“What? Run, Warrick, please. Shift right now,” Fenmore shouts.
“I can’t.” Warrick smiles, sadly. “I’m sorry.”
“Please,” Fen weeps, thrashing against her brother’s hold. “Move!”
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers.
“Don’t say that,” she begs. “Don’t act like this.”
“I love you, Fenmore. I always have, and I would have forever.”
Barely a whisper leaves her lips, “Warrick.”
Carobon snaps his fingers, similarly to what Nolan did on the ship, and I yell, knowing what’s coming next. Silas watches in horror, all of us frozen in time, and even the breeze pauses around us.
“No, oh Gods, don’t,” I scream, getting to my feet.
The sound of Carobon’s fingers fills the air, echoing into our minds.
“Don’t fucking do this,” I beg.
A loud crack fills the night air, followed by a scream from Fenmore that could awaken the dead from the darkest realms. Silas holds Fen back, pulling her face into his chest as she pushes against his grip with everything she has left in her crumbling body.
“Let me go,” she pleads. “Let me go to him.”
“Fen, stop,” Silas begs, a sob breaking from his lips. “Please.”
Warrick’s strong legs buckle under his weight.
Time moves in slow motion as he falls into the ground, so hard the earth dents around him. A sob fills the air that makes my blood run ice cold.
“Warrick,” Fenmore weeps. “Oh, Gods. NO!”
I gaze in horror at Warrick’s motionless body, his closed eyes no longer reflecting Fen’s terrified gaze—his strong bodycrumbled to the ground, and a horrifying, unnaturally twisted neck.
Chapter 48
Iblink in shock, horror, and devastation.
Silas continues to hold Fenmore back, even though she screams, begging to go to Warrick—to help him. I slowly turn my gaze to Silas, and even though rage floods his eyes, they well with heavy tears.
“Silas,” Fen begs, sobs distorting her speech. “Help him. Please help him, brother.”
A shattered cry escapes her throat, and her entire body convulses.
Carobon just watches us with a blank stare, indifferent to the life he just took—the trauma he just caused—and the loving bond he just broke between two people. With the snap of a finger, Carobon created an everlasting pain that may heal over time, but will never fade.
Silas just holds her, his fingers clutching to her arms in a frantic attempt to keep her at a good distance from Warrick, and in turn Carobon, but I think he also holds her so tightly to keep himself from crumbling.
He holds onto her in hopes that she won’t have the same fate, and with each passing second that she can’t go to Warrick, I know the pain in her heart only grows.
“I can’t,” he whispers.
“Why?” she cries.
“I…I can’t help him, Fen.” Tears stain his cheek. “He’s gone.”
With a violent turn, Fenmore rips free from Silas’s grip and sprints toward Warrick’s fallen body. She crashes to her knees, letting out a scream that shatters the fading ward surrounding the house. With each blood-curdling scream, Carobon staggers away from her, as if her misery seeps into him—into Rohhit. The Great Wiitch covers his ears as she continues to bawl, screaming into the air, allowing the sadness and grief to consume her completely, like the darkening shadows around her. Sorrow fills the air, along with the smoke of the burning kingdom in the distance, and tears roll down my cheeks as I watch her process her pain.
