Chapter 133 Chapter 133: Funeral Flowers on the Beach

Chapter 133 Chapter 133: Funeral Flowers on the Beach
Kalev’s POV

Senna’s words hit me hard. She sat on the sand and drew her knees into her chest. Tears fell from her eyes. She was inconsolable.

I’d shifted back as soon as the wave took the wolf. But now Orrin howled inside of me.

“I want to go too,” he said. “Let me go too.”

He wanted to join Verity in the ocean. Knowing that Verity was dead, he didn’t want to live now either. But I couldn’t let him do that. He would take me down with him. There was no way for me to let Orrin go without killing myself too.

And Senna was still alive. I had to stay with her. She needed me now more than ever, now that she didn’t have Verity anymore.

“Please,” Orrin begged me. I felt his desire to die. It pulsed through me.

I pushed him back.

Orrin howled. He pushed against me. He was a ball of pure emotion. There is no pain greater than a wolf losing his mate. His pain washed over me. It almost crippled me. He relented and buried his head with his paws. I felt him drift away from me. He was retreating into his own sadness.

Senna was in her own pain. Losing her wolf broke her heart. I couldn’t even begin to understand the enormity of it. It was hard to believe that Senna no longer had a wolf. She was an Empty Shell now. The pain of this day and losing Verity would haunt her forever. I hated that. I didn’t want Senna to hurt. I wished there was something I could do to take away her pain.

“What’s happening?” Junie asked softly. She had a puzzled look on her face. “What does she mean Verity is gone?”

Isolde stepped forward and placed her hand on Junie’s shoulder.

“Verity and Kalen’s wolf…”

“Kenna,” Kalen cut in.

“Kenna,” Isolde nodded. “Verity and Kenna’s wolf switched places so Viktor couldn’t use Verity against us to control the island. Verity said she was going to kill Kenna. So that Viktor would die. But I think, at the very last moment, Verity switched back with Kenna. Is that right?”

Senna exhaled and nodded.

“So the waves took Verity?” Junie whispered.

“Yes,” Isolde said. “Verity called the waves to come and take her.”

“Verity sacrificed herself?” Junie asked. Tears brimmed in her eyes. Her lips quivered.

“She did,” Isolde said. “Verity was a very brave wolf.”

Just then, vines appeared all along the beach. They wove their way through the sand. And right before out eyes, yellow flowers bloomed from the vines. Within minutes, the entire beach was covered in yellow flowers. Their scent was sweeter, sweeter than the smell of smoke from the fire.

“The funeral flowers,” Junie said. “They weren’t for Senna. They were for Verity. The island knew that Verity would die. It was trying to tell us.”

Senna gasped. Then she slowly stood up. She gazed at the magnificent display of yellow flowers. She went over and plucked one from the vine.

“The island did this in the cave,” I told her. Senna twirled the flower through her fingers. “Kalen explained that these are the Sector 6 funeral flowers. And that you plant them on the mountainside when someone dies.”

Senna nodded. “That’s the tradition, yes.”

“We thought at the time that you were dying. But I think Junie’s right. I think the island knew ahead of time what Verity was going to do. Even if she didn’t know it yet herself.”

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Senna asked. She turned her head to me. Her face was streaked with wet tears.

“They are.”

Everyone came and stood behind us. We all took a moment to admire the beautiful flowers.

“What about Thor?” Senna asked. I shook my head.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “He didn’t make it. He wasn’t…he couldn’t come back, Senna. He was too far gone. Isolde shot him with her bow.”

Isolde furrowed her brows. She was about to correct me but I shot her a look that silenced her. Senna was already in enough pain. She didn’t need to know that we’d left Thor to bleed out, alone. It didn’t really matter anyway. Thor had been a monster at that point.

“Are these all the sector borns?” Senna asked, turning to the group.

“Yes,” one of them said, stepping forward. “We all found each other and formed an alliance on the first day. We lost some people.” He paused.

“I wish we could have saved them all,” Senna said. “We should have saved them all.”

“We did our best, Senna,” I told her softly.

“This is majority of the sector borns who came to the island,” the man continued. “Most of us survived. None of the nobles did. There’s something in that, isn’t there?”

“Where have you been this whole time?” Korrigan asked.

“We knew where you were, behind the waterfall. Someone saw you go in. We knew you would try to find us. So we waited in the forest.”

“And then they joined us,” Korrigan said. “We all fought together.”

The man who had been speaking smiled weakly at Korrigan.

Senna crossed her arms over her chest. The wind blew her hair across her face. Behind us, the fire crackled. The island would be gone now soon, burnt to ashes. I took enormous satisfaction in that.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Senna whispered. She held the yellow flower in her hand.

Then her face contorted. Her eyes flashed with anger.

“This is all because of the capital,” she said, turning around to face us. She clenched her hands into fists. “They did this.”

“We killed all the nobles,” Isolde said.

Senna shook her head. “That’s not enough,” she replied. Then she looked up at the sky. She pointed at it and shook her finger.

“You,” she said, speaking to sky. “It’s time for you to end this.”

I assumed she was speaking to the capital, to the nobles.

I was wrong.

Senna wasn’t talking to the capital. She was talking to the sectors.