This couldn’t be happening.
I ran towards her and dropped to my knees. There was blood around her head, and I hesitated to touch her.
“ERIK!”
My brother was next to me in a flash, looking forlorn.
“No! No! Stop looking like that!” I yelled.
I heaved again. The pain was unbearable. The ripping feeling in my chest so intense that I was certain it would cleave me open.
Quen was laying before me, and for once, I didn’t know what to do.
“We need to fix her. I need to fix her. Erik! Help me!”
“Gray —”
“NO!”
I didn’t want to hear him say it. I didn’t want him to say that he couldn’t save her. Her breathing was so shallow and ragged. Hot tears mingled with the rain that fell down my face.
Sloan joined us, looking like she’d lost all her colour. She placed a hand gently on my shoulder.
“Gray…”
“Please. Please, Sloan. You can help. You can help, can’t you? You gift life,” I said desperately to my sister-in-law.
Her gift had never been one I worked closely with or took much interest in until now.
Life.
Sloan worked with life, and I needed her to grant me this.
“Gray, it doesn’t work like that. I don’t gift life in this form.”
I screamed out my frustration before it hit me.
“Elva!” I said. “Get Elva! Sloan. Erik. One of you get her!”
Sloan disappeared, and a few moments later, reappeared with Elva and Ignacio in tow.Elva gasped when she saw Quentin on the ground.
“She’ll pass soon,” Elva whispered mournfully, sensing the ebbing of life.
Goddess of death had given her verdict. She knew when people were ready to go. She sensed when life could no longer continue.
The bile rose up my throat.
Why had I wasted so much time? The arguments had been pointless. Completely trivial. Even if they were unavoidable, I should have followed her to the diner. Waited for her to finish and then taken her home. I should have demanded to know her response to my confession of love.
“Elva, please. Please help.”
“I —”
I turned towards her on my knees and dropped my forehead to her feet. Through the rain, I heard the gasps from the others.
“I’m begging you, Elva,” I said, speaking to the ground. “I’m on my knees, and I’m begging you to save her from this.”
As Gods, we didn’t beg. As Gods, we were prideful to a fault, but I had no pride here. I would give anything because if I lost her, I wasn’t sure I could continue to exist.
