Amortal Song

19.Real

Calypso

"Arden?" My voice came in a whisper as the world faded back into view, clear enough for me to see him, standing a few feet away from me. I was curled up on the ground, from where I had seemingly collapsed. I didn't have any memories of what had happened after the darkness had kicked in once again, just that I had heard the same choir of whispering voices, playing tricks on my senses.

But I saw Arden now, clear as day, unlike the scenes in the mirrors.

He was real.

I was real.

This was real.

"Did we make it?" I had spoken in such a hushed tone I wasn't sure if Arden had heard me.

He tilted his head to the side, his eyes keen and focused on me, the color of teal. But the shade seemed more washed out. Like he had lost that spark.

"Yes," he said, his tone matching mine. But there was something about the way he smiled, a sad smile that didn't meet his eyes, that made my blood turn cold. Something wasn't right. Now that I studied him more closely, I noticed how the streaks he had in his hair had turned an ice blue, fainter than before. His skin also looked paler, like life was slowly being leeched out of him.

"No..." I found myself muttering, not sure if it was my voice. "No. No. No!"

Scrambling to my feet, I rushed toward Arden, my hand wrapping around his cold skin. I couldn't wrap my head around it, couldn't fathom the thought of Arden being gone, not yet, not when we had been so close.

"Please," I found myself begging him, staring at him, searching for any sign that this wasn't happening again. "You made it. We made it. You can't just...no..." I buried my face in my hands as a sob racked through me, loud, messy sobs--the tears falling for all the things I had lost and was losing.

I felt his hand brush over my hair, the feeling like ice. "I'm sorry," he murmured gently. "But you were right. The gods are cruel."

"That's what you have to say?" I angrily asked, choking on my words as tears streamed down my face and onto the scars marking the back of my palms. "You're dying! And I'm forever going to have scars because of it! Why..." My voice cracked and I dissolved again into tears, the world blurring as the tears streamed faster.

His skin was slowly turning more translucent, pale, and missing life's look. He was becoming one of them-- a spiriost. "There's nothing you can do about it, Calypso."

"There has to be something we can do, something I can do!" I could feel myself shaking, whether, from shock or hysteria, I couldn't tell. I shouldn't be caring about him. But some small part of me knew that it wasn't right to just leave someone who had risked their lives for me to die. "Please, Arden, stay a little longer."

Arden frowned, "You got what you wanted. Someone finally did. And I'm okay with watching you claim your immortality."

"Don't you care! You're dying!"

The words brought a crashing silence around us. A silence neither of us knew how to fill. I could feel the unspoken words between us, the words just barely slipping off my lips. But none could truly make up for the fact that Arden was dying.

He had watched so many other amortals die.

I was the one who would watch him.

Except, he wasn't an amortal. He was an immortal, a son of the gods, the very gods who weren't doing anything to stop his death. 

The thought made my insides twist into a knotted ball.

"I'm sorry," he said again, "but I have to go now."

He started to move away, causing the air of cold surrounding him to lift from around me. His lips kept forming the words-- I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Guilt was crossed over his expressions, a look of pain in his eyes unlike any other emotion I had seen before. "Please," I heard myself begging. Except it didn't sound like my voice, too muted by the ringing and pounding in my ears. "You don't have to go. Not now."

His skin was a transparent red, the same crimson red of blood. It made me sick to my stomach. The light around him seemed to bend the darkness, illuminating him like a red spotlight. I couldn't tell where we were but I didn't care about any monsters or the creeping darkness or any other vengeful gods.

I cared that I was watching someone fade away in front of my eyes.

This wasn't like how it was with Odysseus, how he was already a spiriost before he was gone.

This was different.

A horrible, wretched, sort of different.

Arden wasn't going to have another chance to live.

My throat felt dry, my eyes run out of tears, and an aching sort of weight on my chest that made it hard to breathe as I watched Arden's facial features disappear completely from view-- only his red outline visible.

I didn't feel shocked anymore.

No, it felt more like I had accepted it.

But I will get revenge on the gods.

They were cruel.

This was cruel.

"I can't hold on any longer," Arden spoke, his voice thick with sadness. "Don't forget me."

I looked straight at where I thought he was, the light slowly dimming.

"Never," I vowed.

"Thank you."

Reaching out a hand toward the light, I smiled sadly as I felt the coldness brush over it, almost like he was holding it. "Hold on a little longer, Arden. Keep talking to me. Don't make this goodbye sad. Please don't. I've experienced too many."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "Does it always hurt this much?"

"It hurts...but it's okay. I'm used to it."

I heard his breath out a long sigh, the feeling of coldness moving from my hand to my cheek. I knew I was slowly losing him, the darkness wrapping around me and holding fast as the red light dimmed even more. "Calypso?"

"Yeah?" Trying to ignore how faint his voice was starting to get wasn't helping the bundle of knots I was carrying with me.

This was the end.

"Be happy for me."

___________

A/N:

So...raise your hand if you kinda hate me for all the cliffhangers...

Sorry! But it's all for the sake of the plot :)

Remember to vote, comment, and read! We're nearly to the end, can you believe it? So keep waiting for updates, which I'm trying to get out as quickly as I can!

-Rae