My Willful Flame

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Xander," I whispered, lifting my head to see him better. He looked different. Rugged. His hair was shorter, the curls gone. And a thin line of black ran from the corner of his left eye, across his nose bridge and down the right cheek. It almost looked tattooed.

"Xander," I called again, lifting a trembling hand toward him. He didn't respond. His eyes drifted over me, lying in the snow, the old blood on my forehead stained under me. Those two-coloured eyes, so emotionless, and suddenly so much like any stranger.

Finally, he bent down, putting his hands on his knees and tipping his head. He stayed just out of my reach.

"Help me," I pleaded, feeling my relief starting to seep out.

"Please," I tried again and yet no response. His careless demeanour confused me. Did he forget me? Was I too late? Had they finally broken him?

Dread rushed through me as Xander started to smile, then rising he turned toward his father.

"I will prove myself to you." His voice said like no one I had ever heard before.

"Now it is then, now you retake your vow." Djevel smiled proudly, stepping toward Xander before clapping him on the shoulder. "I expect your devotion."

People were moving around me, talking, getting into position. All I could do was to keep my eyes on him, feeling my heart burn up.

His eyes were so empty. His face was so familiar, so much like the man I cared for, fought for and prayed for.

I felt desperate.

This couldn't be it. He could be like this. It was all fake. He was pretending. Xander was still him, the one who promised to never leave. He was the same.

"It will be a fair duel, as the goddess intended, the strongest will live and the rest will join her," Djevel shouted, as he was handed a long sword, he locked eyes with me.

"Fight for your life Eleonora Tartal." Djevel's voice echoed, his words carrying the weight of an ancient decree. His thin lips curled before he threw the blade at me.

They had surrounded me, thirty of them at least had formed a large circle around me, Djevel, and Xander. Watching us with hungry eyes I turned to them in confusion, they were waiting for something. For me?

"Get up," Someone commanded. My whole body woke up at the sound of his voice, speaking to me for the first time in months. "Grab your weapon." He almost sneered.

"Xander, it's me." I cried, feeling too weak to raise myself. Did he not know who I was? Was I unrecognizable?

"I'm Elora-,"

"Get up!" Xander shouted so loudly my whole body shook and I was silenced immediately.

I bit my lip in pain as I tried lifting myself on my hands, abiding his words. I groaned as I planted one foot on the ground by and then the next, feeling as if I was stepping on knives. It hurt but I managed to stay on my feet, finally meeting him at eye level. I took an unsteady step back to catch my balance. He moved toward me with ease.

"It's me." I barely managed to get out before a punch to my gut had me bending over barely breathing. Xander caught me, steadying me against him.

He was pretending. He was.

"I know who you are." I heard his low voice say before he grabbed my arms pushing me back. Through my blurry eyes, I saw his, so full of rage. "But you don't know me, not anymore." He sneered and shoved me back.

I stumbled but managed to stay upright.

"No, no, Xander please, wake up." I cried, heaving for my breath, and holding my stomach. He was pretending.

"Please," I screamed as I watched him storm toward me his blade already swinging. I felt a cut and then blood. My arm started to sting. I gasped and grabbed it, trying so desperately not to fall. This was a betrayal.

"Don't," I begged before he hit me again.

I screamed and tried to turn away, but failed to get far.

My legs couldn't carry me. My hands numb.

Another strike and my back split wide open. I screamed, turning.

"Stop!" There was no stopping. His blade cut me again and again. My arms, my legs and my chest. I fell onto my back. Wincing from the pain all over my body. The chaos of my execution. The blood-stained snow around me. The depraved look in his eyes as he stood over me, watching me writhe in agony. There was nothing there. Nothing left.

"You promised," I grieved trying to crawl from him, grabbing for the ground to pull myself away... I was too weak, starved and too heartbroken to look into his eyes again. They were so dark.

"You promised," I repeated my heart mere ashes. My fingers touched silver and with my last will, I grabbed for it. I swung it back hoping to hit anything, emptying my lungs at him.
Crawling to my feet, I felt my body hanging on threads, my mind scrambling. The blood rushed down to my hands as I clung to the sword.

Standing in front of me was the monster I saw so long ago. The one I feared. So dark and hollow, stripped of everything that made him human. The look in his eyes shared by his brothers surrounding us, their cheers and barbaric shouts to finish me off. I realized he had been toying with me, putting up a show and setting up for the big finale. This was really for all of them. The wolf with his pack. The darkest creature to ever emerge from the sea. He was it. There was no place for me with him.

I let it slip, the sword released from my hands the second his pierced through me. The cold silver cut through my skin. I stumbled into an embrace, Xanders arms embraced me, almost smothering me against his shoulder.

He was warm, breathing, and his heart was still beating. Not a god, not a man. A king of the dark.

"This is my retribution." I heard his voice rasp into my ear.

Then he pulled his blade from my stomach, letting me collapse on the ground.

Lilies. I had smelled lilies. This world was real and Xander really wasn't pretending.

This time I was dying before his blood stained feet.