“To answer your question…” I look into those small, sleepy, dusky eyes that block out the rest of the world to capture her last memories of me so beautifully. “Yes, I swear to you, I will make sure your name lives on forever. Do you hear me, Dellilian? Just like the many stories you’ve told me of great, brave figures—your name willneverdie.”
Her tail gives the smallest thump in the dirt. The movement, simple, yet ripping my chest open and plucking my heart clean out of its cavity. And that’s it. The breach gapes wide. Everything else follows. I bend forward and disintegrate in place, crying into the back of my clenched fist.
Sapphire guides my shaking hand to her paw.
“Thank you for being my guardian angel… I love you, Dellilian!” I sob so hard, Sapphire has to brace her body against mine, keeping me in place.
That small paw twitches, once, then twice—the muscle memory of galloping through the Nightlung on her many exciting adventures. Time itself seems to hum around her, cradling this brave little Short-Haired, time-traveling, Windila. And those ears tip back, as if to say she loves me back. As if to apologize for not being able to stay with me any longer.
I bring her soft paw to my lips, wet with tears, and kiss her fur.
The poison of that tree does not boom through her. It sings a quiet end. This wolf has seen more centuries than kingdoms, more wars than the trees that have lived through them. Yet she lies here looking so terribly fragile.
Her pulse flickers under my hand. The world keeps moving, though Dellilian does not. And the world quietly shuts the door behind her.
I cry so abruptly, it breaks the respectful silence in the North Sapphrine Forest. The tears welling from my eyes do not touch my skin as they drip endlessly onto her dimming fur.
I’m so sorry, Dellilian. I love you, girl. I love you. Please, take care of my dad. Tell him how sorry I am. Tell him I love him. Tell him I forgive him for the basement. Tell him I am proud of the man he became. Watch over him, Dellilian!
The cold settles into our bones as we sit with our dear friend for what feels like hours. I hold her close, unwilling to let an ounce of warmth leave her body. The moon hangs over our heads like a glimmering vigil candle we never lit. And we don’t speak her name. We don’t say anything at all.
Sapphire knows there isn’t anything she can offer verbally. I cannot wrap my mind around what I have lost. I cannot begin to put thought into how I’ll tell my mother that my father is gone. I don’t know how I’ll ever live without my sweet Dellilian.
“Niklaus…” Sapphire nudges me.
My cheeks and eyelids are frozen as I look up to see something of a miracle. In a burst of silver light, her body weaves into the soil, like roots find their home in the earth. Of stardust and celestial smoke, she returns to the world as if she never meant anything—
“Look! They’re trees!”
My eyes fight to adjust to the moonlit spindling trunks emerging from the dirt. The wood curling into unruly helixes, branches stretching wide and crooked, draped with pine needles that glitter like shattered constellations.
Four trees canopy the stars.
Four trees cast a blanket of warmth and everlasting love.
And with it, I know they hold a special meaning for Dellilian, myself, Sapphire, and my dad.
“What should we call them?” Sapphire asks breathlessly.
I smile through the tears.
“Dellilian’s Hearts.”
75. Coming Home Again
Sapphire
My fingers are hard, frozenmarble. I drum them against my trembling arms to try and funnel blood back into them.
Niklaus comes and goes as he admires these beautiful, sacred trees. In and out of a daydream, or a waking nightmare as he relives being helpless to watching those he loves dying right in front of him.
“Niklaus?” I whisper, mouth dry and sticking together. “Please, let me take you home.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t deserve to go home.”
“Of course you do! None of this was your fault. It’s mine. I am so sorry.”
“Doesn’t matter. They’re gone. Both of them.”
