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"Nia, please live," he pleaded through gritted teeth, running across the room tearing fabric from the curtains into strips.
She was entirely still on the mattress. Without meaning to, tears slipped down his face. He couldn't have another death on his hands. No matter whose it was. He thought of the man in the snow, but he'd known him for what? Five hours? He hadn't even had a chance to save him. He hadn't even known his name. But Thomas. But Nia.
He knelt next to her pulling off her tunic, and wrapped the strip tightly around the wound.
"Please. Please. Please," he chanted.
"I can't. Please, you have to live. Just breathe."
She'd lost too much blood.
"Just breathe. Wake up. Please. I'm begging you. I can't have someone else die on me. "
There was nothing else to do, except beg and pray.
He bent over her. Her chest was quiet. His tears fell on her skin, trailing on it.
"I can't have someone else die on me," he repeated, now a whisper of breath against her. And then without meaning to, even lower so that it was an echo of words that had never been spoken, "I can't have you die on me." Because he'd started leaning on her more and more, ever since that night on that ship, when he'd broken and spilled.
What had she said then?
I'm not your answer and you aren't my question.
It was true. It was still true. But still, without meaning to, without wanting to, he'd started to cheat glances at her, his heart beat faster when he saw her, his thoughts died when she told stories, he became so enraptured in her that he'd forgotten about himself. It was disgusting. How he couldn't stop thinking of her. Vile. Filthy. Sinful. He'd wished she'd leave, and he'd never see her again. But now, now that she was leaving. He wanted to do everything he could to make her stay.
"What if I jus-?" he said, rising up, intertwining his fingers and placing them above her heart, he pumped, reciting a poem to himself, one Luna used to sing to him at night.
"And I lie so composedly, Now, in my bed."
Pump. Silence.
"Knowing her love, That you fancy me dead"
"And I rest so contentedly, Now, in her bed, With her love at my breast"
Pump. Silence.
"That you fancy me dead, That you shudder to look at me, Thinking me dead."
"My star, But my heart it is brighter"
Pump. Silence. For my star, my star, my star.
"Than all of the many"
"Stars in the sky,"
Pump. Silence. His arms ached.
Luna would say, "You are my star, Acelius." And he'd shyly say, "Gratium."
"For it sparkles with light"
Pump. Silence. More tears fell, and he mourned with the sky outside.
"It glows faint with the light"
"Of the love for my star"
Pump. Beat.
"With the thought of the light"
Pump. Beat.
"Of the brilliance of my love"
Pump. Beat.
He took a breath and lay down next to her.
"Keep me from harm,
To the ethereal Stealers,
To shield me from harm.
And may they shield you from harm.
Until I may once more.
May you rest in their arms.
Until I can hold you once more.
And lingering chaos shall fade.
And there you may rest
Forever a star, forever my best."
He closed his eyes, and drew an arm over her torso.
Silence settled in. A fire warming the room in the hearth. Rain fell outside, pulling the canvas of night across with it. He couldn't see the stars.
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Author's Note: this chapter has chips of my soul; please handle with care.
love,
cora. ✮
YOU ARE READING
unraveled
Fantezie"I've seen rats with better attention spans than you," she said onto his face. And then the boy was there pulling her onto her feet and off of him. "But have you seen them with such beautiful faces?" he asked, standing up, brushing off th...
