Though The Stars May Burn [hs]

chapter eleven

TW: blood/themes of distress

My feet took me to him as my eyes began to gloss over. I fell just beside him and let the Sapphire drop from my fingers. He laid on his side, face buried firmly in the cold ground.

"Harry," I hushed as my voice cracked and the rims of my eyes stung. "Harry, please,"

I grabbed him gently before turning him onto his back. I let his head rest in my lap as his eyes fluttered open just barely, his beautiful green eyes taking me in distantly as I let out a whimper. When my eyes trailed down to his stomach, I let out a sob at the sight before quickly looking away. Blood had pooled out around his wound, seeping down through his shirt and into the powdery snow below him.

"N-now," he was barely able to speak as I shook my head and my face crumpled in agony. "may b-be a bad t-time,"

"Shh," I stuttered as calmly as I could, running my fingers through his freezingly soaked hair. "it's alright, you'll be alright,"

He wheezed for air, his eyes opening and closing as he fought to stay. I leaned down, holding him close as I pressed my forehead to his. He was clammy, his forehead sticking with sweat and the stray hairs that laid against it.

The ocean rolled on beside us, crashing against the shore and retreating back to do it all again on repeat. Plumes of smoke from the burning village could be seen just above the hilltop we had clumsily fallen down. With the Squalors having disappeared, our surroundings had gone quiet, solidified in the stillness as the sea rushed onto the snowy bank before retreating back out again.

"Cel," he murmured. "please. Listen."

"What is it?" I asked, my hands shaking as I griped his damp shirt, feeling a snowflake land on my heated cheek.

"I love you," he got out as his eyes fluttered. "it's you; it's always been you."

I couldn't help the moan that escaped my mouth, threatening to tear through my chest at the heartbreak I felt at that moment. I shut my eyes tight at the flood of tears, wanting so bad to turn back our clock.

"M-marry me,"

"What?"

"J-just say you will," he breathed, he attempted to lift his hand at me, but he was too weak. "p-please."

"Harry," I whispered as I shook my head, taking his cold hand into mine shakily. "I would marry you every day, a million times over until our lungs gave out."

He smiled gently, letting a breath of air escape his lips before his eyes fluttered shut and his chest stilled. I watched helplessly as his head rolled gently to the side, and his body went limp in my arms.

"Harry,"

"Harry, no,"

A gut-wrenching scream came from my lips as I fell onto him, feeling the residual warmth from his skin through the shirt. The air around us was freezing cold, but the raging heat inside my body made me sweat as I sobbed over his chest.

Alone; panic, terrifying fear of the world around me, now completely unknown without the one person who made me feel intact. I wanted nothing more than to take it all back; turn back time to when things were more simple. When we weren't on the run, when we were home safe and sound; summertime spent outside under the warm sun without a single thought of the dreaded winter to come.

"Cel come on! The water's great!"

Harry's voice called to me from the sparkling blue water as he flicked his hair over his head. I stood on the edge of the small hill of rock clusters in merely my undergarments, staring down nervously into the water of the pond.