Forever and Always Yours, SS [Book 3]

Chapter 77

Amilia stared at the blank eyes of the boy who was once her friend. Her knees hit the ground as glass shattered in the fire's intense heat. Smoke blackened the sky above as her wand tumbled from her hand. She felt odd, a numbing feeling inching from the pit of her stomach encircling her heart and mind.

Eric crawled over to her, his shaking hands holding her face close to his, "Amilia! Answer me please!"

"I killed him." She said as she looked past him at the fire.

Eric brushed the hair out of her face, "We have to get moving."

Her eyes flicked to his face, "I killed him Eric."

"We have to move the fire is spreading!"

"What?"

Eric pulled at her arms, "Get up!" He started coughing, "Please get up!"

Amilia felt weak as she tried to be allowed up off the ground by her friend, "The fire is spreading?"

"Yes." Eric huffed as Amilia finally found her feet.

"My wand."

"Leave it!"

"No!" Amilia whimpered; she held her hand out Accio wand. It flew to her hand, and she shoved it into her pocket, the roaring of the fire finally reaching her ears. She stopped and watched the remains of the cottage burnt to the ground and the fire jump from limb to limb of each tree surrounding them. "What have I done?"

"Survived!" Eric pulled on her; she shuffled backward, her eyes glued to the inferno before her.

"Amilia, please!"

Amilia's throat tightened as she tore her eyes off the carnage and looked at Eric. He insisted on moving away from the flames; he never took his hands off her arm as he limped up the path.

Black smoke thickened around them as they fought their way to the village to no avail. Amilia was frantic as she looked around them for another way out; between them, they could not clear the smoke out of the way or even put out the flames. Her knees weakened, and she hit the hard dirt. Eric tumbled down next to her; his face was covered in soot, his grey eyes nearly indescribable with fear. I have killed us both.

"I am so sorry." Amilia choked on the words as they came out, the dense smoke and emotions nearly strangling her.

Eric pulled her close, "No, no. Don't you dare."

Amilia broke down; her face pressed into his shoulder. She could feel him trembling as he shielded her from the heat of the encroaching flames.

"Do you remember when I told you I would be happy to die next to you?" Eric said in her ear.

Amilia nodded.

"It's still true, though this is not the way I would have imagined it."

Amilia tried to laugh with him, the way that he was trying to lift her spirits in their final moments. Exhaustion settled in on her shoulders. "I didn't tell her I loved her before I left." Amilia squeezed her eyes shut, branding the image of her sleeping daughter, swaddled tightly in her bed to her eyelids.

Eric grabbed her face, "Look at me." Amilia forced herself to look at him, fire breaking through the dense smoke around them. "You are loved and Jordan is loved! Severus will make sure she knows you loved her with everything you have and are!" He pressed his lips against her forehead, "So loved."

Severus. Images of her husband and daughter flashed before her eyes as she and Eric hugged each other.