Chapter LI-4

My heart stopped in my chest, it seemed.. My throat clogged for a second, from all the words and cries that rose from my chest, yet didn't dare escape. And I stared back into the monster's eyes, as my brother managed to find a way to hold him down.. To hold him trapped against the wall the way he did me only a minute ago.. "This is for every bit of torture you put me through!" It was my voice I heard, the pressure I put on the necklace with my foot causing a crunching sound of the jewels to mix with my desperate tone.. "This is for my family, my father that you killed!" There was a cry in my voice, a whimper that almost escaped.. Yet the anger caused my voice to echo loudly in the empty house.. I stepped harsher, and the necklace broke into more pieces. "This is for my sister, for Amelia, and every bit of pain you caused her!" With the crushing of every little jewel of the necklace underneath foot, Adam's strength and life left him slowly, his ghost and soul released with every sharp struggling breath he was now releasing.. Yet my gaze was locked on his desperate one, and while my eyes cried for those he took from he, his eyes begged me to spare his life. And not in a million years would I had done that. "And this—" My voice broke, yet my pressure on the necklace became so harsh, the crystals became ashes.. Light appeared underneath my foot.. Adam's desperate growl escaped his chest.. "This is for Christian! For taking him from me!" And my soul was sobbing, tears escaping, yet my voice still and harsh as it was before.. Loud and desperately certain. "For everything you took from me!" And with one final crushing of the jewels, Adam fell to his knees.. Fell dead on the floor as my brother took a step back and glanced at me.. And I— I could not believe that was all it took to destroy him. Breaking the jewels of the necklace.. It was— hell, that was the key to Adam's ruin and none of us knew it even when we had he necklace in our hands.. Yet still, at that point, the only thing going through my head was the fact that only a few feet away from Christian laid lifelessly.. Dead on the floor.. My whole heart and world.. My everything suddenly gone with him. Weakness went through me, the kind that didn't leave a spark of strength in me to even hold myself straight and on my feet. I fell down to my knees, hearing my brother's footsteps rushing towards me.. I fell and had nothing to stand up for. Yes, Adam was dead, the witches were dead, but before they were, they took everything from me. Everything I loved for. "Lana," Jack's embrace that was supposed to be soothing for me was just another reason for a breakdown, for the tears to continue escaping. "It's over," It was.. It was over. Everything was over. "He's gone." "And so is—" My mind was in some kind of a delirium. I could not connect a word with a word.. I could not.. No, those words I said.. I couldn't accept them. "Christian," There was something about my heart that was left empty.. It was beating, perhaps even too harshly against my chest. Yes, I was breathing too, rapidly even.. I felt the pain in my body, my cut palms from the broken crystals from the crushed necklace.. I felt the ache in my chest, the pain in my heart.. I felt it all. Yet I felt numb and thoughtless.. I felt lost and hopeless to even find my way to my thoughts. And I even felt like I was deaf to everything other than my own blood boiling and rushing throughout me, to my heartbeat that I felt in my throat.. But that didn't seem exactly the case.. No, not when everything was suddenly stopped from the simple two words, the familiar deep tone that left me frozen to my spot, left me feeling completely insane.. "Not yet." I was somewhat looking up, because that voice.. That voice was Christian's voice. It was— it was him standing there before me when I looked up.. A few feet away, with the kind of worry and desperation on his face that showed just how lost he was as well.. Was I— No, it had to be a dream. A hallucination. He couldn't— How was he there? "My God," I released a sharp breath, almost a gasp for air, feeling Jack letting go and giving me space to somewhat straighten up.. Yet I was still on my knees, still there on the dirty floor when Christian rushed towards me.. "You're—" And once he was down to my level, once I could see those dark eyes look back at mine and the sharpness of his features illuminated by the first morning light, my hands came up to touch him, to feel if he was real. "Oh thank God," He was searching my face with the same speed I was his, he was trying to read me the same way Iw as trying to read him. And I was completely lost at that point, unable to separate my own thoughts and doubts from reality.. But he was there, in front of me.. I could feel the warmness of his breath some where against my neck when he leaned closer, when I felt his strong arms wrap around me as he held me close, until my breathing was calming, until my soul was soothed.. "I cannot die, Lana, my love," His words were somewhere in my ear, his hair underneath my fingers and his breath against my skin.. Nothing in the world could ever be better than his closeness, than his touch. "You keep forgetting that." And I even heard a smile in his voice, a breath of relief matching mine.. It was joy that filled my heart, a different kind of senselessness, a different kind of delirium.. I was breathing again, my heart beating again, and no regret filling my soul.. No regents that I was alive and he wasn't.. With the death of the three witches, every spell that they had done came undone, and my heart was filled again.. Whole again. "I love you." And it were words that almost faded along with my awareness.. I was in his arms. It was all it mattered. The only thing that mattered. And the soothing and calming it gave me had me completely lose my consciousness.. "I love you so much,"