The Dragons' Crystal

Chapter Thirty-Five ~ Darius

"Odelle!"

There was nothing I could do now. It was over. She had done it. Odelle had brought down my father. Ever since I left my homeland, I had dreamed of the day I would bring my father down and restore balance to our kind. I dreamed of the day I would stand above his body and finally take the breath I would have held in our entire fight, still wielding the crystal upon my chest. In all the scenarios I had imagined, never before had I thought about the possibility of someone else bringing him down while I helped. 

I watched as the bright colors faded from her body, showing me that Allira had either left or disappeared back into her heart. In a world much slower than the current one, I transformed back to be closer to her size, stumbling forward in an effort to catch her while her knees buckled and sent her crashing to the ground. I fell to the ground beside her, quick to pull her upper half onto my lap. The witch had mentioned that there was a chance Odelle would survive. Even if the chances were slim, I would ensure we gave it the best we had. I kept one hand on her head, wiping beads of sweat and tears away from her face while my other hand delicately rested fingers upon her neck. I held my own breath as I focused on my fingers, waiting for any sign she had a heartbeat. Each second passed was another second hope faded. Her body was losing heat, further cementing the fact that Odelle was gone. She had died for a cause that was never hers to begin with. 

"Odelle!" I yelled again, unable to contain my tears that returned. Father was dead, but at what cost? My fear all along had happened. I had tried to protect Odelle from this fate, but my efforts hardly mattered. If I had just kept her at camp underneath my watch I would have had more time with her. I would have had more time to protect her from all this; from her demise. I could have protected her from father. 

Was this what it was like to be a king? The title had been bestowed to me yet I felt only worse than I had before. I had lost my mother, my siblings, the trust of my people, my father, and now a woman I had begun to love. Was a king meant to lose all those that mattered to him?

I cradled her in my lap, pulling her face closer to my chest. I lowered my head to rest down upon hers. My first order as king would be to have this room completely destroyed. I would turn it into a memorial for my family and for Odelle. This room was now haunted by the ghosts of the past. I could hear my family crying out, as clear as I had that day. I could hear my mother screaming, begging my father to let my siblings be. He didn't listen; he wouldn't. He refused. He had slaughtered them like pigs, almost as if he forgot that he had once loved them. I had been a child then, hardly able to do anything about the incident other than cry about the loss and blindly follow him. Now here I was, many years later, as a grown man. I was just as helpless as I was before.

I would still have my friends and those at the camp. They would forever be my family. Even if I felt like it, I wasn't alone. A glance back down at Odelle's opened and empty eyes broke my heart a little further. I didn't care that I still had them. I wanted her. I wanted Odelle to still be alive and with me. 

We couldn't stay here for long.  It would be only a matter of time before they realized what had happened. Years before, it had been frightened guards peering through the cracks as they caught glimpses of my family falling while I cowered in the corner. It felt like nothing had changed. There was nothing different from that moment. 

"Sir?" One of the guards called into the room, eyes slightly widening at the mess inside. Father still lay dead in the middle of the room while I sat with Odelle's body in my arms. It wouldn't have been the most pleasant sight. "What...?"

I swallowed the emotions as best I could. "King Caliban is dead." Even seeing his body in front of me and stating it out loud sounded make believe. It still felt like a dream.