Bless Me

24

Isolde smiled, trembling, lifting her hands to her face. The blindfold obscured her vision but the warmth of her blood was unmistakable.

Dorian reached out for her, his hands stretching to catch her as blood leaked from her chest, her shattered armor falling to pieces around her, the gpsss glittering in the early morning light.

She fell into his arms.

"Isolde," he whispered shakily. "Isolde tell me you live."

"Where I go..." she sputtered, lifting her hand.

Dorian raised his brows, before looking back at his opponent, who'd speared them both, through the heart, impaling them.

He stumbled toward her anyway, forcing himself along the spear, a smile on his face, as he undid her blindfold.

"Oh..." she whispered. "It's morning."

He nodded softly with a chuckle. "Yes...yes it is, Isolde."

She smiled. "How lovely. How lovely." She looked down at them. "This is...the end. Isn't it?"

Dorian nodded softly, blood seeping from his mouth. "It would seem so."

"Oh...we didn't accomplish your goal of unification."

He smiled. "Oh...Isolde it was never possible. I knew that. The goddess has used me to end my kind. Her wrath could not be sated, it seems."

"Good," she whispered, "You all...deserve to burn in hell anyways."

"My mother was a priestess." He said softly. "I have...avenged her at last. Torn down the world that killed her. I have...become the end for the sake of revenge."

She looked up at the sun. "Yes..."

She offered her hand. He took it and smiled as she fell, taking him with her, landing on top of her.

"The lion has finally fallen," she mumbled. "At long last I am free."

He squeezed her hand. "I will follow you down to hell. Let us...let us go together. We shall be made to give an account for this I think."

"Yes..." she wheezed. "As everything else, let us go together, Dorian. Oh...I am so thrilled Dorian. We can finally...finally die. Wrap your hands around my throat one last time, Dorian."

He did so, gingerly, feeling her heart beat against his hand. "I will see you off first. I have always followed behind you, haven't I?"

"I-indeed. Will you protect me even there?"

"You...protect your front. I have your back. I always will," he smiled. She smirked back.

"Hey...that thing you were gonna say before?"

He nodded. "You want to hear it now?"

She nodded. "Yes I...I want to hear it."

"I love you, Isolde. I've loved you since the day I met you, and I will keep loving you in hell, and when hell fades away, and the fires can no longer be stoked, I will love you in whatever cold void is left. When...when my spirt has finally disappeared and nothing of me remains, my love will fall to the ground as rain, upon your children. I have been nothing but my hate for my kind and my love for you."

"Oh...Bless you."

He smiled softly, feeling himself begin to fade away. Until a cold cackle woke him from the light.

"Bless your heart, Dorian."

She chuckled, cackled, shaking her head as she pulled the knife from her chest, from his as sputtered. What was she doing? Why was she wrenching them from fate? The sky turned over and darkened and she cackled, gurgling in her throat like blood.

"You think it can end like this?" She smiled cocking her head. "Oh no. No, not like this. We haven't succeeded yet."

Dorian shook his head. "This...we were never going to?"

Oh?" She said emptily. "But it doesn't matter. I'm going to complete it. It's what you wanted right? For me to exterminate them all? Then we'll do that."

His eyes widened. "Your rage Isolde...it is darker than even I imagined."

But the crooked smile never left her face. She pressed her hands to her gaping wound, light emanating from her hands as she healed herself.

"Don't you see?" She murmured, her hands covered in blood, hers and others. "I have the blood of my Juliette on my hands. She died for this. Georgia will too. All them will. So I may as well kill every one of you."

He shivered, as she approached him with those hands.

"And so will you. I'll make you a king. I'll bless your slaughter. And when you're the last..." she knelt down, healing him, with a small tender smile. "I'll kill you too."

"My name is Isolde. I am the last great priestess. And I swear it," she smiled, lightening cracking behind her. "I'll rid the world of Lycans."

And finally, in the light behind her, her fury ensnaring him as her wounds healed, closing miraculously, golden light bathing her, he finally allowed himself to see what he'd been denying all along.

"The last...great priestess," he sputtered as she put her hands on him, warm golden light healing him as well. "I can't believe you're still...pretending that nonsense is true. You know what you really are, don't you?"

"Hm?" She hummed with a grin.

"Please," Dorian scoffed as he sat up, his wounds healed. "Don't condescend to me anymore than you have. I've done your bidding my whole life and still you deceived me. So then, tell me, Isolde."

She smirked.

Isolde's lips turned up, her eyes shimmering.

"Tell me. Who are you really?"

Isolde smiled softly. "You tell me."

He rose to his feet looking down at her under the light of the moon. "Very well. It seems you force me into submission in every instance...Moon Goddess."