Elysian House: The Bitten Elixir [Remake] (1)

Chapter 29: The Knight

Chapter 29: The Knight

"Elpis Zoe!" 

Her body, which was faced away from me, looking upwards into the night sky. Her body, broken and battered, with the tendrils of Darkness wrapping around her like a second skin. Finally, it's come down to this. After months of searching, of planning, I've finally found you. Her eyes have turned from this golden glow, to a darkened orange. Red veins are visible in the whites of her eyes. The shadows on her face make her look deathly thin. 

Her hair, which once held a beautiful, healthy strength now reduced to thin strands clinging to the top of her head. She wasn't her. Not my queen. 

"It's over, Rowan," Elpis Zoe called down to me, and the black hole in the sky only expanded in size. "I'm done fighting." 

"Elpis Zoe, you cannot think this is right," I take a step forward, away from Sage. Away from Styx. "I've searched for too long, Elpis Zoe. Please, come back into the light. Come back to us." 

She had this tragic look on her face. As if the old her was begging to be released, like she was hidden in her eyes, crying, calling. But she was trapped. The Darkness clinging to her, it kept her held in. A single tear streaks down her cheek. "I can't! It holds no place for me anymore." 

"Don't do this, Elpis Zoe. I know you can hear me. I know you're listening, the Elpis Zoe that wouldn't have hurt a human. She didn't like them, sure, but she would have never let harm come to them. Not like this one is." 

An inner struggle went through her facial features. Her muscles tense up. Her already tattered clothes whip in the wind. She looked frozen, like the clothes let her freeze in the snow. She shakes her head at me, like she was trying desperately to convince me to leave her be. "Rowan, I can't! God... do I wish I could, but I can't." 

"Tell me what you can't do, Elpis Zoe. And I assure you I will find the solution."

More tears trek down her sunken cheeks. Cheeks that looked so pale, so thin. "There is no solution, Rowan! The Light has turned its back on me. Nothing awaits me in heaven, only hell. You and I both know of the sins I've committed."

"No! That wasn't you! I refuse!" I step forward into the snow, reaching my hand out to her. "Come back to me, please! Come home." 

She sobs, shoulders shaking with every sob that wracks her body. "Rowan..." she whispers, and if not for my Vampiric abilities, I wouldn't have heard it. She turns back to the large hole in the sky, blocking the stars from above. "I am so sorry." And then the Darkness descended.

---

For the second time in the last few weeks, I was back in the airport. This time, with a much bigger group than the last. But with Winter here, we got in much quicker and in a much less inhabited plane. The lady that gives us our tickets, has odd black eyes. Judging by the pale skin, I'd assume she was a Vampire like us. 

We board the plane not long after and Maya comes to sit next to me. Bradley takes the outer seat next to her. 

"Are you okay?" Bradley asks me, leaning on his arm rest. 

"Yeah, just... nervous," nervous was putting it mildly. It felt like I've spent a century avoiding this confrontation. Avoiding this moment, to find her again. 

This time, without the Light on my side, this time, when I am just an infant in this world of Vampires. As soon as we take flight, I realized that this truly was happening. 

"I suggest you relax," Winter says from the front of the plane. "I had this plane imported, specifically for us. So I suggest you use it well."

Bradley chuckles. "Damn. A whole plane?"