From Shadow to Light - Book Ten

Ch. 21- Divinity is Destruction

"My kind of rebirth tasted like blood."

—Amias Guinevere—

Soari was dead in my arms but I did not have the strength to carry her into the crypt yet. I wanted to stay into her golden eyes one more time, even if they were dimmed out now. Even when I know she will come back to me. Of course, she will. When she died, I felt the blood oath disappear from my soul which made me let out a strangled breath. Even without it, I would do it again. I gently took out the blade from her chest and tossed it to the side, glancing at Elora who was sobbing for the death of her daughter. Sebastian sped his way toward her, a mixture of grief and anger fueling him, directing it toward me. "You married my daughter," he stated.

I looked into his black eyes, his jaw clenched as he was two seconds away from punching me in the face. Even now, when I was holding his dead daughter. Then I glanced at Elora, who was holding him like she might break. "I will always choose her," I confessed. It did not matter to me about the laws of the Kingdom nor if it was allowed that I could not be with Soari. None of it mattered to me more than the girl in my arms. My beautiful Soari, who was strong and cunning to the point where it made everyone a little bit terrified of her. But never me. "Nothing will stop me from loving her or following her into the darkest pits of hell, Sebastian. So when I tell you to help me carry your daughter to the crypt, will you listen? For her." I waved my hand toward Elora. At his other two children. Luc, who was curled up in the corner, crying silently at the sight of Soari. Her friends are holding each other, crying on each other's shoulders. Lyka, who was howling outside as she felt the absence of my wife. "For them."

Sebastian stared at his daughter in my arms for a moment, tears spilling down his cheeks. I waited. Helios waited behind me. "We will explain everything once we carry her to where she can safely transform, King Sebastian. That is, if the Fates allow her to do so."

"They will. She will demand a bargain," I said. Both Elora and Sebastian stared at me in disbelief. So did the others, who stopped crying and frowned at what I just said. I sighed, turning my head to face Helios. "Bring Lyka here. She can explain better than we can," I gently picked Soari up, the same way I picked her up when I married her, as I set off back to Ambrosia. That night will replay in my memory forever—the way her face lit up when I suggested our marriage and the countless times she said it was reckless, even for me, but proceeded to do it anyway. There was a small wedding chapel in the middle of the city, right by one of the noisiest bars which was trouble in itself. But we didn't care. Nor did Helios when Soari sent him a message, in which he agreed because he would do anything for her. Even now.

When Helios and Lyka came back, they were both stone-faced. So was I. It was not like we weren't feeling the loss of Soari, it was our turn to fulfill her plan. We promised her before we even went into the shadow realm. All three of us–the ones she trusted the most. Maybe that was why her family were staring at us like they had so many questions, as if they had no idea who Soari was in the first place. Maybe so. I did not have time to dwell on their thinking for I was too focused too bring her back to her family's crypt. It took seconds before Helios to snap his hands together and bring us back to Ambrosia, an ability I knew all too well. He hid it well, even letting the twins use their powers to open a rift even though it took time to do so. Sebastian and Elora walked behind me as we spiraled down the crypt, utter silence between us.

When I finally laid her on the stone crypt, I slowly placed her delicate hands over each other and waited. All of us did, after a while. But I knew they needed answers. They deserved it after the grief we put them through. Sebastian kneeled in front of the crypt, watching Soari like he could magically make her come back to life. Not yet anyway. "Sebastian," I whispered. "He needed to believe that he killed her. She already decided how it was going to end when she told me and we both know when she sets her mind to something, nothing or no one can stop her. I tried to make her change her mind. I did."