Page 108 of Oracle of Ruin

Her husband moves to meet her, his lower lip trembling and hands shaking. Finneas squeezes her hands as the tears begin to stream. “Oh, Laei.” Her husband holds her elbow and the two breathe deeply before following Kya out the door. The moment they’ve been waiting for for over twenty years waits for them just past the porch.

Another figure appears, summoned by Kya’s gleeful shriek. Blaine approaches my side, sighing in relief at the spots on the horizon slowly coming into view between the trees.

We spoke briefly after Vera left. He told me he kissed her, and although he apologized, we both knew he didn’t mean it. Not to me anyway. He felt more sorry for himself, because while he will never say it, we both know he believed for just a moment that she could have loved him again. He did not throw up his walls this time and did not turn to drink. He told me how his mother had fallen into similar habits when he was younger and how when she was clean, she made him swear to never fall into the same trap. She told him about his grandfather, then great-grandfather. He promised, and while he didn’t know where she was, the shame at breaking that promise helped steer him away from that path. His mother and Vera.

Blaine rests a hand on my shoulder. “You two will get through whatever is going on.”

I offer a weak smile in response. “I hope.”

And for a moment, it seems true. For a moment, I can see a future for us, one where we win this war and find the life we wanted from the beginning.

Until Kya’s scream shatters through the small peace.

Without waiting, we sprint towards the sound. The sunlight blinds us temporarily, but what I see is one figure in the trees—no, two figures. One standing.

Derrín carrying Verosa.

The mechanic’s skin is bruised and dirty, his dirt-stained face streaked with dried tear stains. His fingers have cracked open and begun to bleed from the strain of carrying her. He carried her all the way here.

He falls to his knees, his head to his chest as he lays Vera before Aiko and Finneas. “I’m sorry.”

Aiko pauses a moment, gasping for air as she raises a hand towards her daughter. She pauses just before her pale skin, as if afraid she could shatter her. Then she wails, a sound that slices straight through my core as she falls over Vera’s body.

I approach slowly, a fog shrouding my motions. At some point, my hand reaches for her face. Her mouth is slack and coated in blistering burns. Black snakes through her veins, stretching towards her heart beneath her skin. And her eyes—gods,her eyes. They lay open still, pitch black throughout, with whirls of silver.

Cursed blood.

Derrín presses his fingers over her eyes, closing them, but it is too late. Aiko screams over her body, holding her to herself as if it is the only thing keeping her from dying alongside her. Finneas folds himself over as if shot, an expression written across his face that I know will haunt me for the rest of my life.

I feel my heart shatter beyond repair as I lean over and close her eyes, then press a kiss to the back of her hand. I hold it to my face. It is cold. Something that was so warm, so loving even as it touched the blackest soul this kingdom has seen…

The first of my tears stain her skin as Finneas pulls Aiko away, her screams still piercing the air. He holds her tightly, still trying to shield her from the reality of it all.

I lift her into my arms, her inky hair falling as her head lolls back with no resistance. Was she always this light? Did her heart and soul truly weigh so much? “Open your eyes, love,” I plea with broken breath. “Just open your eyes for me.”

Because when she opens her eyes, they will be every shade of blue and lit with laughter. She will tell me in a hundred different ways how stupid I am, then how much she loves me in a million.

Her lips parted, the wind ruffles her hair. The world keeps moving, the sun still falling. Vera does not wake.

The war is so far away now. Mavis. My father. All of it seems so small now, holding her body. What all was once so light and warm is now stiff and cold in my arms.

An irrevocable truth rings through us all as the light begins to die.

Verosa is dead.

Chapter44

Verosa

Ishould have expected death to be cold, but still, the frigid winds douse my system in shock. Can someone who has died feel shock?

I also should have expected the darkness. I should have expected the worst. I was foolish in that I did not.

The nurses told us of the Etherworld when we were all just children running around the palace. They told us the Etherworld consisted of a paradise known as the Heavens, or a place of eternal torment known as Hell. They swore to us it was true, and having nothing else to believe in, we trusted them.

I’ve been holding on to this hope that Tanja is in the Heavens and not trapped in eternal darkness. If it is just unending dark, I pray there is no consciousness to exist in the darkness, just a void. Even as the thoughts cause my heart to race and panic to climb my throat, I hope for it. Because this—an eternity of nothing but cold darkness—is eternal torture, and surely the gods couldn’t be so cruel.

The darkness envelops my form as I force my limbs to move, both sticking and yielding to my motions. Each step I take further into the void, the feeling grows familiar. My breath crystallizes before my face, the first sight beyond darkness for what feels like eternity. I follow each tendril of mist as my eyes begin to burn with the cold. My tears freeze to my face and I force my limbs to move.

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