Page 107 of The Last Guardian

To die.

My swollen eyes matched the burning in my throat from the last days of crying. And I wanted to cry again, but nothing came.

Instead, I focused on the small ring she had on her right hand—the one with the ruby gemstone, gleaming like it was her inside.

She loved that ring so much. She never took it off. It was the right thing to let her go with it.

I couldn’t tell how long it’d been since everyone left—minutes, hours, months. At some point, footsteps echoed in the long corridor of the sacred place.

Who was it? I couldn’t care less. Because, right now, the only thing that mattered was her.

The footsteps stopped next to me as the person looked in the same direction as I did. At my mother.

“I think I never saw her so much at peace as now,” a man’s voice said—Uncle Marlon.

I breathed loudly. “Me neither.”

My uncle turned the silver signet ring on his little finger, pushing his medium-length brown hair back. His attire was as black as mine. “I need to leave, Alyana,” Uncle Marlon whispered. His voice echoed in the empty place. “I am not sure when I’ll be able to come back here, with your father and grandmother…”

I didn’t care.

They could all leave. I didn’t care.

The only person I wanted to see return couldn’t.

“Go then,” I answered, my eyes still focused on my mother.

Uncle Marlon flinched beside me, and I felt his gaze lingering on me for a moment before drifting to my mother.

With a deep breath, Uncle Marlon took a step closer to the stone and leaned, kissing the forehead of mother in a sweet goodbye. A real goodbye.

It was what today was about, right? And tomorrow, everything would be back to normal…

No.

It wouldn’t ever go back to normal.

“Alyana, did you hear me?” Uncle Marlon said, and I turned my gaze to face his green meadow eyes. “You can’t stay alone here. Go to your brothers and sisters.”

Didn’t he get it? I didn’t want to.

“I am not alone,” I answered, returning my gaze to her. “I am with Mother.”

But my uncle’s hands curled around my arms, turning me to face him. I struggled, closing my eyes to not cry.

“Alyana, look at me,” he ordered, and I shook my head, but his fingers curled at my chin and forced me. “Look at me, please.”

A plea. It broke down something inside me. It forced me to open my eyes.

His light-green eyes were full of tears, too, devastated by her death. But not only. I knew he had always cared for her, and everyone loved her so much…

She was sweet and kind. And she had died. And it was unfair.

“You can’t hide away. Please don’t hide away,” Uncle Marlon pleaded, tears running down his cheeks. “You need to live. To breathe. To love.”

I closed my eyes at the last words, letting the tears fall from my eyes.

Love, it just destroyed everything in its path. It fed on people’s joy, waiting for death to take us all.