Page 106 of The Last Guardian

“Do you have the relic on you?” Zaidkiel asked, not casting a single glance in my way as we stepped on the field, the forest stretching before us.

I took the relic inside my pocket, brushing my fingers on the cold steel. “Yes.”

We stopped in the center of the field; my gaze fixed on the relic as Zaidkiel faced me. The gemstone inside the black metal flared slightly when my fingertip touched it.

“I’m not certain what is going to happen with the relic. How easy your Void will be to navigate, but—” He stopped when I looked up at him.

With a hard swallow, he shut down his expression, refusing to let whatever emotion threatened to cross his eyes. “We should see a difference somehow.”

I nodded.

My heart clenched at the distance, the wall we were both trying to keep between us—it wasn’t natural.

Zaidkiel took a step closer, a familiar, exquisite warmth emanating from his body, igniting mine in wildfire.

“Ready?”

With a deep breath, I nodded once more.

The moment our eyes met again, the emerald of his iris softened, burning with every word left unsaid. His body was inches from mine. His fingers brushed the soft skin of my temples, the mere contact of his skin against mine setting me ablaze.

Zaidkiel whispered, “Ashraj Thraal.”

And we fell into the dark.

MOTHER’S ROSY SKIN was gray now.

Her warmth had faded away from her body, and now her skin, once-upon-a-time flushed with life, had turned to the color of the stone she now lay on before me.

Everyone had left after the memorial service. Everyone had reunited at the palace for the wake. Everyone had returned to their lives as if nothing had happened.

Everyone but me.

My eyes couldn’t let go of her. Of her soft nose and freckles. Her chocolate hair flowing on her shoulders. Her gray lips painted in soft pink. Her white dress, adorned with golden lilies, contrasted with the black that everyone had worn for her.

Her eyes shut.

Forever.

Flashes of her laugh, her voice, her brown eyes, and her smile came to me in echoes, in an infernal loop I would forever stay on.

No more riding through the woods with her and Arthur. No more wonderful smell of chocolate before the winter solstice. No more laughs. No more smiles. No more life. No more.

Just death.

The silence in the Sacred Domes was unbearable.

And everything inside me was emptied.

I felt so angry, so guilty that she was lying on this stone when I was still here, with no memory of how it had happened. Why?

Why did the god, the goddess, the stars take her away from me? From us?

Romy was going to grow up without a mother. She was only ten. It was not fair.

Not fair!

I wanted to scream, to cry out everything, to lash out my wrath, but with her dead body, lying there, asleep forever, I couldn’t. Nothing was left inside me but my own wish to join her.