Nocturne

☾ Chapter Twenty-Seven ~ Nocturne ☽

She waited. She waited by Aurora's side for hours, days, waited for her to wake up. Waited for her to smile, to laugh, to spring to her feet with a joke already poised on her lips. "Aww, have you really been waiting for me so long?" she'd ask, poking Nocturne with a playful smirk. "C'mon then! Time to get to work!"

But she never woke up.

When Aurora had fallen, everything had stopped. Even King Arun was too shocked to move as they all took in the scene. The golden-robed body bleeding out on the ground.

Nocturne had screamed, doubling over, her hands clutched to her chest where Aurora had been hit. Asa leapt forward to Nocturne's side. "Nocturne?"

Nocturne stumbled forwards. "Aurora..." she mumbled.

Asa nodded, fear and pain in her eyes. "Help!" she cried to the horrified crowd as she knelt by Aurora's bleeding body. She'd torn up her clothes to try and staunch the bleeding.

A healer in the crowd had rushed forward to help. They carried Aurora offstage with the help of Asa, Aelius, and a couple of citizens. Nocturne stumbled after them, in shock and in pain.

She wasn't injured, but she felt a shadow of the wound as if it were her own. Her memory had blank spots in it.

The next thing she remembered was sitting by Aurora's side, clasping her hand tightly. The healer who'd helped them before as well as some of the Royal Healers were fussing over Aurora, who lay still on the floor, eyes closed and face paler than Nocturne had ever seen it.

The healer approached with a white hot knife that they pressed against the girl's skin in quick bursts. Aurora twitched, and Nocturne felt the world going black.

When she woke up, she fought her way back to Aurora's bedside.

"Aurora...please..."

Tears dripped down her cheeks and she buried her face in the cloth covering Aurora's damaged chest.

She didn't know how long she waited.

Days, maybe.

She didn't remember eating or drinking or leaving Aurora's bedside at all, but she knew she must have, for she felt no need for any ordinary bodily necessities.

Occasionally someone came by.

Asa or the healer, usually, but Aelius stopped by once or twice, and once, an unfamiliar girl, a little older than Nocturne herself, who's face was as drawn and haggard as Nocturne's. She introduced herself as Emmie.

Before she'd left, Emmie had turned to Nocturne, twisting a strand of brown hair nervously between her fingers. "Lady Nocturne... if.. if things turn out okay, would you... consider letting my friend and I join you? In your Artemis?"

Nocturne was too worn down to respond quickly or emotionally, but her answer was just as it would have been otherwise. "Of course. We're not... I don't know what will happen, but... if we do make it out, somehow... We aren't going to force anyone's choices."

Emmie nodded, and smiled slightly, though she quickly hid it. "Thank you. I... I hope she'll be okay."

Nocturne turned back to Aurora, and slowly bent to kiss her on the forehead. "So do I, Emmie... So do I."

Nocturne's eyes were closed when Aurora opened hers.

"Nocturne?" came the voice, delicate and beautiful as an old butterfly's wings.

Nocturne looked up, heart filling with hope. "Yes?" she responded, her voice cracking with pain. "Aurora?" Is it really you? Are you okay?

"W-what happened?"

Nocturne's eye filled with tears.

"You... saved Prince Aelius."

"Did... they... kill...?"

Nocturne hadn't thought her heart could break any further, but now it did, shattering into dust that could be blown away by the slightest breeze.

"No. Everyone's okay now. Thanks to you."

Aurora smiled, weak and faint, but as angelic as it had ever been.

"...Good..."

Nocturne tried not to cry. Please, Luna, if you have ever heard me, save her. Please, save us.

Aurora blinked slowly, dizzily, gazing up at Nocturne in a way that made her doubt if she was really seeing her.

Aurora took a deep breath. "Kiss me," she choked out.

Nocturne's eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. Aurora must be hallucinating. There was no way- Nocturne closed her eyes.

Her heart was beating faster now despite herself.

She fought the tears leaking from her eyes, and leaned down to kiss her crush, her friend, her beautiful angel, dying now, infection and blood loss taking their tolls.

"I love you," she whispered, a final truth.

In the storybooks, true love's kiss always saved the princess. Love was always the final revelation, the last key that would save the day just when it seemed all was lost.

A tear slid down Nocturne's cheek as Aurora's eyes fluttered shut again.

Nocturne felt the world slipping away from her as Aurora's pulse slowed. She fell forwards, unable to support her own dying body.

Their hearts beat in unison one last time.

"NO!" she screamed, eyes flying wide. She would not let Aurora die! They would go forward, together, in this world, no other!

Aurora is MINE to protect. MINE to love. Not Death's to take!

Not yet.

Purple darkness glowed from her eyes and wreathed her body. It flowed down from her through to Aurora.

The violet mist stirred and flowed, reaching deep into Aurora and bringing from it a vibrant yellow light, weak and tentative at first, but slowly growing as the darkness fed it.

Crowned in yellow, Aurora breathed, a shuddering, grasping gasp. Nocturne exhaled in the same moment, releasing a deep and tired sigh.

Their eyes met, the colours faded, and they fell asleep, each protected by the other's embrace.