The King of Darkness | ✔️

Chapter Forty One

POV: Darian

My heart races a thousand times a minute as I run across the room. Time seems to move in slow motion as I get closer to her, although her body only seems to get further away from me.

Nova's body is contorted in inhuman ways and the blood that surrounds her head like a halo brings tears to my eyes.

As soon as I am in arms reach of her, I scoop her into my arms. My knees are soaked with her blood as I hold her in my arms. "You're okay... you're okay," I try to convince myself that my words are true as I rock her.

"It's... over..." her breathing is strangled and I kiss her forehead. She will be okay, there is no way that this is all the time we had. I won't allow us to be parted this way. I have waited five hundred years for her - I can't lose her now.

"It's not over. Our future... it's just beginning. I want to give you a life of freedom and marry you, Nova. I want to marry you for love, not for business. I want you to bear my future heir, I want to do so many things with you. It's not over," my voice breaks.

"Life is too cruel... for... for us to have that," Nova barely manages to say as her face blanches and her lips begin to pale. I hold her close to my chest and pray to anyone that they will grant me a future with her.

"Gods, do I know that life is cruel but... you are my salvation Nova, you are what keeps me going... I need you," I can't help the tear that drops from my eye and lands on her paled cheek.

I swipe my thumb over her own tear that falls and those green eyes meet mine. "I've... never... needed someone... so much," her hand shakes as it wipes my own tears. I can tell the pain that it causes her as her eyebrows furrow.

"Please just fight it... I'll call a healer as soon as I can you just need to hold on," I try to move her in my arms but she bites her lip - suppressing a scream. I watch as she wheezes and I know that if I do not move she is going to die and if I do... she will also die.

"I've held on for too... too... long... I can't feel anything. I can't... feel anything... Darian," her hand drops from my face and I watch her breathing become increasingly laboured. I want to take her pain away... I want to do everything I can to save her - but there is nothing I can do.

"I know... I know but you just... you have to try okay," I can't help the tears streaming down my face. It took this moment to realise the true extent of my love for her. It wasn't my sentencing the mortal to his death for her but... her dying.

"I'm... scared Darian... I don't want... to die," Nova is now hyperventilating and I cup her face with my free hand - my other holding her head up. I am covered in her blood and I don't think I will ever recover from this moment.

"You're not going to die, okay," I promise her and her eyes close. "Nova..." my voice is barely above a whisper. I watch as her chest stops moving and I freeze. "No... no... no... no," I can only repeat.

I listen for her heartbeat but to no avail. Her body grows cold in my arms and I can't help the sob that leaves me as I hold her closer to me, rocking back and forth. Please wake up... I will sell my soul to have her wake up and kiss me one more time.

I just want to feel that fire of hers one more time, feel the life that runs through her veins, sneak glances at her from across the room, frustrate her until she storms off... I just want to do it all over again just one more time.

"This isn't fair... gods, this isn't fair," I sob and hold her even tighter. Why does the world have to take the most beautiful souls so soon? Why does the world punish the truly good people?

But, I suppose in the end... the bad people meet the good and find a home in them until it is gone. The world isn't punishing the good people... they're punishing the bad.

It feels like that day all over again. That day I had promised that I would never invest my love in anyone ever again because my love for my mother is what got her killed. When I met Nova, I made a promise that I would not fall in love with her. Oh, how I was wrong. I fell so deeply in love with her that I can never recover.

Now, the price of loving her is losing her.

I want to bring her back... I want to use the darkness in me to bring her back but I know that she would never forgive me. She would never forgive me for associating her with the devil... not when it would take her even further from her family.

"I love you so much, my love," I whisper and kiss her forehead. The sight of her corpse in my arms is a sight I will never forget. I can't let her die. I have to bring her back. "I'm so sorry."

There is no way that I can live without her. I would rather her be alive and hate me for the rest of eternity than her be dead and love me.

With every kernel of strength inside of me, I channel it all to the palm of my hand. My hand is surrounded by so much darkness that I can no longer see my hand. I'm selfish... that is just who I am and I accept that.

I press my hand over her heart and press all of my darkness into her. It feels as though my own life is being drained out of me as it fills her. As soon as I pull my hand away... I pray and pray.

My eyes stare at her chest, waiting for that one intake of air but... it never comes. I watch and watch but she doesn't move at all. No...

My body shakes as a sob racks through me. The pain in my chest is immeasurable, a pain that only she can heal. I rest my cheek against her head and let everything I have been building up in me for centuries... flow out of me through my tears.

I have never loved someone so much in my life and to have them ripped from me - to watch them die in front of my very own eyes... is something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

"Darian..." a voice whispers and I snap my head to the side. Killian stands at the doorway. "I... I heard the news and got here as quick as I could..." he trails off.

My eyes meet with Nova's lifeless body. "Well... it's too late," I barely manage to say - my voice hoarse from the constant sobbing and shouting I have been doing.

"I'm so sorry," Killian says and I hear his voice break. I would question his emotion if I were not so focused on Nova. I tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and realise that this is the last time that I will ever hold her.

"Leave... just go," I sob and kiss her forehead. I'm not sure if I am talking to myself or Killian but I know that both of us need the advice. I love her so much and the fact that I have to let her go breaks me more than words can describe.

I hold her one last time before I force myself to slowly let her go. My heart stops when I notice her fingers twitch.

Until I continue watching and realise it was only a figment of my imagination.

All hope inside of me ceases to exist as I let her go. I want nothing more than to turn around and walk away. Walk away until I am nothing but a phantom. This pain is more than I can bear. Love is what kills you... not death but love.

Love is like a delicately crafted dagger. It's beautiful to look at, it's powerful and it's all you need. But, ultimately it will end up being the dagger that is eventually pierced through your heart and leaves you to bleed dry.

The silence in the meeting hall is thick and I am not sure if I will ever be able to return to this palace let alone this room. It now holds too many memories that I can't bear to think of. Everything that has happened in this room... I lock it away in the back of my mind.

Well... it was silent until my whole world shook and I heard a gasp - not from Killian but Nova.

"Nova?" I question as I scoop her back into my arms. It's when those once green eyes now crimson meet mine that I know it worked. Tears stream down my face due to the pure relief flooding through me.

It worked.