A Shield of Faith (BOOK 4)

Chapter 32

YUVEN

Sentinels stood in the blizzard mist and changed his name with the clang of their glaives against smooth white stone. Yuven Traye. Yuven Traye. A name repeated, his own as his love blurred when he tried to look upon Maria when she left with a softened, noiseless word. Her fingers trailed his jawline, and he changed his name instead when the expectations tried to build a wall around him to keep out the warmth — the curse of the Avaerilians deep in his soul. Healers wheeled him through the magma-carved corridors of his home, past the essence pit and into one of the smaller rooms with a pool of the wondrous blanket of liquid magick. It released puffy little clouds, and his soul slavered for the feeling it left in his senses. The flow pulsed in his ears and the worms danced in depraved glee when they brought him closer, chewing at the mist it released when they laid him inside the liquid, but soft and fluffy confines. It brushed against his skin, the same gentle touch of Maria instead of cold water.

Just give me one thing, let me say goodbye. Let me commit their faces to my last memory... Blood swelled into his nose, but he lost the strength to choke out the death which made its way through his entire body. The parasite which left its core in him, an unwelcome piece stuck to his soul and three became too much of a crowd for his taste. He failed to count his breaths, a flimsy revitalization as the corruption burned at the last threads of his grip. It darkened in the dome's deepest corners as gemstones cried their lustrous glitter. Healers pushed the buckets to the side in preparation, but once it was over there would be no need for them — no need for him to taste blood. He twisted his head around to the door when it pulsated a silver truth. Adara and Neven. Both came through, staring at him in tortured concern, his Miesero, a font of strength, finally acknowledging his tears. Adara carried a steely sense of resolution she must've learned from Fenrer. Both wanted to make him laugh, but his lungs and chest hurt too much.

It will finally... end. Yuven focused hard on Neven's face first when he knelt at his head. Name chanted while the blizzard tried to down it out with his own. Neven Lotayrin, the pale-haired Storm Warden who carried two children through their tormented life without complaint. Neven drew out his fangs with a tortured flare of his nostrils, his ears flicking against his feathers as he sank to his knees, bereft of all the strength he gave to them instead. Miesero, always have you been a true Sentinel, and not those metal peacocks you thought worthy of your devotion. No. He moved to Adara, a newer face as she loomed over him, fists clenched with a force to her stance. Silver flames bit at her arms as she held them out, and cascades of viscous rivers caught the clouds of liquid flow and took it for its own, returned to the world, balanced tipped.

He repeated her name all the same, against the blizzard wall.

Adara stepped over him and sat at his side, and he breathed deep at two definitions of the sun. The morning dawn into its highest, brightest peak.

Maria, and over her shoulders, in perfect clarity, Fenrer Pyren.

Maria sidled up to his side with a quiet, weary breath as she knelt down and lowered Fenrer beside him. His Oathbound's features shone underneath the dim, rainbow light as his chest rose and fell in strangled waves. Look at what I've done to you. He willed Fenrer to open his eyes, but faith proved as fickle as his life. Pinpricks swept up his arms as he focused on the bound soul beside him, the choice Fenrer made though he knew the consequences. Yuven cried against the crimson worms, and he shut them tight when they swallowed their faces all at once, a burst of crimson blood.

"I am pathetic, aren't I?" Yuven opened his eyes to the sea of twilight stars, with Fenrer unawakened to his soul. He switched his attention to his own feet when they scattered into starry particles. "I never wanted to disappoint you, you know." He wriggled his fingers, then raised his hand to smack his fist against Fenrer's chest, who gave no acknowledgement to his weak prod. "But we both knew this was going to happen." He chewed on his lip when the ghostly mirage crawled up to his knees in slow motion. "I just wish... you would've been spared my pain."