Chapter 50

“So… You’re alive.” Charming murmurs, unlike before, he keeps his distance. I take a step to him, but he takes one back. His action causes me to stop.

It’s then, as my gaze burns through his, I see his honest feelings swirl tightly in his amber eyes, and I’m only able to say one thing. “I’m sorry.”

He laughs, the sound humourless. “Sorry? I lost you once. I mourned you. You came back, and I was so fucking ecstatic. I thought it’d be like the old days. I-I thought we could be Charming and Wolfe. But while I would die for you, while I love you, I realise you don’t care about us - you never will.”

“Of course, I do…” I try to defend myself, but he yells.

“Don’t! Just don’t. How can I believe that when only you want is to die? Look at you...! You’re just like Lucinda. You don’t care who you hurt. You don’t care who you leave behind. You don’t care about the souls you touch. The ones who still have to breathe once you’re gone. She did it to you, and now you’re doing it to us – and we don’t deserve that, Valerie.”

I take a step back from the force of his words. “You’re wrong-... she was protecting me,” I barely whisper.

“She left. She knew Valak was a monster, and she stayed. She could have fought. She was powerful - Lucinda could have saved you without dying. You could have had a life without Valak - you could have been happy. I blame her, Valerie. I’ve always blamed her,” he confesses coldly.

“She loved me,” I whisper, holding my ground against his words.

“Yeah, she did,” Dylan agrees, “but she cut you with that same love, and it frustrates me that you can’t see it.”

“That’s enough,” Sophia murmurs, taking hold of Dylan’s arms. He relaxes slightly, but his anger isn’t completely gone.

“No, it isn’t. I’ve played it safe my entire life with you, but not anymore. If I’m going to lose you anyway, I may as well be truthful,” Dylan scoffs as he stalks over to me in long, powerful strides. “You’re better than both of them. You’re selfish, but you care. You’re annoying, but I love you. I don’t want you to die, but then I’d rather you be dead than watch you lose yourself.”

I unconsciously take a step back, keeping my gaze cast to the floor. I couldn’t find the will to look him in the eye as he retreats. “I-If…” I whisper so quietly, “If your right, and I think for even a second she could have saved me and didn’t, then I’m going to drown. Because then I’ll have to accept, she chose a monster over her own daughter-… How the hell do I overcome that?”

My gaze finally connects with his, “tell me, Charming. Tell me how, and I’ll do it right now. Tell me to question her every decision. Tell me to be angry at her. Tell me she isn’t the person I created in my mind, and I’ll listen. But first, tell me how I’ll survive. Tell me what to do to be okay. Tell me, and I’ll do it.”

He silent, his fist clenched tightly beside him, sadness steeped in his amber eyes. “I’m tired of caring, Charming. I’m tired of these damn burdens. My mother didn’t run, but I did. Look at the both of us know – what the hell is the right answer?”

I struggled with the answer for a long time. I did the opposite of what my mother chose, and oddly, she may be dead, but she got the better end of the deal.

“Freya is my responsibility; I know that now. I need to fight; I need to accept my fate because if I don’t, then there is no future, and I can’t allow that. Eldora still has space to change, and I’m done complaining about it. Maybe this fight will be my last, but I sure as hell don’t want to go in it alone.”

*** 3rd pov **

*Deep within the forgotten realm, a forgotten Queen listens to her sister’s words, amused.*

*The point of her full finger ring taps into her ice throne repeatedly. Piles of dead bodies sit at her feet, the colour of their blood painting her throne red.*

*“I’m sorry, My Queen. I failed,” Kyro enters. A soft chuckle breezes past Freya’s lips.*

*“That’s okay. As far as I’m alive, the Gods will never let her die,” She hums, snowflakes dancing around her.*

*“So why…?”*

*“It was merely an assumption, until now. I sent you to test my sisters strength. So?” Freya asks, just as the fae pressed against her icy wall, groans awake. Kyro tries not to avert his gaze.*

*“She’s stronger than before. Something smells different-... her will to save the world burns brighter compared to her will to kill her father.”*

*Freya smiles. Valerie’s emotions are too predictable. “I don’t understand, just kill her.”*

*“Fate is a fickle thing, My son. If she says we fight and die in two weeks from now, then it will be so. Valerie will be my undoing; she will kill me and kill herself in the process. And after, that is when my true plans come into fruition.”*

*“Ha-…Ha-…Ha-…” the fae pressed against the wall laughs. Tears streak down his face. Freya smiles, humming a soft lullaby her mother sang to them in her womb.*

*A spear sits between the fae’s eyes, blood stains the ice wall down his neck. His limbs are all torn and pressed to the wall a few centimetres from his main body.*

**“Wh-WhY? HoW-… HoW aM I aLiVe?!”**

*He screams hysterically. The bodies lying at Freya’s feet wake to join the fae, a cruel smile paints her face, “I will become the only true God. Just wait, I’ll make them all bow.”*

*The heads continue to laugh, asking Freya to kill them - chanting, praying, pleading, begging – and with a smile on their faces.*

*In this dark and gory scene, she can only think of her sister.*

*Freya laughs, “we’re so close! We’re so close, little sister...” She screeches to the skies, unable to contain her excitement.*

*She sighs once her laughter calms down and falls limp on her throne. A cruel smile paints her face, running her bloody hands down her face to paint her skin. “Death sounds so… beautiful. Doesn’t it?”*