Her feet hit the ground with painful speed, as she ran; staggered and swaying, her eyes foggy with tears that she angrily blinked away continuously. Her joints were aching, her muscles straining too from all the pressure and the speed that she was forcing herself to move at. Her heart was hammering so loudly in her chest, it felt like it would combust; the sound so loud in her ears. She was running out of breath but she wouldn’t stop.
She couldn’t.
There was only one solution and she was going to get that solution. Her tattoo was fading, she was changing and Eli’s time was running out.
When she looked up, the moon was peeking into the surface.
“Ah!” she grunted with a hoarse voice, tears streaming down her face. She glanced back and pushed forward but she fell.
She rose up, and tried to run again, but her legs buckled beneath her and she fell.
No! By Ignas, NO!
She forced herself to stand, resting against a tree.
The tears were starting to well up in her eyes again.
She was so close, if only she could run a little longer.
“Alaris,” She whispered breathlessly. If he was around here, waiting as he had promised, then he would hear her and he would come for her… for one last time.
Just this last time.
He would come.
Her belief in him was so strong that she prepared herself.
She quickly yanked away the piece of cloth Eli had wrapped around her injured hand and slammed it on the tree she was resting against, the force sending wrecking pain to her brain and making blood ooze out of the cut. She bit her bottom lip to stop herself from yelling out in pain.
She tossed the last ball of herb in her mouth, the bitter taste consuming her tongue. The power she was summoning was draining her and like a dreadful reminder, Xinora’s voice consumed her mind, her presence becoming more powerful as all of Belladonna's hair was now glowing, but one of her eyes remained the same - still that blue color; the only thing keeping her from losing to Xinora was the reason she had come here.
The permanent solution.
“Ala—”
WHOOSH!
Those leathery wings.
A broad sad smile crossed her lips as she looked ahead of her to see him land there, taking her odd image in and trying to determine if she was still herself.
Her chest raising and falling as she was still out of breath, she reached for her Blood dagger.
He would come to her, she knew he would.
He did… and she sent the dagger flying towards him.
A ball of flames erupted from him, melting the dagger to the ground and letting out the souls that it had trapped, while she pulled from the fire immediately, casting it on a tree.
Alaris was the one permanent solution and she was here for him.
“Nightshade!” He snapped immediately he was in front of her, “What are you doing?”
Why did he have to know that it was her, it would have been so much easier if he thought that she was someone else.
She kept her eyes trained on him but her mind was oh so far away. The pain was too consuming but she hid behind a hardened gaze.
“Kill me or I'll kill you,” the words pushed through clenched teeth.
Alaris mismatched eyes held nothing but confusion. He cupped her face with both hands, not breaking their gaze. Like he was searching her eyes for her, he called her name, “Nightshade.”
The touch sparked other emotions but she kept her mind locked only on hers.
Her eyes fogged with tears.
She had missed her friend.
There was much to talk about but there was no time. By Ignas, she had missed her friend!
The pain from within and without combined and suddenly it was so hard to speak. She was painfully aware of their time constraints; the red moon that would soon loom over them and Eli’s empty sandglass. She didn’t have to look back or up to know that there was no time for this.
She tried to violently shake her face away from his grip but he held on.
“I am already changing,’ the words stumbled over one another from her lips. “It is going to be too too late for Eli—”
“Eli is dead.”
“He is here.” her voice tumbled with a humourless chuckle. “He—”
A sharp pain cut through her chest, silence fell around her. This time she afforded herself a moment to look back.
Eli is gone, she had been taken, she could feel it, she could even almost hear the whisper of her name in the air.
The pain was too much, she couldn't even mumble to herself. She only let out an agonizing breath as tears rolled down her cheeks. Then she turned to Alaris who was trying to snap her out of the madness he believed he was succumbing to.
“Lock the windows and the doors, and come with me. We don't have time. Join me to create warriors before they seal the ground, we must ambush them.” Alaris knew that the White King and Dogori already had plans for the Blood Moon and that all they had was now —- before everything would turn against them, before she would lose herself to Xinora and he would have to bring her back. The Priest had said it was impossible after that point, even his Nightshade had said those from the castle rebellion said the same thing, but this wouldn’t be the first time he would be doing impossible things.
He would figure it out, she just had to have faith in him.
She glared, allowing the magic to course through her veins.
“Kill me, take my heart, merge the gems. It is the only way.”
She didn't need to explain, he already understood everything she was talking about.
He shook his head. “No, there must be another way. Trust me, I will find another way.”
The Red Moon was now partly visible.
She shook her head.
Tears glimmered in his eyes and the words he spoke broke her heart even further. “Nightshade, you are my only friend.” He pressed his forehead against hers and with determination, he said, “No.”
She scoffed. Without hesitation, she pulled fire from the burning tree, bending them into blades and sending it towards his heart along with the branches of the tree she was connected to that attacked him at all angles, all at once.
His dragon kicked in immediately, recognising this as something that could actually kill him.
That merciless beast.
It drove it talons through her chest and ripped out her heart that held the life hem within it, dripping with blood. He looked up with those serpent-lined golden eyes to watch the red moon take its place in the sky. Warm blood dripping from his fingers, Alaris pushed the gem against his chest and as the Blood Moon hovered fully over them; him with Belladonna's heart and Belladonna with a bleeding hole, eyes open and lifeless on the ground - the life gem merged into him and became his.
Life and death in… power at a mighty cost.
With its mission accomplished, his dragon pulled back into his mind just as quickly as it had appeared, so that when he regained control Belladonna’s corpse was at his feet.
“No. Nightshade.” He fell to his knees, gathering her into his arms with shaky bloody hands,his forehead above hers, as a loud cry of anguish rang from his throat. The ashes of the used trees fell over them like rain, just as she turned into gold flecks and vanished from his arms.
The red light from the moon suddenly vanished, darkness consuming the land.
Alaris looked up to see the sky filled with dr
agons.
There was no time to grieve at a war front. There was only time for vengeance.
Now was the time for vengeance.