La Luna - His Time || Bruno Madrigal Fanfic || Book Two

Adrift

Bruno's POV

The pain surged inside me with every slight movement. Gripping my side as Lo supported my weight we stared down at the unconscious heap that was the monster, Emiliano. Lorenzo had managed to knock him out but it had been too late. The blade laid on the floor next to him now. Thick green liquid dripped onto the grass where it sat. The dagger hadn't gone deep but the sight of the vile looking solution coating it already had made its way into me. I could feel as it slowly ate away at my insides. "We have to go. Now!", Lorenzo dragged me along with him back down the dirt road we had come from.

"At least all those arepas were good for something...", I tried to joke, making fun of my arepa stomach cushion that probably saved me from a deeper wound.

"That ain't funny amigo.", Ciro frowned as he helped Arthuro beside me. Arthuro's arm looked gruesome and I'm pretty sure it was broken in more than one place. His teeth were clenched, breathing through the pain.

This won't be a total loss at least cause I had seen what set this fate into motion and I had a plan. Now if only I could make it home in time. The poison stabbed at my skin through another wave. Luna... Please don't let her feel this. Please, I prayed with everything left in me. Diego... I felt sick at the thought. I couldn't help but wonder if this was always meant to happen or if I somehow changed our destiny.

"Go Ciro! Get our stuff and meet us at the raft. Quick!", Lo took Arthuro to his other side as I watched Ciro sprinting off towards the bar. He better make sure my journal is in my bag. I wanted to call out after him but couldn't form the words between the searing pain. The sound coming from Arthuro made me wince, remembering how he had screamed as Emiliano crushed his bones. He tried to smile at me, the best he could. "You shouldn't have done that.", he wheezed out. He can't feel guilty about this. Wasn't he once the one that took an arrow for someone he loved. This is just good karma repaying him back for his sacrifice.

"I gotta do something real quick Lo. It'll only take a minute.", Arthuro escaped Lorenzo's grasp, speeding over to the street across from us.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! YOUR ARM!", the ground shook as Lorenzo hollered after him. What was he up to? Lo was fuming at us or maybe just the situation.

"I hope you still have some tequila left." If looks could kill, Lo shot me one, at my attempt at another joke. I had to keep my mind off of the pain somehow and before it went to a dark place, thinking about Luna. I promised her I'd come home...

"Ready.", Arthuro jogged back up, holding his mangled arm steady. Julieta can fix this.. I told myself. There wasn't much trail left til we reached our pontoon and I could finally rest. I tried desperately not to let the dread on my face show, for their sake. Reaching the grove of oaks where we had stashed our raft, Lo quickly dragged it to the shore, just as Ciro rounded the bend with our things. The two of them worked swiftly, not wanting to waste a precious minute that we had left. Somehow I felt like we all knew that the poison that was leaching into every part of me was coming for me, at full tilt. Nobody wanted to say it out loud. Brave faces looked back at me as they laid me down onto the damp wood. The swaying of the raft, signalling that they had pushed off. I gazed up at the sun high in the sky. Even during the day her moon watched me. I'm so sorry, mi amor. Please, please forgive me.

"Guys....", Ciro's face hung low as he looked between us. "We don't have four days, hell five days, to get back." That much was clear. I didn't have five days left in me. Arthuro's hand wrapped around mine, "I can do this, for us.", he squeezed it before letting go. Do what? He kneeled at the end of our raft and like a sail caught in the wind, his gift expanded out of him. We all watched in awe as his power grew, taking shape and warping like the very air around us. I wondered if he thought of Isa, if she was the wind in his sails, just as Luna was the moon to my sandy shore. Arthuro's energy came out like a gust that sent our raft quickly over the waters surface. My eyes felt heavy, drifting closed as the shadows from the trees around us danced over my eyelids. The sound of splashing from the river reminding me of the special place I made for Luna. That's where I'll go, I told myself, before darkness took me.

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I felt icy hands touching the skin of my stomach and jolted awake. It was Lo, hunched over me with my shirt pulled up.

"That bad huh.." His face rarely looked worried but the way his eyes moved over my wound, it scared me. How long had I been asleep? Craning my head, I saw Arthuro, still pushing his gift out from the back. His pale face made me nauseous, watching as his head bobbed side to side, barely holding it up.

"Arto...", Ciro placed his hand on his shoulder. "You gotta stop amigo." He shrugged his hand off of him, not even glancing back.

Lorenzo mumbled into his lap, "He's been at it all night.." All night?? I slept through it.

"Why didn't you wake me?", I glared. Why didn't they stop Arthuro? I was getting angry, at myself.

"Hombre, it's bad.", Lo didn't look up from his lap. My wound? I pulled my shirt up and saw it. A web of blue green veins coursed beneath my skin. It's only been one day but the speed at which it had spread was shocking. It was progressing rapidly, draining the life from me. If it takes me, I need to make sure Luna hears this from me before it does. I reached for my bag beside me, pulling out my journal.

My wedding vows to her.

I had been playing the words over and over in my head since we left Encanto. I know what I want to say. The pen quivered in my fingers as I began to stroke the ink over the parchment. Lo watched me from the side of his eye, sadness seeping out of him.

"You'll make sure she gets this. Right?" I swallowed, reading my love letter between my hands. The only vows my heart knew how to write, sprawled out over the entire page.

"Give it to her yourself.", his fierce features looked back at me. If only, I breathed out, looking up at her moon between the clouds, faded by the morning light but still there. Always there.

Arthuro never stopped, even after he fainted once. He got right back up, pushing Lo and Ciro off of him. I could barely tell what was happening around me by then. "Don't give up..." Someone said it but in my haze I thought it sounded like my Luna. 'Come home.' It tugged at me.

"I'm so sorry mi amor.", I cried, no longer caring if they saw me like this.

Ciro took my hand in his, tears welling up behind his eyes. "We're almost there Bruno. I can see the glimmer of the rainbow river up ahead.", he squeezed my hand as my eyes fell shut.

"Just hold on."

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Time to finally bring our Brunito home <3

Song:

Swelling Sea - Tow'rs

"I am the swelling sea
You're the moon pulling on me
Sayin' all in time, all in good time
All in time, all in good time"

Timeline:

Luna is currently 14 weeks along in her pregnancy, their wedding is 5 weeks away, the total time Bruno and the boys spent out of Encanto was 2 weeks