Winter's Child

Chapter Twenty-Six~Endings

Elodie followed Darcelle into the woods until she collapsed, the arrows still stuck in her flesh. Tears soaked her dirty face as she let herself fall to the ground. She let out a mournful wail that faded out into broken, desperate sobs. Elodie watched with wide eyes and parted lips as Darcelle curled up into a fetal position on the ground, wailing and holding her bleeding stomach, her fingers parting on either side of the arrow.

"What have I done?!" she screamed. Elodie's brows furrowed in concern and tears filled her eyes. She watched as Darcelle's hair slowly changed. It changed to the golden color that Elodie recognized from the portrait on North's desk. The rest of her remained the same, including the insanity in her gaze. However, now, it wasn't violent insanity. It was remorseful, vulnerable insanity that Elodie knew she would've never been fully cleared of. Elodie fell to her knees beside the now harmless Darcelle as she lay dying.

"Hey, it'll be alright-"

"I killed him!" Darcelle shrieked. She maintained her fetal position as she continued to sob continuously. "North never hurt me," she whimpered, her shining green eyes meeting Elodie's with something Elodie had never seen in them before. Childlike fear. Elodie didn't know what to say. What could she say? Darcelle was dying. She had to. It was the only way. Elodie knew that, if she survived this, she would return to her wicked ways in a heartbeat. She was far too corrupted. "Never." Elodie sighed and held her hand as her last breath slipped through her lips, carried off by the winter winds to a place far from where she lay in the snow.

Elodie sighed and focussed in on the distant green eyes of the lifeless woman in the snow. She couldn't have been much older than Elodie was, actually. Her constant weariness and wild anger had made her look substantially more aged. Now, she looked young and innocent, exactly like she had in the picture on North's desk. Somewhere, deep inside her heart, nothing had changed.

Elodie rose to her feet and hurried to North, hoping that it wasn't too late. No, of course it wasn't. They could still save him. They had good medicine back at the palace. Medicine that saved her life before. It could certainly save his now.

North's breaths were shallow as Elodie fell to her knees beside him, her wide eyes focussing in on the crimson stain at his chest, inches from his heart. She sighed with relief when she learned that Darcelle had missed the vital organ. She quickly tore a piece off of her royal-blue cape and pressed it to his wound, trying not to focus on his rapidly fading eyes.

"El-"

"You're fine," Elodie cut in quickly, keeping her gaze averted from his, for she was scared of what she would find in those crystal eyes. Perhaps loss, perhaps defeat. She didn't want to see that. "You're fine." She glanced to her right and quickly caught sight of the blade that Darcelle had dropped when Elodie shot her. She couldn't look at it. No, she wouldn't. She wouldn't look at the simple yet vengeful object that was bringing an end to the strongest person she had ever known.

But North, who was beautiful, who would willingly die for those he loved, looked up into her eyes. Those eyes that he had fallen in love with. He watched as they shone with tears. Tears for him? No, she shouldn't cry for him. Not his brave Elodie. She already sacrificed so much. So much.

"You are loved, Ellie," he whispered. Her eyes were wide with the wonderment of a child mingled with sorrow. She was worried about what would happen to him. Now, she wasn't so sure. "So loved." His voice was weak now. Like fading, dying winds. It no longer held the power that Elodie had become so accustomed to. It was meek, still, small. "I love you." He reached up a quivering, blood-soaked hand to the right side of her face. He gently pulled her down so that her face hovered above his. "I would die a thousand deaths for you...my dear Ellie. I...do not regret this."