When you like music when you’re studying, attempt “I Need You Right here” by Plumb (weepy-warning!) It is what I listened to whereas penning this chapter.

*****

ELRETH

With out thought, Elreth turned her again on the nonetheless babbling healers and guards and ran out of the market. The second her toes hit the paths, she shifted, tearing in the direction of the royal meadow first, however discovering it empty and no scent of Aaryn, turning on still-running toes, she ran for the portal.

Her beast stored her from being too near her personal thoughts.

She turned each nook ears perked and nostrils flared for any sound or scent of Aaryn. Her coronary heart sank with each tempo nearer she obtained to the portal clearing with out contemporary scent of him. Not even from the evening earlier than as a result of he’d been flown.

That was, till she entered the clearing and instantly his odor got here alive—but it surely was chilly.

She shifted as she approached the middle of the clearing to seek out two fists of guards, all shaken, however standing their floor. They’d evacuated the cave throughout the earthquake, however they have been ecstatic to see her.

She decided rapidly that the wind hadn’t whipped amongst them. They’d solely fled the trembling earth. There have been no betrayers right here, she realized with aid.

They have been fast to inform her {that a} courageous soul amongst them had simply entered the cave to see if the portal remained.

She stood there, surrounded by guards, holding her breath, ready for information.

And when footsteps sounded, her coronary heart rose—solely to plummet once more when it was the stumbling, joyous steps of the guard pounding again in the direction of them.

“It is closed! It is closed! There’s nothing there! the tunnel caved in and I am unable to scent it! It is gone! The portal is gone!”

The guards shrieked and cheered, leaping in circles, holding one another and Elreth.

However at the same time as she celebrated with them, tears ran down her cheeks for her dad and mom, and for Gahrye and Kalle.

They’d carried out it. They’d given their lives. They usually’d saved everybody else.

Grief hit her like a rock to the stomach.

She stopped leaping and stepped out of the circle to smile via her tears on the guards.

Her parents… Her great dad and mom. How would she ever—

She wanted Aaryn.

Instantly she could not breathe. Because the guards settled sufficient to embrace and clap one another on the again, even hugging Elreth, she tried to blow out a shaking breath.

“Did anybody see Aaryn?” she requested quietly. “Did he… return?”

All of them went silent, their faces dragged from vibrant pleasure, to horror, to grief.

With a look on the others, the Lieutenant stepped ahead, placing himself between her and the remainder of them. “I am so sorry, Elreth. We weren’t considering.”

Elreth swallowed and nodded. “It is superb, I simply wondered… did you see him? In any respect?”

The Lieutenant shook his head slowly. “I am so sorry,” he whispered.

Elreth blinked, then nodded once more. “It is superb,” she mentioned stupidly. None of them believed her, in fact. As a result of it wasn’t in any respect.

However when the Lieutenant opened his mouth to attempt to console her, she shook her head. “You don’t have anything left to protect now,” she mentioned, overly brightly. “We received! Thanks. Thanks for being right here and making this attainable. Thanks in your belief and… and honor. Go dwelling. All of you.” She raised her voice and turned in the direction of the bushes the place she knew patrols would nonetheless be circling. “Go dwelling! Greet your households! Rejoice! Put together to assist the others who guarded the north. However for today… rejoice. We’re another step in the direction of victory!”

The guards cheered—roars and calls rising to echo via the bushes. However she hurried them on. Solely the Lieutenant did not shift instantly and start to run at her urging.

He took one step, then turned again to her. “Elreth… I—”

“Go,” she whispered. “Please.”

His face crumpled, however he nodded. “The Creator bless you for all you’ve got given,” he whispered, then turned and shifted, galloping out of the clearing.

Elreth stood there within the grass, ready. There have been footsteps within the forest, however all of them moved away, in the direction of the Tree Metropolis.

So she compelled herself to face, trembling, barely respiratory, till she could not hear anything. Till she was sure she was alone.

Then she turned on weak knees and walked in the direction of the cave.

She stumbled however pushed on, a imprecise alarm that the cave would possibly collapse ringing in her head, however she brushed it away.

She walked, dry-eyed and silent to the doorway of the tunnel till she was met by a wall of boulders and stone mud.

She stood, frowning at it, her breath coming quicker, shallower, her head spinning. However she pushed the panic away and reached for the primary of the boulders, grunting and roaring as she did every part in her energy to shift it, to tug it apart, to roll it out. She fought, clawed, even shifted into her beast and tried to place her shoulder to it. However it could not budge.

Even the gaps between large stones revealed nothing however extra boulders and dust.

And as she labored and fought and struggled, sucking in towards the trouble, it lastly occurred to her that the guards had been proper.

The odor was gone.

The portal was gone.

There was now not a traverse to the human world right here.

She was alone.

She felt the thought coming and braced, shaking her head, unwilling to listen to it, however nonetheless, it got here.

Aaryn hadn’t made it.

He’d run to avoid wasting Gahrye and Kalle and her and everybody else. He’d given his personal life up, his personal security. And he’d carried out it. He’d received.

They’d received.

And he was gone.

With a cry, Elreth stumbled again, away from the boulders, a wierd wail in her throat. Her shoulders slammed into the rock wall on the alternative facet of the cave and he or she got here up brief, winded, eyes broad, staring.

Then she slid down the wall, to stoop on the ground, her muscle tissues water.

The grief, when it hit, slammed into her throat first, closing it in a fist that squeezed all air from her lungs. Nevertheless it rapidly dropped.

​ She gagged, then turned as she retched and misplaced her abdomen.

Waves and waves of grief and concern, purged, splashing to the stone ground, till she was frozen, unable to breathe, clawing on the ground as her physique continued to attempt to push away the reality, to evict it from her physique.

Assist me.

She coughed, nearly heaved once more, however sucked in a roaring breath, then one other.

The scent of her personal vomit, her personal tears, the dust, the stone… Aaryn. He’d been right here. Simply hours earlier.

She sucked in once more however solely discovered the odor of loss. Of grief.

Assist me.

She crawled ahead, unusual noises and cries in her throat, arms shaking, her physique nonetheless twitching as if it’d heave once more.

She crawled as a result of her energy was gone. And when she made it to the clearing she mounted her eyes on the spot the place they’d emerged collectively from the forest once they’d discovered this place by chance throughout their honeymoon. Locked her eyes on the hole between these two bushes the place she knew, with none doubt, that he had stepped foot.

And when she reached it, she slumped to the dust, burying her nostril in it, looking for his scent, although it had been far too lengthy. So she clawed her arms into it, pulling it to her chest, holding it, and sobbing her tears into it.

He was gone. Aaryn was gone.

Her True Coronary heart’s name was silent.