Blessed By The Moon

Chapter 62

Echo's POV : 

He's so still.

Why is he so still?

That's the first thing my mind refuses to understand, the way Storm's chest doesn't rise beneath my hands, the way his weight is wrong, heavy and empty all at once. I'm holding him like if I just grip tighter, if I press myself hard enough against him, I can force life back into him through sheer will.

"Storm," I whisper.

Nothing.

"I love you.'

I don't know when I started crying. I only know my face is wet, my throat burns, and my heart feels like it's being torn open slowly, deliberately, by something that enjoys watching me break.

"No," I choke. "No, no, no- please- I love you, come back to me, please, please come back to me. "

I press my forehead to his, shaking. His skin is already cooling. That realization hits harder than any blow ever could.

I scream.

It rips out of me raw and ugly, a sound that doesn't belong to words. The woods answer back with silence. The wolves are gone. The moon hangs high and indifferent, pale and distant, like she didn't just watch my world end.

Rage ignites through my grief, violent, and blinding.

I lift my head, silver fury roaring through my veins. I can still feel it, the echo of the power she gave me. I reach for it, clawing inside myself, summoning everything- 

"Come back," I snarl. "Come back so I can burn them all."

Nothing answers.

The power is gone like it was never there at all.

I sob, the sound collapsing out of me as I curl over Storm's body, my arms wrapping around him like I can shield him from death after the fact. My tears soak into his shirt, my face pressed against his chest where his heart should be beating.

He did this for me.

He stood in front of fate and said take me instead.

"I didn't ask you to," I whisper brokenly. "I would've chosen you. I would've always chosen you."

My voice cracks as I speak into the silence, into him, into the universe that stole him anyway.

My hands fist in his shirt.

"I love you," I say, the words shredding me from the inside out. 

I lift my face to the sky, tears streaking down my cheeks, rage and grief twisting together until I can barely breathe.

"Moon!" I scream. "You took him- now answer me!"

Nothing.

I bow my head again, resting it against Storm's shoulder, my voice dropping to something soft and ruined.

"Come back," I cry

My arms tighten around him, desperate, futile.

"I would've burned the world for you too," I whisper. "I would've been the monster. I still would."

My tears fall freely now, unchecked, my body shaking as the pain settles deep and permanent.

The Moon doesn't answer.

Storm doesn't wake.

And the love of my life lies dead in my arms because love, real love, always pays the highest price.