“I forgive you,” she chokes out, and a piece of me breaks. I don’t deserve her forgiveness, but if it’s the last thing she’s willing to give me, I will greedily take it.
“I—” She clutches at the wound on her chest. Her breathing becoming labored. “I love you, Braxton. I’m sorry I never said it.”
Her eyes start to droop closed, and I clutch her tighter, holding her against me. My heart simultaneously soars and cracks at hearing her confession. After all this time, she still loves me. After knowing the truth, and seeing who I’ve become, she still loves me.
The tether that once connected me to Azalea, a tether I had grown numb to, snaps. We’re two separate people once more, no longer bound to one another through a curse, and it feels like the final way Dianthus’s magic is mocking me. I put the curse in place to save her life, and in trying to break it, I’m having to say goodbye to her all over again. Fate is a cruel irony.
I feel her breaths slow, becoming increasingly shallow until she isn’t breathing anymore at all.
The bits and pieces that were left of my shredded heart are obliterated. I’ve lost her again. Azalea, my Wildflower, is dead.
67
Azalea
Iexpecteddeathtofeel colder, but I’m oddly warm, like a soft blanket has been wrapped around my body. I also thought death would be quieter, but I can hear something. I think it’s voices: one kind of cackling and the other a deep rumble. My stomach flips at the sound of that voice. It reminds me of smooth honey, wrapping around my senses, making me feel safe. It reminds me of home.
I’m happy it’s the last thing I hear before my last bit of consciousness slips away.
68
Braxton
“Bring her back.” My voice is a murderous growl as I pull the witch’s face only inches from mine.
“Can’t. I’m afraid the small bit of magic I do have left isn’t enough to bring anyone back from the dead this time.”
“You can’t do this. You weren’t allowed to interfere; it was the parameters of the curse!”
“The parameters I was allowed to change at my own free will? Don’t you see? I always could’ve harmed her, but it was more enjoyable to watch you suffer in trying so pathetically to get her to fall in love with you. Sweet Skies, it was sad. The desperation that would leak off of you year after year. It was no wonder she didn’t fall back in love with you.Who would?Especially, after what you did?”
My grip on Dianthus releases, and my shoulders slump. It’s as though she’s speaking every thought I’ve had when it comes to Azalea’s love aloud.
“I-I don’t know how to live in a world without her in it.” My confession cracks my heart a little more.
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you crushed my daughter’s skull under your boot,” Dianthus seethes.
My entire body clenches, and in one swift movement, I throw Dianthus back onto the ground. A loud crack fills the air, followed by her howling scream when her body hits the stone. “You’re going to wish you were dead when I’m done with you.”
Dianthus gives me a toothy grin, red coating the tops of her teeth. “Well, you can thank yourself for that last little bit of magic I got to use. After all, you’re carrying the object with you right now. You practically brought my magic back to me, and you had no idea.”
My chest heaves as I try to decipher what she could be talking about.
“I told you I’m always one step ahead. You were too focused on the countdown to even realize you’ve been holding a piece of my magic for me for weeks now. Keeping it nice and safe in that pocket of yours.”
My hand jumps to my pant leg pocket. Digging inside of it, I slowly pull out the small pocket watch she gifted me, horror cascading down my face. My brows pull together, wondering why I even had this on me. It’s as though now that I’m aware of its magic, I’m able to realize how much it’s been compelling me to carry it around with me. Even now, I can see there is the faintest lavender glow illuminating the pocket watch. It’s unmistakably a vessel for magic.
“You… you…” I run his fingers through my tangled hair.
“This was always my plan. You were just too dull to realize it. You were never going to come out on top, Braxton. No matter how well you played the game.”
Pure, uncontrollable hatred takes over my mind, body, and soul. I raises the pocket watch over my head before smashing it to the ground. The heel of my shoe comes down across the clock face the moment it bounces off the stone, popping open.As if possessed by my boiling anger, I stomps on it over and over again. All the while, Dianthus remains a crumpled heap on the ground, her wheezing laugh turning maniacal.
Now that the watch is a shattered heap below my foot, I turn to Dianthus, my eyes murderous. It was as though Azalea was the tether to the last piece of humanity I was holding onto, and now that she was gone, I lost that too.
“I don’t know what you find so funny. Now that you officially have no magic left, there’s nothing that will be able to save you from what I’m about to do to you.”
69
