Crescent (Old Version)

+ Part 66 +

I screamed, shoving Rosie back so hard I thought we might fall, but it was futile. Ceth yanked the blade from its sheath across my chest, and the soldiers made a move to display the two humans before the crowd.

They cried out.

"For Ganymede!" The blade glinted mid-air as Ceth brandished it. He whispered a spell under his breath and the blade cut across flesh, slicing their necks cleanly.

"Brenna," Rosie whimpered.

"Look away, Rosie," I sobbed as her chest rose more and more quickly. "I love you. Just look away, sweetheart."

"For Nexus."

The second body hit the floor and the tang of blood in the air nearly made me gag. Ceth grabbed my mother next to me, eyes quiet, brown hair crusted with sweat. She looked at me as the soldiers bared her neck to the cool air. No recognition lit her eyes, but she bowed her head. Closed her eyes. Accepted death. Ceth spoke loudly.

"For Vervale."

I vomited right into the blood pooling at the floor as the blade met skin and my mother's life left her. She hit the stone floor with a thud, and Rosie's cries slid into uncontrollable howls. She didn't look away. The terror was spilling out of her now. She hiccupped, her blue eyes red and body shaking as the guards took hold of her, tore her from me, and yanked her gaze up by the roots of her hair.

"Ceth!!" I screamed, and for a moment, I thought he might look at me. A choked cry. "PLEASE!!!!"

"For Ireodran."

"B-Brenna," she said as the blade came down. "Brenna- Renna-" and then her blood was bubbling from the hack in her throat. Sweet Rosie's face was white and her teeth were red and nothing else mattered if not to just take the blade and end myself with it.

I couldn't see. I couldn't hear. I couldn't smell. But, I felt the world stir as they let Rosie's dead body drop onto the cold marble and moved to my dad.

My father.

Somewhere distant, I saw my father urge me to look at him. I saw him kneel of his own volition and look into my eyes. They weren't cold and glazed over like my mother's were. They had life in them- whatever little one had in the moments before death. I heard him say to me, like a shadow slinking slowly: "Brenna," Dad said again. His eyes were determined. "Don't you let this be the end. Do you hear me, Brenna? Do you hear me?"

Ceth brought the blade down. "For Glalas."

Blood spilled, and my body seized as Ceth dropped him. But, I no longer felt sadness. I didn't feel the anguish, the pain. I didn't feel anything but rage. White-hot rage like I'd never felt before.

The end. It was here.

I could feel nothing past the rage now. Rage that no one was here to save them. Rage that I was powerless to do anything. Rage and flame and regret when I looked back at the person forced to restrain me. There was a battle raging in Gabriel's eyes when I looked at him. That regret flickered through me. Regret that I'd never really known the only person I felt safe with here.

Please, I begged silently. Let me go. Help me.

But, Ceth's emerald eyes at last turned to me.

Death looked upon me and smiled. Death stroked my hair back and lifted the edge of the blade to the skin at my throat.

"Spes ultima moritur," Death said.

Hope dies last. Ceth recited the curse and the crowd swelled, waiting for the final blood to be spilled.

"For Glalas," he whispered, the blade pressing in, a finality.

Death kissed my throat.

The end.