Elven Legacy

Chapter 132

Jaden

So strange to see her like this. Rigid, spectral, lifeless. The poems, the plays and the songs, they all told the same beautiful lie, that there was grace and meaning in death. But Jaden had looked death in the eye enough times to know this was not true. There was only the stillness of an unfulfilled future, an interrupted story, an army of untold regrets, hanging heavy in the air.

He'd been to war before, he already knew all this. And yet from time to time, it would lash at him all over again, especially when it happened to a friend. It consumed him now, this crestfallen ache, rising higher and growing stronger than his physical pain, which paled in comparison and seemed unimportant and selfish. He only wished to keep holding Noah's hand. Truthfully it wasn't much, it wasn't nearly enough, but it was the only thing he could do.

So when someone grasped his left shoulder to attract his attention, irritation flared up inside Jaden. He leaned himself up on his elbow and twisted around, wincing as angry pain throbbed across his lower stomach where he'd been slashed by a dark mage earlier. He looked up, through the pain, to discover strange blue-black eyes staring down at him.

His breath hitched in his throat. The handsome, concerned face, the copper-red hair, the broad shoulders, all so achingly familiar. And yet Jaden harbored a reluctance to recognize him, to acknowledge him. It was simply too abrupt, too alien, and far too terrifying.

Be that as it may, he was Matt, unequivocally.

As Jaden gazed in blue eyes disturbingly flecked in black, his chest snared, suffocating with the overflow of too much happening at once. Had Tessa truly done this? Only to escape atop her phoenix, leaving this world behind? Why wouldn't she stay and take the credit for such an incredible feat? Why wouldn't she . . . explain?

Don't I deserve that much, sister?

"There's a woman who wants to talk to you," Matt said, still holding his shoulder. "I think she's their leader."

Empress Imxi Chadonia.

Jaden flinched. He doubted he could handle much more. After all, Imxi was the woman behind all this.

No, not quite, that had been Kili . . . He frowned, letting his gaze drop away from Matt's concerned stare. Kili had been working with the empress, she'd set all this in motion. But . . . why? His heart clenched as his thoughts scoured every corner of his mind to remember all their conversations. Could I have known? Could I have talked her out of it somehow? All he saw now was the melancholy, ever dominating her delicate face, and her elegant eyes the color of the night sky.

He'd never speak with her again now. He'd never know. Forever misunderstood.

Was it because the world is a better one without demons? You wished to be our salvation? To sacrifice yourself?

Fresh tears prickled his eyes. Except, Kili, the world was a better one with you in it, too. You just couldn't see that. I wish I'd been able to tell you.

Would it have made a difference?

"Jaden," Matt said softly, with slight pressure on his shoulder.

Before letting go of Noah's hand, Jaden spared him a glance. He appeared to be still in shock, his pulse running fast in the vein of his throat, his normally golden skin now a faint, sickly beige, and he kept looking from Kili's body to everywhere around him, his eyes never quite focusing, as if trying to get his bearings in a reality that no longer made sense. The collar of his shirt was torn open and its frayed edges flitted in the wind, revealing the opal-like stone nestled in the center of his chest.