Chapter 79 Letting her death live
The world seemed to go silent for Esperanza. The arrows had struck with a sickening sound, and the sight of the powerful, terrifying Orion falling to his knees broke something inside her.
She couldn't move.
Her feet felt like they were turned to stone.
Orion let out a low, ragged groan. The black smoke around his eyes began to leak out like ink in water.
Esperanza gasped. She didn't run to save Ezra. She ran straight to Orion.
She fell to her knees in the dirt next to him. Orion was shaking, his hands covering his eyes where the arrows had hit.
Orion hit the ground hard. The two arrows protruding from his sockets stayed fixed, unmoving, pointing straight up at the clouds he’d never see again.
Esperanza....., these were the words Orion let out before hitting the ground.
"Orion...no...no please" she sobbed, her body trembling. Seeing him slip away, she pulled him close and cradled his head in her lap. He was still barely breathing, but he was there.
Ezra struggled to his feet, clutching his side. "Let him die, Esperanza," he rasped, his voice tight with pain.
She didn't move. She only held Orion tighter.
"How could you?" she growled, her voice low and sharp with rage. She didn't look up at Ezra; her entire world was the man in her lap.
Then, Orion’s fingers moved.
Slowly, blindly, he reached out through the pain. His hand found hers and squeezed. It was a weak, trembling grip.
The silence that followed was sharp. Esperanza froze, her heart hammering against her ribs as she looked down at the man cradling her hand. The arrows remained still.
"Who... are you...?" he choked out. "Before... before dying... I want... to know."
"I will tell you," she whispered, her voice breaking. "Just stay... stay with me."
She didn't wait for his answer.
Her hand moved to the base of the arrow, her knuckles white as she gripped the shaft.
With a sharp, steady breath, she began to pull.
Ahhhh...., he hissed with the whole life left in his body.
Her heart broke seeing him in such pain. He gripped her hand tight, his chest rising and falling in slow, heavy breaths.
The screaming stopped.
There was only the sound of his breathing as he clung to her, refusing to let go.
"Let... me... go, now..." he gasped, his voice thin and broken. "Nothing can help."
Esperanza’s heart shattered. Her tears fell uncontrollably.
Raymond stepped off the dragon’s back and stood to the side. He watched in silence, his eyes fixed on Ezra, who was doubled over in pain.
"My King, you need to come back," Raymond said, his voice low and steady. He stepped forward and caught Ezra, holding him firmly in his arms as the wounded King stumbled.
"I can't... I have... no strength left," Ezra whispered, his body going limp.
"Save her... from that... mo...monster," Ezra commanded, his voice a broken rasp.
Raymond straightened his back, his grip on his King tightening before he stood fully on his feet. He looked at Esperanza.
Raymond knelt before her. "Golden Dragon... you must let him die," he said softly.
Esperanza snapped her head toward him, her eyes burning with a ferocious, animal-like rage. She gripped Orion even tighter, refusing to move.
Orion heard the words, and he could not believe his ears. The title "Golden Dragon" echoed in his fading mind, a truth he never expected to hear.
"Golden Dragon..." he whispered.
His heart went cold. The woman he loved the one he was dying for was his greatest enemy. He had spent his life wanting to kill the Golden Dragon, and now she was the one holding him.
"Let him die, huh?" she repeated, her voice a low, dangerous growl.
Her lips trembled as she looked at Orion's pale face, then snapped her gaze back to Raymond. The grief in her heart was turning into a violent, golden heat.
"You are a golden dragon..." Orion whispered, the truth finally settling in his shattered heart.
Esperanza didn't look away. She didn't deny it. She simply nodded, her tears falling fast and hot onto his skin, confirming his greatest fear.
"I... I wanted to tell you, but..." her voice trailed off, choked by a sob.
"Then I sh... should die," he whispered.
Esperanza’s cry turned into a scream.
"Why are you saying that... please stop it..." she cried, her voice cracking.
A faint, bitter smirk touched his lips. It was a look of pure irony the hunter dying in the arms of the prey he had spent his life chasing.
"If I live... you will become my... prey," he whispered, his smirk widening.
"I do not care," she retorted, her voice raw and defiant. "Kill me. If that is what you really want, then you should do it."
. Orion’s smirk vanished instantly. Her words hit him harder than any physical blow, shattering what was left of his resolve. His mind became a battlefield torn between the hunter he was raised to be and the woman he couldn't help but love.
"It’s going to be okay... Let me," she whispered, her voice shaking but her hands steady.
With a sudden, brutal tug, she pulled the arrow from his eye. Orion’s scream ripped through the air, raw and agonizing.
Esperanza’s heart jumped into her chest, a jolt of pure terror at his pain, but she didn't stop. She kept her grip firm, refusing to let her own fear get in the way of saving him.
Ezra’s massive draconic form shuddered as the transformation began. The air around him distorted with heat as his wings folded inward, bones snapping and grinding as they shrank to fit a human frame.
It was a mesmerizing, horrific sight.
Muscles coiled and compressed, and his golden scales retracted into his skin with a sound like tearing silk. Ezra let out a low, guttural groan of agony; every time he returned to his human state, he had to endure the crushing pressure of his power being forced back into a smaller vessel.
"Golden Dragon, you are doing wrong! He is a deceiver!" Raymond shouted, his eyes wide with desperation.
He wanted Orion to die. In Raymond's mind, Orion was the only thing stopping the Golden Dragon from saving their kingdom and reclaiming the castle. But Esperanza stood firmly in his way. She didn't care about the war or the throne—she refused to let her enemy die.
She didn't even look at him. Raymond’s warnings were nothing more than noise against the sound of Orion’s ragged breathing. She was choosing to let her own death live, and she felt no regret.
If Orion was destined to be her hunter, then she would simply be his prey as long as he was alive to see it.
She pulled the second arrow out with a steady hand. Orion’s eyes were gone, they were ruined by the shafts leaving only hollow, bloody wounds. For a second, a cold wave of terror hit her, but she forced it down.
She knew her power. She knew she could bring them back.
She pressed her palms firmly over his empty, bloody sockets and shut her eyes, tuning out Raymond’s protests and the cold wind. She reached deep into her soul, searching for the ancient, golden fire that lived in her heart.
Her powers were stubborn—a wild force that preferred to destroy rather than mend but she forced her will upon them. Heal him, she commanded. Now.
The golden light exploded from her palms, blindingly bright and hot. As she channeled every ounce of her soul into him, her own eyes flared a brilliant, solid gold, swirling with the flickers of an ancient fire.
The stubborn power finally obeyed her, flowing like liquid gold into Orion’s wounds.