that are scattered around the cave. I watch it go behind one, and then my eyes go to the blessing that fills the stone floor.
I didn’t even make her one, I realize. I just wanted her surrounded by her favorite flowers.
Would she be disappointed in me? Rhea has always been proud of following the Gods. Her belief in them, though sometimes it wavered, it has always been strong. To not have blessed her as the old Gods once did, would she be hurt by that?
I kiss her forehead again, ready to get out of the water with her when light catches my attention again.I turn my head and see the little wisp moving closer to me, but this time, it’s not alone.
Slowly, wisp after wisp comes from behind the trees, too many to even count. I look up to see others coming in from the opening above me, almost looking like stars falling with the night sky at their back, and the moon watching over them.
