The space within me was barren, like a massive piece of my soul had been ripped from my heart. I wailed into Chrome’s chest, my nails digging into his biceps.
The rain didn’t cease, and I wasn’t sure how long I lay there with Chrome, broken. “Gray, we gotta go. Valik is on his way,” Onyx said, his voice solemn and gentle as if not to spook me.
“I can’t. I can’t leave him.” My voice was muffled in his clothes, determined to bury his scent in my nose so it would permanently reside there.
“We aren’t leaving him, Princess. We’re bringing him with us.” Slate slid his forearms beneath my armpits, dragging my limp body to my feet. I couldn’t breathe. My chest seized up, my lungs begging to collapse.
I stood, paused in a moment of time. Each second that passed meant that it was another second that Chrome Freyr was not in this world. The ability to reconcile that thought simply didn’t exist.
A crowd began to form around us, both familiar and new faces.The warriors in white joined the Elementals as a somber silence swept over us.
Beside me, Slate slowly lowered himself to one knee, bowing his head. He rested his palm on his cousin’s shoulder. “Be at peace, brother. Raise hell with Peri.”
Others began to follow suit, dropping to a knee. Onyx placed his hand on Chrome’s other shoulder as he paid his silent respect. Cotton was next, resting his hand on his chest.
Void, Aella, and River followed, but instead of touching him, they placed their fists over their hearts and bowed their heads. “You saved our kind. Saved us. Your sacrifices weren’t in vain,” Void said. His deep timbre rumbled through the silence, but it felt rich and reverent, trapping more emotion in my heart.
I hiccupped for a breath, my body forcing air into my lungs. The world began to spin, and my limbs grew weak, but a pair of arms encircled my waist, holding me steady. “You’re not alone,” Slate’s voice murmured in my ear.
“I can’t believe I just killed him,” I whimpered, unable to stop staring at Chrome’s lifeless body. It shattered my heart to know this was the most serenity he’d ever felt in his life.
“You gave him a peace he’s never had,” Slate said into my hair, his words unsteady from his own emotion. But then he stilled. He pulled away from me, holding me by my shoulders. His eyebrows bent, creating creases in the skin between them, while his eyes swept over me.
“What?” I asked, confused by his sudden mood change.
Slate’s brow furrowed. “If he’s dead…” he muttered, “then why aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?” My voice shook, and for a second, I dared to hope that maybe I could join Chrome.
Void and Onyx drew up on either side of Slate and me. Onyx pulled me into his chest, resting his cheek on the crown of my head, but I didn’t break my attention from Slate’s growing panic.
“Tell me, Slate.”
“When I took the oath to be your Guardian, I learned that because you and Chrome are two halves of the same soul, if one of you dies, then so should the other; therefore, it was my duty to protect you both. He’s…gone, but that means you should be, too.” Slate glanced back at Chrome’s corpse, cupping his hands over his mouth in anxiety. He snapped his attention to Onyx. “You said Valik was on the way. When?”
“I don’t know exactly. I was told to be ready for when he does.”
An unfamiliar woman’s voice cut through my haze. “Any second now.”
I jerked my head in the direction of the voice as a woman with chestnut hair streaming down her long torso appeared in our huddle.
She turned her astute gaze on me. “The fact that you aren’t gone tells me something isn’t right. We need to get Chrome and all of us back. Leave it to Valik to take his sweet fucking time, the idiot.”
I looked over at Chrome once again, pulling away from the others as if being summoned in his direction. My feet moved on their own, one foot staggering before the other, until I crumbled to my knees at his side.
Too many emotions. They were like a tidal wave battering me into submission. I couldn’t do this without him. The restored memories kept replaying in my mind, each one slicing me open more than the last. He’d always been there in the shadows. Not just that day on the playground, but for years following it. And I never knew. No one told me. I never would’ve had Slate if it weren’t for him. He gave me a chance. It occurred to me that the only war he’d been truly invested in fighting his entire life was the war for my freedom and safety.
I trailed my quivering fingers along his stubbled jaw. When I closed his eyelids, the dam choking me erupted, and my decimated heart flowed through my tears. Words wouldn’t suffice. There were no words for what I felt or for what I wanted to say. It wouldn’t have mattered, anyway. He was gone.
Slate squatted beside me, pulling me into his chest as I mournedmy other half. He didn’t say anything, just held me as I soaked his shirt with my grief. At last, I gasped, “I know…I know he’s always been there. He always loved me.”
Slate swallowed, although it seemed to take him some effort. “He has. Everything he’s ever done was for you. You’re all he saw.”
Chapter Forty
Chrome
I’d only felt peace like this once before in my life.
