Chapter One Hundred And Seventy

Chapter One Hundred And Seventy
Naomi’s Pov

The battlefield lay covered in shadow, thick with smoke, burning wood, blood, and residues of lingering magic. Under my feet, the earth shuddered minutely, unsure whether this war had actually reached its conclusion. 

Deluna was a distance of a few feet, her black cloak fluttering a little in the evening breeze, her eyes squinted in observation of me. She yet seemed powerful, untouched by events transpired about her. But I could detect it now, the tiniest tremble of doubt in her eyes. 

She was starting to understand. 

Understand that she wasn't as unscathed as she long convinced herself to believe. 

I breathed in, slow and deliberate, then moved to speak. "What request?" Deluna questioned me, with a taint of distrust in her voice. 

I jerked my head, raising my chin a notch. "What way would you like to breathe your last?" 

Her mouth twisted in a cold sneer, but I could detect tension in her shoulder. 

"You can't do that," she taunted me. 

I took a pace in her direction. "I can." I kept my voice level. "And I will." 

Without a single additional word, I sprang towards her, my sword cutting through the atmosphere with a deadly purpose, slicing at her heart. 

But she moved with full rapidity.

Deluna dodged with a shadow’s quick pace, moving with ease. Before I could attack, she whirled, her black cloak flapping about her, and took off into the shadows.

She fled in a flurry, her cloak fluttering about with the sound of battle growing in the distance. I could feel a new presence in me stirring.

A quiet, unrelenting flame, her, and I cursed, twisting my mouth in annoyance.

Coward.

"Naomi, are you hurt?"

Lucian’s voice broke my intensity, and I whirled, seeing him bounding towards me, roving over me with scarlet eyes, worried out of all proportion.

I nodded. "No, dear, I'm not."

He breathed out, jaw clenching and eyes flashing with alarm. "We must go and search for Deluna. Our battle isn’t won yet."

I nodded, tightening my weapon in my fist. "So let’s go."

The night lay out in front of us, dark and quiet.

Deluna fled into the rubble, but I knew she hadn’t gone off for a long distance. She wasn’t the one to admit defeat that soon. She was a witch, coiled and ready for a perfect strike.

Lucian and I moved through rubble, over fallen forms, broken swords and armor, and smashed parts of what had been a field of battle. Guttering fires and smoldering embers lit an eerie glow, and shadows seemed to writhe and twist, it being impossible to discern reality and shadow in the faint, flickering glow.

And then, in a motionless motion, Lucian and I split, moving in two disparate directions. It was a gamble, but we could cover twice the distance in that way.

The further I journeyed, the quieter everything became. I could only discern my beating in my head, thudding steadily, my fingers clenching ever-tighter over my sword. I moved softly, listening, seeing.

And then I saw it.

A shadow.

A moving shadow, indistinguishable at a distance, hardly discernible in its contrast with shadows.

Deluna.

She was near.

But she wasn’t seeing me.

She was moving towards Lucian.

I hardly had a chance to move.

To cry out, and I would have alerted her and, unexpectedly, would have taken it full-force.

To say nothing, and she would kill him.

There was no room for thinking about it.

I moved.

Ache of agony. 

Flashing through me, a burning and cutting flame.

For an instant, I couldn’t draw a breath. 

I landed with a thud, my form dropping under attack, my head reeling in a blur, my eyes whirling, and my head pounding, as I struggled to make sense of what I'd gone through. 

Lucian. 

I'd gotten in the way. 

I'd taken it for him. 

I wheezed, a constricting, hoarse sound escaping my mouth, and a warm sensation creeping out over my torso. I shuddered, my fingers shaking in my trembling fingers, and I pressed them over my side.... blood. My blood. 

My respirations panted in jerking, rough motions, my brain whizzing in a mad, panicked pace. 

Is that how it ends? 

Is that it? 

Is that with me, dead, and Deluna living, and with the wicked thriving and living and thriving, and me… dying?

I felt tears burn my eyes. Not for its agony, but for its wrongfulness.

I'd fought with all my will to survive.

We'd fought with all our will to survive.

Was it over?

"NAOMI!"

Lucian's thunderous roar filled the quiet room.

In seconds, he'd reached my side, hands closing about me, holding me, eyes blazing with a mix of horror and fury. 

"No, no, no," he whispered, shaking his head in an attempt at denying what lay in front of him. 

"No, no, no," he continued, hoarseness in his voice. "Naomi, don't leave me." 

I fought to smile, my mouth not even opening enough to curve my lips. "I… I couldn't." 

His jaw locked. "You didn't have to do a damn thing!" His voice cracked, fingers clutching my wound, desperate to stop blood flow. 

I reached out, shaking my hand, brushing his cheek and curving into a fragile shape about him. "You… you'd have died." 

His eyes grew darker. "And I'd have preferred it, I'm sure?"

A pang twisted deep in my heart. 

Lucian. 

The one who'd been my foe. 

The one who'd become my life. 

He was holding me like I'd break in his hands, shatter and fall apart and vanish forever. 

And perhaps I could. 

I forced a feeble breath in and out of my lungs. "Lucian… you must complete it." 

His fingers on me clamped in a punishing grasp. "I'm not going anywhere." 

"Lucian." I moistened my parched mouth with a painful, aching motion. "If not… she wins." 

Shudders shivered through him, and I saw him know I was right.

But he refused to believe it.

"Please," I whispered, my voice soft and shaking.

For a long, long moment, he lay motionless. His scarlet eyes locked onto me, and I could see him fighting with himself. Vengeance and love.

And then, at long last, breathed out and nodded.

"I will return to you," he vowed. His mouth touched my brow, lingering for a beat. "Live, I mean it." 

I faintly smiled, my eyes fluttering shut. "I will." 

I lay there, my eyes staring at the sky above me. The stars shone beautifully, scattered over the black sky in little chips of light.

My motionless form lay relaxed, my faltering eyes shutting out nothing but nothing at all.

I did not desire to die.

Not yet.

"But I guess this was how my story was supposed to end," those were my last words as darkness engulfed me.