Page 308 of The Lands Defying
“But you won’t be here with me, will you?!” He sinks even deeper and a panicked cry escapes me. “We can find something else to take them back. Why can’t Cazier take them back?!”
“He has no control over them now. He is too weak. He told me as much when we were in Tyeetha.” And Darius is strong enough being his Heir and full of power. “Rhea,” he says, his own voice cracking and pain slices my heart. I shake my head again and again.
He’s still sinking, and I start digging into the ground again at the bottom of the barrier, needing to get him out of here, my nails breaking and bleeding.
“Stop, little wolf, you are hurting yourself,” he whispers, and I lift my head, his own at the same level now. “It will be okay.”
“How could this ever be okay,” I cry, a sob ripping from me and I move as close as possible to the barrier, placing my forehead against it and Darius leans in mirroring me. “You can’t leave me now.” I claw my hands against his barrier, my nails breaking and his face drops. “I can’t do this.”
“You can.” His jaw ticks and he blinks a few times. “I have never chosen you when you needed it, when you deserved it. This is me choosing you now. To keep you safe, to make sure you can still play, and spin, and laugh in those fields of lesia flowers that you love so much.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want it without you.”
“You were okay without me for a long time, you will be okay now.” He smiles sadly at me and my heart crumbles.
“Not anymore.”
He breathes deeply and stares into my eyes before roaming over my face, cataloging everything he can about me as that mist comes to his shoulders, dragging him down.
“You have my heart, Vihnarn,” he murmurs. “Tell me you know that?”
My heart shatters.
Completely shatters.
I nod. “And you have mine,” I croak out.
He smiles that boyish smile as he sinks lower, his hand dropping from mine on the barrier, and then…
Darius is gone.
Eighty Four
Rhea
The trolls are gone now, along with the dead bodies that scattered the floor like grains of sand.
And so are the rogures.
They sank into the ground, along with Darius, back to the below where they came from.
I don’t know how long I have been sitting here covered in blood and guts from the battle, but I can’t move.
I can’t force myself away from the last place I saw him.
Where my heart was last whole.
My pack comes to me. They whisper words of sorrow and reassurance, trying to get me to leave with them but still.
I can’t move.
I can’t speak.
It’s like I’m not in my body anymore.
And I’m not.
Because my heart was taken away from me. It was swallowed up by darkness and I cannot find it.
