For an instant, there was no pain.
Only the peace of purpose fulfilled.
Then once again, Rune fell from grace.
CHAPTER 69
Alora
The light consumed everything.
The sky burst with an explosion of light, tearing all away. When the world stopped shaking and the smoke cleared, only silence remained.
Alora scrambled to her feet, screaming Rune’s name.
She searched for him in the Heavens scattered with ash.
Then she saw him.
Blood trailed after Rune’s form as he plummeted. She ran, her throat raw, reaching up as if she could catch him. Shadows slipped around her like mist. She blinked and she was in the sky. With a final surge of her magic, the shadows caught Rune.
He was at the edge of consciousness. Half of his body was already scorched black. Only the bone and membranes of his wings left.
Alora portaled again to the ground with him and he sank into his knees.
“Rune,” she choked, clutching him.
His form was breaking apart, golden light eating through him, burning him slowly to ash and embers. His wings unraveled into motes of light, his armor fell away in fragments. He was vanishing before her eyes.
“No, stay with me,” she begged, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Please—please. Don’t go where I cannot follow. Not now. Not after everything.”
His crimson eyes found hers, soft even through the fire. He smiled, the way he did when no one else was watching.
She kissed him hard, desperately pouring her power into him, begging him to take what he needed to live. But Rune’s skin broke apart like porcelain. Pieces of him crumbled from his body, lifting away.
Alora sobbed, her shadows lashing wildly, trying to shield him, to hold him together.
But Rune only looked serene. As if he had already accepted what she could not.
He gently cupped her face, his voice fraying like threadbare silk.I love you, he murmured, thumb stroking her cheek.More than my own life.
His fingertips flickered red, his power weaving through her bones as he gave the last of his power.
The clouds thinned, and the light of dawn streamed down.
“No—no—NO!” Alora cried.
With a snap of her hand, the dark clouds blotted out the sun again. Alora clutched him as if she could hold the pieces together. But for all her power, she could do nothing.
With that same gentle smile, Rune dissolved away in ashes and embers, carried off into the wind.
Alora choked back a cry as the bond faded from her chest. The agony stole her breath, leaving her floundering for that presence that had become her home.
Alora sobbed, clutching her arms to herself, as the rest of her fell apart. Ash scattered across her hands, across her dress, across the blood-soaked earth. She collapsed over what little remained of Rune, her tears falling into the ashes. Where her tears fell, life grew. Grass and flowers spread over the devastated land. But she found no joy in it.
Only a vast emptiness where her mate had been.
The God of Shadows was gone.
