Chapter Thirty Three ▪︎

Dedicated to and all my readers. You will get dedicated chapters in book 2.

Thank you, to all of you. So very much. For deciding to read my book, and especially for making it through to the end. I love you. Book 2 will not be under a different title after all.

he world lost colour.

Her eyes faded from gray to black, and back to steel.

He hadn't left the room. He was trapped in the same position, his body like a stone statue, his mind turning with self-destructive thoughts and memories of her, his one and only. His soul was ripped away the moment hers left her body with the feeble breath of air leaving her lungs.

Now all that was left of them were two bodies, one killed and the other tortured.

It was his fault. His magic killed her. His selfishness took her away. Greed took everything from him, from them.

Thanatos wasn't aware of anything surrounding him, but the pain that seemed to be suffocating the both of them. They were in hell, with their body scorching from the inside.

In times like these, Thanatos would be killing anything and everything he could while Alexander would be too consumed in his pain to notice.

But not this time.

Dahlia was... gone.

The fact seemed to shimmering on the surface of his mind, but not exactly sinking in.

He was numb, but he felt everything.

He closed her dead eyes with his thumb and kissed her on the lips one last time.

No sparks ignited upon contact. The only thing the kiss brought him was a sour memory of him hurting her. The kiss was what killed her in the first place.

It was the first action in a chain of reactions, with the final product being death.

He got up from his knees and took her lifeless body up in his arms. He entered her bedroom.

The cream walls looked dull. Her pink sheets were crumbled, a result of her restless dreaming. There was black poison on her pillowcase, resembling the stain he put on her heart.

Oh Goddess, how he wished to have never met her.

To live his life knowing she lived hers out would be the biggest blessing of his life.

But he just had to be a greedy bastard and take that away from her.

He laid her body down on the bed and covered her in the sheets.

She is just asleep, he thought. She needs to rest.

He pushed her hair out of her face. Her lips were blue and cracked. Her hair was dry and her skin pale. This was the third time he made her look this way.

Most of their time together was spent in hospital rooms and the horrid castle.

He didn't have a future anymore. Even before she was born, he hoped to meet her and to have a mate. He secretly hoped his happy ending would come, but he never hoped for this.

He had her, he got her, he found her, and he killed her.

What could he hope to find? War? Destruction? The end of the world?

He knew he would outlive any plague and any natural disaster that would have killed anyone else on the horrid planet.

Then he and his beast could enjoy solitude to the fullest.

The whole castle was empty.

Even though nobody truly knew The King had a mate, they now had their assumptions confirmed. Nothing could make a man grieve so deeply that the whole race felt the torment and ran from it. Infants cried, women clutched their hearts in ache, men shed tears, children stood in shock.

It was like vampire radio, the whole race knew what happened. As soon as they broke the connection, they started preparing for the worst.

Little did they know that all The King wanted was a funeral for his human beloved.

***

A tomb was built. It had beautiful carvings of dahlia flowers all around it.

A funeral was about to commence.

The dark aura the body emmited killed any and all flowers the people brought with them to honor The dead Queen.

The King stood clothed in a dark coat and a black hood underneath to hide his identity.

He listened to their conversations.

"Do you think he's here?" A woman asked.

"Of course not, we'd all be dead if he was." The man hushed her and pulled her closer to his chest.

Others mostly talked about the weather.

It was surprisingly sunny day, but Alex coldn't see the yellow sun, the blue sky or the green grass.

The one and only thing he saw was his dead mate. Her limp body and blue skin.

He moved into the tomb, where nobody else dared enter.

Nobody payed much attention to him because of his spells.

He went to the grave and moved the wooden lid. He purposefully made the lid lightweight in case she woke up and needed to exit, or so he hoped.

He was greeted with a sad smile playing on her face. Even in death, she was taunting him.

He carressed her sunken in cheeks.

Cold.

His gaze moved to the healed wound on her neck. Karma healed her wounds after the process was done, but killed her soul.

He held her stiff palm in his own.

He imagined a pulse under her skin, a warmth spreading through her to him, a simple squeeze from her side to alert him of her awakening.

But it was all a dream, a memory even.

With his empty heart and heavy mind, he dropped her hand and left a pendant in it as he closed the lid.

The pendant was so he could always be with her. It was a part of his ring cut into a smaller gem, equal to the one he now had on his finger.

It provided a soft red glow so that she was never left alone in the darkness.

He exited the tomb and the mass of bodies moved to make a path for him.

His spells failed to conceal his grief, so everyone could recognize who he was. Nobody spoke a word. Nobody felt fear now that they knew he was truly broken. They all dropped to their knees in respect, in acknowledgement of his pain and suffering.

He continued walking with his head held low.

Nobody could ease his pain but her.

She was his morphine, but she was also the blade that cut him.

***

"All of a sudden

We loved and got lost in the moment

All of a sudden

She's gone in the flash of a light

I never was looking,

I'll be looking for the rest of my life."

"We took a Polaroid

Captured the look in your eyes

It's only a matter of time

Before it starts fading."

- Polaroid, Jonas Blue