Moonfall | Book Two

CHAPTER 30

Just over the horizon, the sun was beginning to set, filling the tiny cabin's living area with glorious hues of oranges and yellows, but all Michael could do was watch her.

Since his arrival nearly an hour prior, he had chosen to stand against the wall next to the doorframe. Ellette, who had been standing in front of the window, had turned her head to the side and offered him a simple greeting, but had not looked at him once. And as they both waited in silence for Zanna to arrive, she only continued to stare out the window, and he had done nothing else but stare at her.

It was not hard to do when the dark red cloak she was wearing looked eerily similar to the one she had worn when they first met—the same one he had burned not long ago. Had he not literally watched it erupt in flames and turn to ash, he would have believed it to be the same one.

But it was not.

So, much of that silent hour was spent reminiscing on the past. Regretting his choice of destroying the only physical thing he would have had left to remind him of her after she was gone. Wondering if death would be a better alternative than enduring a life of only memories that would undoubtedly fade in time.

Michael was pulled from his thoughts when Ellette finally turned from the window, her back no longer to him. He straightened up, anticipating she might approach him, but she did not move. And she would not look at him.

After a few seconds, she turned and walked over to the crackling fireplace. She knelt down in front of it and stared into the flames, which greeted her with a ferocious dance he was certain only she could appreciate. She whispered something he could not make out, and within seconds, the fire shrunk until it was no more than a glowing ember she extinguished with a single blow.

Ellette then rose to her feet and turned to walk to the other side of the room, stopping in front of the blank wall. She stood there for only a few moments while hushed whispers left her mouth, then turned to walk to a different part of the room. The cycle repeated for minutes until she made her way back to the window.

It was clear she had been saying goodbye. But the fact she still had not spoken to, nor looked at him was making his body tense. The few hours they had left in this world together he hoped would be spent with unguarded looks and loving sentiments, but it seemed that was not going to happen.

Was she not planning on offering him a goodbye?

Michael pushed himself from the wall and headed straight over to her, his approach deliberately slow. If she truly was avoiding him, his intention was to give her a chance to move to another spot in the room before he reached her. But Ellette remained in place, her back only stiffening slightly once he stopped right behind her.

"Are you not going to talk nor look at me all night?"

His question was answered with only silence.

"Will I not get a proper goodbye then? 'Tis not fair that every part of this room received one."

Silence.

"Ellette," he whispered, hoping the desperation in his voice would get through to her. But when the seconds turned into a minute without a response, he began to fear what her indifference could have meant.

Perhaps, she saw no purpose for a goodbye.

"Little fairy—"

"If I look at you, then I will cry. If I talk to you, then I will tell you that I am scared of leaving you. Scared of hurting you. Scared of living life without seeing you again. So, that is why I cannot look at you, nor talk to you. So, please, do not make me."

Because he had been so afraid their final moments of just the two of them would be filled with silence, it took him a moment to understand what her confession meant. But once he did, once he replayed her words over and over again, he knew there was only one correct way to acknowledge her feelings and respond.