Chapter 146 IF YOU WANT ME THERE

Chapter 146 IF YOU WANT ME THERE
MERRIELYNN.

I took a shaky breath and nodded.
Cormac took my hand again and we started walking deeper into the cemetery.
Lorelai’s grave was in a completely different section.
The royal section where members of the ruling family were laid to rest. The headstones here were more elaborate than the ones we’d passed earlier. They were bigger than the others. More ornate.
We walked past several of them before Cormac slowed his pace.
Then he stopped walking entirely.
There were two headstones sitting side by side. Both of them were made of white marble with angels carved into the tops.
Both of them were absolutely beautiful in this haunting kind of way.
Queen Cassandra Graves
Beloved Wife and Mother Forever in Our Hearts and The Arms of the Goddess
And right next to it:
Princess Lorelai Graves
Beloved Daughter and Sister Forever in Our Hearts and The Arms of the Goddess
I glanced over at Cormac and saw the sadness washing over his face as he stared at the two headstones. His mother and his sister were both gone now.
I noticed something else too. His father’s grave was in the same lot.
I could see it off to the side maybe twenty feet away. But it wasn’t next to them. His father’s grave sat separate from his family.
Cormac had wanted it that way. He’d wanted his family to rest in peace without the man who’d caused them so much pain.
I reached over and took his hand in mine.
He looked down at me. The grief in his eyes was so raw and exposed that it made my chest physically ache.
Then he walked forward slowly. He pressed a kiss to his fingers and then reached out to touch his mother’s headstone first. He stood there for a long moment with his hand resting on the cold marble.
Then he turned to face Lorelai’s grave and I moved to stand beside him.
Both of us were looking at the headstone of the girl we’d both loved. The girl we’d both lost that night on the icy road.
“Hey, Lor,” Cormac said softly. His voice was completely wrecked with emotion. “I brought someone to see you.”
Fresh tears spilled down my cheeks before I could stop them.
Cormac’s hand tightened around mine.
“She loved you,” he said quietly. “She doesn’t blame you even slightly and you should never be manipulated to think this was your fault. Or that she ever left this world thinking that.”
“You sound so certain,” I whispered.
“Yes, I do.” He looked over at me. “Because I know my sister. I know exactly who she was. And she would never have wanted you to carry this guilt around. She would have hated knowing you blamed yourself for something you couldn’t control even for a second.”
I looked at him through the blur of my tears.
“She would have been happy,” Cormac continued as he turned back to the headstone. “That we found our way back to each other. That we’re mates. She always wanted us to be together.”
“She did.” I told him, “I can attest to that.”
He smiled but it was the saddest smile I’d ever seen.
A sob escaped from my throat. “I miss her so much.”
“Me too,” Cormac said. His voice cracked. “Every single day.”
We stood there in silence for a while. Just the two of us standing in front of Lorelai’s grave while the sun started to set behind us and cast long shadows across the cemetery.
Eventually Cormac spoke again.
“Valtor’s being buried tomorrow,” he said. “I’m going to attend his funeral.”
I looked at him.
He swallowed, “He was my best friend for most of my life. That doesn’t excuse what he did, but I think I should pay my respects to who he used to be.” His jaw was tight. “He loved Lorelai. When push came to shove he was a fool, an angry fucking––“
I pressed my hand to his chest. “I’ll come with you,” I said. “If you want me there.”
He let out a long, exhausted breath.
“I always want you there,” he said simply.
We stayed at the cemetery until the sun had completely set and darkness was starting to creep in around us.
Then Cormac pressed another kiss to his fingers. He touched them to Lorelai’s headstone first. Then to his mother’s.
I did the same thing to Lorelai’s headstone.
“Goodbye, Lorelai,” I whispered. “I’ll take care of him for you. I promise.”
We walked back through the cemetery hand in hand.
Tomorrow we would attend Valtor’s funeral and say goodbye to another person we’d both cared about.
Tomorrow we would start figuring out how to rule an entire kingdom together.
But tonight we had just survived the second hardest day of our lives.