Helvitas - Helene and Avitas (An Ember in the Ashes Fanfiction)

Rewritten

"Harper, no-" I whisper. "No- please- "

I promise I will keep you safe. The vow I made Zacharias. The vow that had been for Harper too.

I will not lose him. 

But the blood flows too quickly. I cannot stop it, I cannot save him. It is impossible.

The Commandant, traitorous bitch that she is, watches me, basking in my suffering. But her training manages to take root in my mind yet. And impossible is one word that has never existed in the world of Keris Veturia. 

The pain in my side washes over me anew as a second dagger digs into my hip. Still, my power should be enough to sustain both me and Harper.

I have already been broken, if he is lost to me, I will be nothing at all.

Avitas's song floats quickly to my lips. I venture into his soul, more deeply than before, sharing his pain, feeling his love in its purest form. 

Waves of exhaustion pour over me, and still I sing. I sing of his past, I sing of his hopes for the future, our future. I sing until my voice is cracked and broken and I can sing no more. Don't you dare die on me now.

Stupid bleeding orders, Shrike.

The light continues to seep from his eyes in time with the unending flow of blood from his chest.

"Emifal Firdaant, Harper," I lower my gaze to his. "May death claim me first. I will be damned if I let the love of my life get there before me. Emifal Firdaant."

He reaches out his arm with striking swiftness. I look up to see one of the Commandant's daggers clenched in the palm of his hand. His smile is weak, voice low as he whispers, "Helene, don't lower your guard."

The deadly white hue of his face has begun to color, scarlet blood pooling on his chest, but flowing no longer. And his reflexes and overprotectiveness are as perfectly irritating as ever.

"Skies, Avitas, shut up." I press my lips to his and the world is right again. 

"Poor little girl. If not for your worthless love, you may have lived yet." Keris approaches us, dagger in hand, murder in her eyes. And something else, something shimmering right on the surface of all her walls. Disappointment?

It does not matter. For when I tell Keris of her mother, when Mirra of Serra brings steel to her throat and grants her the same end as my family, I am sure she will bite her words forevermore.

***

The formalities that come with the aftermath of the war are made less tasking with Avitas by my side as Shrike. And though I am occupied with my duties on many nights, there are others when Harper and I spend much time together occupied by... other things. 

***

"Happa!" Zacharias greets Avitas with an adorable grin and his first word.

"Zacharias, you know Auntie Empress, right?" I glance at Harper. "He calls me ba."

"Whatever you say, Sheep sir." 

***

"Hel, is that a bleeding smile?" Avitas and I dance through the streets of Nur, eye to eye, his warm hands placed firmly on my hips. 

"Well, you dance... not unpleasantly."

"I remember you saying something similar about my smell." His green eyes shine in the moonlight, lips quirking up in a smile. 

"Harper, I would... I am with child." Skies, that was excruciating. "I just wanted to bleeding tell you before my stomach blew up to the size of a Skies forsaken cannon ball."

"Hel..."

"Raising Zacharias is a grand task of itself, a child will only complicate things. Our duty to the Empire must come first."

The amount of passion he puts into kissing me upon my saying the words is dizzying.

"Skies, Hel, this is probably the first time in my life that I've received a pleasant surprise, don't be moronic." And then, for the first time since I met him, he truly laughs, hearty and beautiful and clear, and so very full of life.