Page 20 of Despite Mortal Sins

Rukia barely registered the teleport.

A scream punctuated the steady hum of music that instantly deadened upon their arrival, and Rona swiftly sprinted to Gideon’s side. Above her ragged breathing, she registered the shock silence of the immortals that formed a defensive perimeter around them.

“No, no, no, Gideon, please.” Rona’s bare whisper was a visceral sound as her hands came around to tentatively cup his pale cheeks. “Please come back to me, please babe.”

“What happened?”

“Torrin was waiting for Gideon,” Isaiah answered. “TheCitizenscompromised the dam to draw him out.”

Rukia’s eyes lingered mournfully on Gideon’s passive face, the blood that’d seeped from his mouth and his slack jaw. Eyes half-closed, there was no trace of pain on his features, no hurt.

Blinking as her vision blurred over and over, she looked away through the tangle of bodies that surrounded them. The ivy that’d begun crawling toward him had withered away, becoming dried up vines that held no trace of green. Rot had slowly begun to creep through the plants tethered to the wall.

Jeremiah’s hands gripped the edge of Gideon’s suit and rocked back and forth as if to assuage the fury that beat through his core.

Rukia couldn’t think, couldn’t feel, couldn’t talk. She could only grasp at Gideon’s silky hair, numb to all of it. An existence without the steady presence of Gideon leading the charge was unfathomable. He’d been a constant in her life; an unfailing, unfaltering mentor that’d served to right her time and time again.

All of a sudden, Rona jolted and straightened from her crouch against him. “He’s still got a pulse—he needs to be in the earth!”

Behind Rukia, Isaiah swiftly moved forward and knelt beside Gideon. Within seconds, Isaiah’s teleport encompassed them all and delivered them to the lawn outside, under the quiet night sky.

Rona collapsed into him as soon as he’d been laid before her, her arms enveloping him as if in an intimate embrace.

“There, my love, you’re with your element now. You’re with me.”

As Aidan yelled for another earth Elemental, Rona’s fingertips caressed the raven-colored hair on his forehead as she brushed her lips gingerly over his. Rukia’s heart broke at the tenderness toward her leader and the outpouring of his wife’s inconceivable pain. Tears spilling down her cheeks, Rukia dropped to her knees beside them, Jeremiah and Tyee mirroring her actions.

Behind her, Isaiah’s hand gently gripped her shoulder in support. Even though she barely knew the man, his actions were the singular comfort she had amidst the torrential downpour of sorrow that stung so deeply in her heart.

As Gideon rested against the earth, tendrils of roots slowly drew up around him, the grasses growing up to delicately embrace him. One glance at Rona showed that she was the one controlling the earth, that she was burying her husband.

“That’s it, Rona,” Tyee encouraged her. “Keep going. He needs to be under the earth, and he can’t do it himself.”

“I’m not ready to lose him, Tyee,” Rona whispered, her features dulling as she watched the tangle of grasses coil slowly around her husband’s motionless body. “This has to work.”

The sound of utter sorrow met her ears as Rona whispered the words to her husband’s motionless body. Behind the racing beat of Rukia’s heart, misery lacerated her chest and blackened her hope.

Tyee’s expression twisted. “Sometimes, our elements cannot heal us, Rona. There is a limit to even our powers, and his injuries … they are extensive.”

Suddenly rising to his feet, Jeremiah sprinted away through the assembled immortals even as Rukia shouted after him. The air Elemental didn’t stop at her call. Instead, he disappeared into the compound without a word. Roots and grass continued to gracefully climb up over Gideon’s body as Rukia watched, mute, from beside him.

Lowering herself to lay against his chest, Rona wailed, uncaring for the audience that stood around them. Leaders of every immortal nation were reverently silent in their mourning of Rukia’s monarch.

Rukia could only grasp despondently at the fabric of Gideon’s suit, unable to process the weight of the heavy emotion that lodged firmly in her chest and reached blackened fingers throughout her being.

Moments later, Jeremiah was back, monitor pads from the infirmary in hand. He placed them tenderly against the yet-unblemished tawny skin of Gideon’s chest.

He fisted a hand in the other Elemental’s collared shirt, his voice catching as he spoke, the hitch of high emotion laid bare for all to hear.

“Just in case.”

As they watched, Gideon was enveloped by the loving embrace of the element he had called his own. The soil seamlessly sealed over him a moment later, no trace of the man beneath it.

Gideon was gone.

Chapter Six

Isaiahstoodinsilenceas Rukia knelt with her back to him. Weeping, the woman rocked gently back and forth as tears traced salty paths down her face. Her hands gripped tightly around her body, her fingers digging into her upper arms unforgivingly.

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