He scans my face, his lips pulling into a soft smile before it fades. “This isn’t our decision, it is mine. My life is tethered to yours. It always has been. Since the moment I saw you as a young boy, I knew I was destined to love you till my last breath. As if the Gods made meonly for you.Even if I was never truly meant for you, I’d like to die thinking I am.”
A tear drops from my chin, sliding down my neck as I nod. “I have always felt the same way. I’m sorry it took so long to return.”
“At least you returned.”
I rise on my tiptoes, feeling the throbbing pain of the arrow shooting in my thigh as my lips brush against his.
“I love you,” I whisper.
His dagger-free hand grips my hair, pulling me in a tight embrace to press his lips against mine once more before breathing out, “I love you.”
He takes both his hands, the cold hilt of the blade brushing against my skin while he kisses every inch of my face before his eyes lock on to mine, slowly nodding.
“Together,” he whispers.
And we take our daggers, pointing them to our hearts.
“Together.” My lips part, breathing a trembling breath as my hands shake.
The tip of my dagger rests against my chest while the tip of his rests against his.
The crowd chants, in sync with everyone around them as they holler, “Death to the dragons! Death to the dragons!” My eyes shut, feeling the fire flicker throughout my skin but no power to control it. It’s as if the damn toxin truly has blocked the ability to wield from the Gods and the powers they gifted me.
They finally created a weapon to weaken a Deskyiara.
I always knew I had a weakness. I just hate that now is the moment it decides to show.
“Die!” I hear Skie rip another raging scream from the depths of her stomach.
The sound of her voice makes my eyes shut.
Damn her. Damn Lykia.
Damn my sister.
I fall to my knees, allowing my body to slam into the ground as I inhale the smell of the world around me one last time. My nose sucks in the air, fire—a floral aroma mixed with fresh dirt creates flashes of my life as a kid. The joy I had running through the field of flowers, chasing dragonflies as they danced away in the blue sky. How I used to love splashing in the water, grabbing fish with my hands before I had to sneak back into the Kingdom right after curfew. But the most important memories are the ones with Koen.
When it was Florian and I, sitting next to my parents as young teens, my eyes would always drift to him in the far dark corner.
When it was our engagement party, dancing the night away with Florian, faking a smile for the whole Kingdom, I ran straight to Koen afterwards on top of the mountainside cliff and we slept there together under the night sky.
Ithasand always will behim.
And all those years hiding our love from the Royals, now only to die together for loving each other in front of hundreds of unfamiliar faces.
“Together, Spark,” he exhales, and my eyes open, snapping me back into reality.
He grips the dagger tightly, creating ripples of veins throughout his hands.
I nod.
Even if everything inside me is breaking.
But as we both go to force the tips of the daggers straight into our hearts, the sounds of the people in the stands turn from chanting, to screaming at the top of their lungs. Some of them are thrown over the arena walls, falling to their deaths. Some are stomped to the ground as others flee out. A strong gust of wind beats at my back as a screeching sound of a dragon roars in the air.
Koen’s eyes widen, desperately reaching out to grab me, but his fingers miss me.
It’s as if time slows down, his arm stretching outward, fear etched into every detail of his face.
