Death wasn’t scary, not as I once thought it would be. A comforting clarity and relief accompanied it. All worldly concerns, sorrows, and pains vanished. Nothing left to worry about.
I stared up at my sister, her blonde ponytail glowing in the summer sun. Her blue eyes sparkled magnificently, though accentuated by a sheen.
I found myself smiling. “I’m so proud of you, Mel.” She blurred before me until I blinked away my own tears, not ones of pain, but of overwhelming love.
“Nora, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to make it,” she choked out the words, her fingers digging into me as she hauled me close.
A single bird flew overhead, drawing my attention to the expanse of blue sky above.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, suddenly wishing I’d spent more time simply enjoying all the world had to offer. Memories brought me back to sitting on the grassy knoll, staring over the ocean. Melody let Nick’s name shred her throat as she screamed for him.
He wouldn’t make it in time. There was a current that I was set adrift on, and each passing second, the pull strengthened. “Tell him I love him,” I said to my sister as the edges of my vision darkened and peace swept over me.
77
Melody
“NORA,” I screamed. A second ago, she’d been speaking. Then she wasn’t. I shook her and cried out, demanding she look at me, but she didn’t respond. Her eyes still glistened. She still looked entirely like herself. Like she existed, but I couldn’t reach her.
My hand was coated in her warm blood, an attempt to staunch the heavy bleeding. I couldn’t bring myself to take it away. To remove it would mean that I accepted I could no longer help her, and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
Not to my sister, the one who provided for our family for years. Not to my sister, the one who snuck out in the night to fight these monsters without knowing the great danger behind them. Not to my sister, the one who loved, cared, and worried for me and my safety even after I was a full-grown adult.
Not to my sister.
My sister.
I pressed a kiss to her forehead, lips trembling, my breath uneven and breaking. In the distance, Nick screamed her name.The sound was utter anguish, the kind that can only exist from lovers being torn apart.
I looked up to see him sprinting for her, the soul-crushing sight blurred from my tears, but an owl swooped from above and attacked, no doubt the same woman who’d attacked us in Argora Vale. He screamed in agony and fell, hands cupping his face. My sister’s muffled name got caught behind his hands, like she was out of reach for him, too. His fingers glowed, his healing magic activating. He tried taking a step forward, but stumbled again. It didn’t stop him from dragging himself with one hand toward us, but he was still so far away. Between his glowing fingers clawing at his face, I could see inky poison spreading over his tan skin. It barely receded at his touch, only to pulse and grow, a battle between her dark magic and his healing in a constant duel.
I would hold my fiercely loyal sister for him until he could get here. I wouldn’t leave her. Tio and Jasper soared overhead, racing toward that owl who dove again for the fallen king. Before she had a chance to sink her diseased talons into him again, Jasper dropped Tio on the ground before colliding and wrapping his arms around the evil fowl, solidifying into stone at any part that touched her. She shifted into her human form, unable to move from Jasper’s hold around her arms. Dark magic sprouted from the ground beneath her feet at her summons. She targeted Tio with a malicious glare, sending the curse straight toward him.
I barely had time to gasp, my lungs barely working from the mounting despair, when a necrotic black vein reached him. It connected, and I couldn’t breathe. But Tio dove and rolled away. A shuddering cry broke from me when I realized it’d touched his prosthetic, not him. In the split second he cleared her attack, he used his magic to direct his sword. It speared through the air, skewering the woman’s heart, stalling when it struck the stone chest. Blood dripped from the protruding steel as the light fadedfrom her eyes. Jasper dropped his hold and lifted into the air, returning to his normal state unscathed by the dark magic. The tainted woman crumpled to the ground, never to rise again. Tio shouted to the woman who couldn’t hear him anymore, “I told you that you should have walked away.”
Somehow we were holding our own in his weighted battle, but my heart held no joy. Blood and pain and death defiled this day, the sorrow growing more unbearable by the second. This was war. This was the thing Nora wanted to spare me from. Not because she didn’t think I could handle it, but because this level of loss and despair was so damaging, she knew I would leave the biggest parts of myself on this battlefield. My humanity, my heart. I just never thought it would be her I’d have to leave behind.
“Melody!” Ro called my name, but I didn’t care. Let whatever she was warning me about come. It didn’t matter anymore. I simply looked down at my beautiful sister, admiring all that she was.
The whoosh of an arrow rushed by my ear, taking down an enemy emerging through the trees, then Ro knelt beside me.
I lifted my hand from Nora’s abdomen, brushing away the hair from her face, caressing her soft cheek. I didn’t see the blood that smeared her skin, didn’t see the vacant look in her beautiful brown eyes. All I could see was the memory of her bright smile, the one she normally made after some snarky remark. “I should have been able to stop this,” I whispered.
“It’s not your fault.” Ro’s voice was quiet, breaking as she spoke.
“What good is having light when it can’t defeat the dark? I should have been the answer to all of this. Should have been able to stop it before it began.”
Footsteps thundered until someone skidded on their knees in front of me. Marco reached for Nora. And maybe it was because Ihad no strength left, but I let him take her. He slammed his hand onto her deep, purging crimson wound. Something that would have been excruciating if she were still able to feel it. Yet she didn’t stir.
“Not you, Melody,” Ro whispered before rising to her feet. I ignored her, undecided if I should allow a shred of hope as I watched Marco’s hand shine brighter than I’d ever seen.
“Come on, queenie. I haven’t shown you my castle yet. The one I’ll brag about, boast the names of the famous designers who decorated it, and you’ll mock how disgustingly lavish my taste is.” Marco released a choppy laugh as his tears fell onto her skin.
They glowed where they landed.
78
Ro
