Life, Death, and Time - A Books Of Beginning Collection

Oneshot: A Scream to Shake the World

Background: Right after the events of the Black Reckoning.

Content: Intense Angst regarding Rafe's death and what happens after. Slight Kate x Rafe.

Rafe knew it was time to go. But he didn't want to. He knew that this was his fate, yet he raged internally against it, hating the thought of his death with a passion.

He didn't want to leave everyone else to clean up the mess he had made. Though when he died he would be killing the reckoning, chronicle, and atlas, and setting the world right, it almost didn't seem like enough after all the people he had hurt, all the damage he had caused. He wished he had time to fix things, to properly make amends.

But the real reason Rafe was terrified of dying was because it meant leaving Kate.

She was asleep at the moment, lying beside him, shadows flitting across her face, which was apprehensive, even while she dreamed. Her dark blonde hair fell across the pillow, her head propped up slightly on one of her arms. Rafe watched her, taking in the sight of her so he could ensure that he would never forget it, even when he was in the grave.

He wished he could have a life with her. If it were up to him, if he could rewrite destiny to give him the happy ending he yearned for, he would be able to lay down beside her and sleep knowing he would wake up the next morning. He could work to fix things, he could find a second chance. He and Kate could build a life together, they could have years of sunsets and dancing and love ahead of them.

But those beautiful dreams were just that, dreams. Rafe could not rewrite destiny, not without breaking the world apart. And he had done that enough already.

He tried to tell himself she would be ok, they would a be ok. Kate had her siblings, their friends and family, to help her through any grief she would feel. She could still live. She had promised him she would. But all his internal reassurance didn't make this any easier.

Rafe knew it was time, and there was no delaying his fate any longer. He took one last look at the love of his life, the kindest, bravest girl he had ever known, who had believed in him and saved his soul. Then he leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.

"I love you," Rafe whispered to Kate, knowing those three words would be the last to ever leave  his lips. He had wanted to make them sincere as possible, and there was nothing more true or powerful then his love for her.

Finally, Rafe called on the magic of the books of beginning. He called on the reckoning to do the dark deed of ending his life, he pushed down the chronicle so it didn't get in the way of his fate, and he simply kept the magic of the atlas near as a comfort, for that had been the same magic Kate had once been keeper of. Then, Rafe laid down beside his love and closed his emerald green eyes for the last time.

............

Rafe was falling, falling into darkness, his head throbbing with a splitting pain. He could feel the Books being torn from his soul and ripped apart, he could feel his own soul being cast away and into the land of the dead, and it all hurt so much. 

He hit the ground somewhere, and he heard shouting. There were people yelling at him in anger and utter hate, calling for his destruction. Of course, that couldn't be fulfilled because he was already dead, which just enraged them more.

He knew who they were. It was everyone he had harmed when he was the Dire Magnus or even before. They were taking their revenge, the revenge they deserved. This was the hell Rafe had been sentenced to, and he did not blame anyone in the mob screaming at him one bit. 

Then he felt a strong grip around his arm, and suddenly he was being hauled to his feet and dragged away, his head still throbbing with pain that blinded him to almost everything else. He couldn't even find it within himself to look up and see who was helping him along.