Page 44 of Once Written in Gilded Blood

Kalel’s attention is stolen away by it for a second before I feel cold metal drop into my hand. A beautiful arrow crafted of gold: gilded feathers from Apollo’s best falcons and an arrowhead made from the sun’s core. I only knew to pray for such a weapon thanks to the books I took from the library.

My eyes widen, and I quickly thank the gods for hearing my plea.

“How unfair that it always had to be you who killed me. Never anyone else. Only ever you, Blood Knight.” My voice is dripping with venom. I refuse to use his name. He doesn’t deserve my familiarity and affection.

Kalel’s dark hair shifts in the wind, covering his forehead and shadowing his anguished gaze. “We were cursed to this fate, you and me. Each time I kill you, a piece of me goes with it. So let this be our last dance, Alira. Let us end this wretched reality we’ve found each other in.” His eyes fracture with emotion. “Maybe we will meet again someday in Mortem—where a different life will show us mercy.”

My lungs falter, and I have to swallow down the ache burning in my throat.

“Perhaps if fate could be rewritten without monsters.” I hold out the golden arrow toward him, and bright particles from the fields gather into a luminous bow. I draw the arrow back, the resistance of which is almost nonexistent. Yet I can feel how strong the power within it swells. I aim for his head this time, and I have to bite my lower lip to quell the emotions and tears that build. “Perhaps then we could fall in love without penalty. Without the blood on our hands.”

He nods, tightening his grip on his sword. The breeze chills me to the bone and sweeps his hair across his forehead divinely. I love him. So much that I know I will not be able to bear living long after he dies. I can’t… He is mine and I’m his. If we end in fire, then let it be together.

I sever my heart as I let the arrow fly. It radiates gilded dust as it cuts through the air. Kalel doesn’t move his head; he brazenly lifts his sword in the path of the arrow, confident in its capability to deflect it.

The gold and black weapons meet in a spark of power, the force of which creates enough blowback energy that it knocks both of us from our feet as if an explosion has just ignited between us.

I’m quick to my feet, ignoring the scrapes and bruises that nag temporarily before my body heals them, and summon the arrow back to me. It forms instantly in my reaching hand.

Where did he go? I take shallow breaths as I search frantically for him. I sense Kalel before I see him.

My legs move, pushing me backward as I draw the bow and look straight ahead as I’m falling to the ground. Kalel is lunging at me, our noses nearly touching as he fists my hair and buries his fingers into my scalp, yanking my head back as he brings his blade to my throat.

I gasp as the devilstone slices my skin, the pain and burning traveling deep into the recesses of my flesh and bones. I track his motions as he pulls up his sword, my golden blood glistening on the edge of it like honey.

He thrusts down to sever my head, but I regain my composure and release the arrow at point-blank range. It goes straight through his chest plate and catches on the gilded feathers that leave shimmering traces of magic behind.

Kalel’s eyes jolt wide open with shock and misery, he lets out the most agonizing scream I’ve ever heard a man make. His hands fly to his chest as black blood spurts out over me, drenching my body. He falls on his back, writhing in pain as he tries desperately to remove the arrow.

The moment his hand touches it, he wrenches it back in pain.

It burned him.

Just as the devilstone burns the demigods.

I move to get on top of his chest to finish him off. The arrow comes out with one hard pull. I lift it up to end his suffering with one final blow. We will meet again. We won’t remember one another this way. We will…

Kalel’s eyes are filled with tears, and a sad smile stretches across his lips. “You w-will always be m-my, little godling,” he chokes the words out.

I’m so sorry. My vision blurs, and for a second I see him as the demon boy I met so long ago. Kind and unmarred by this world as I was. I’m sorry.

I cry as I bring down the arrow and plunge it into his chest again. It cuts through his armor as if it were made of fabric. Kalel makes a heartbreaking sound, half gurgling and drowning in pain.

Our eyes are level.

He doesn’t look mad anymore, and surprisingly, neither am I. I’m consumed with this dark, heavy grief that will never lift from my heart. He blinks slowly; the pain must be fading because he isn’t writhing anymore.

I feel it now.

His sword is buried in my ribs, piercing my heart. I wonder if this was always how our story was meant to end. Not with happy days in the sun or comforting evenings wrapped in one another’s arms. I wonder if our fate was merely to kill each other. For love. For broken kingdoms.

We stare into one another’s souls. The anger and hatred, betrayal and misery of our pasts set aside like old weapons.

A sharp burn lights my insides on fire, so much so that I cannot even bear to cry out in agony. I lose control of my muscles and balance, toppling to his side with a thud. Kalel groans in pain as he rolls to his side so he can face me.

This death feels different than the rest. It feels final. It’s slower and notably longer. But maybe that’s because I’m looking into Kalel’s calm eyes, fighting to stay open just as mine are. Because I know it will be the last. Because bearing this pain before my last breath is worth every moment if it means we can say goodbye without our fury. Without our differences and faults.

It only seems right that we go together.