SLADE
The world has gone gray.
I have gone numb.
And Auren has gonestill.
My hands stroke her face, though she no longer feels my touch. My lips press against her eyes, though she no longer cries. My arms cradle her body against mine, though she no longer trembles with cold.
I bury my face against her neck, my tears soaking against her pulse that no longer thrums. Inhaling her scent that’s now tinged with the sharp pull of blood. Wrap my fingers around her ribbons that no longer twist.
But I hold her.
Gently. Desperately. Wretchedly.
I thought I knew what it meant to be torn apart when my two sides separated. But no.
No.
This is what it feels like.
To have your soul ripped in half.
My päyur bond has been cut. Like scissors to thread, both pieces left to float in a colorless sea. Drifting further and further away from one another, every wave and gentle lap separating us even more.
I don’t know how long I kneel upon the ground with her. I hear nothing but the silence of her body, see nothing but her motionless form.
My mother speaks no more, but I didn’t expect her to. That one word seems to be the only thing she’s ever able to tell me. The first time, it was my divined promise.
This time, it’s my fatal devastation.
She’s clutching the wound at her stomach, but then her hand moves to my back. My mother’s touch is the only thing that makes me aware of anything else other than Auren. Her tense fingers alert me a second before Wick and a group of Vulmin appear in the courtyard.
“Auren?” Wick calls out. The heavy silence that follows turns his tone urgent. “Auren!”
He runs, halting beside her, knees hitting the ground. “No…”
Other Vulmin gather behind him, and I hear their punctuated shock and grief that seems to drive holes through my tattered remains.
I don’t turn to look. Don’t speak. All my attention stays on her.
My focus will always be her.
“We saw the dragon fall… We brought a healer,” Wick says thickly, and one of the Vulmin comes rushing forward.
My mother flinches, but the person gently murmurs something and then puts her hand on the wound. Red shadows drift in, like the magic is sifting through the ghost of the blood my mother has lost.
When the healer pulls away, my mother’s face is not quite so pale. Her hands no longer shaky. The two of us share a look, green eyes colliding, knotted together from this horrific scene.
Inside, I’m still denying it all. Still pleadingno.
But the sky is draped with gray clouds, Auren’s aura has gone out like a flame, and I’m left with this gaping rip down my entire being, because she’sgone.
Gone, and taken all of the light with her.
There’s nothing but darkness left.
My dragon lies dead behind me. Its black heart stabbed through with a sword and no longer beating. Decaying corpses pollute the courtyard. My father’s disintegrated body still oozes.
