Page 58 of Fate & Monsters
“Oh, please, this isn’t the time,” I sobbed, tears spilling freely down my cheeks. I took his hand, clutching it to my chest as if that alone could anchor him to this world.
He groaned in pain, his lips parting to speak, but no words came. I sensed the coldness in him—the finality of it, the way life seemed to be seeping away, dragging him under.
“Mavros!” I cried out, panic rising in my chest. His fiery eyes fluttered open, his gaze locking with mine.
He leaned into me, his strength faltering. “I’m... I’m fine. The fight’s over.”
I held him tighter, my chest tight with dread. “Don’t say that. You’re hurt, you fool. You’re bleeding—”
“I’ll be alright.” His voice lacked conviction. “We’ve won. And the mage...” He couldn’t finish the sentence, his strength leaching from him with each passing moment.
“He’s dead free,” I rushed out.
I was free. That was all that mattered to Mavros.
But not what matteredto me. Not then.
The beast’s gaze was distant, unfocused, his energy nearly sapped. His grip weakened, slipping like the last breath of a dying animal. The battle had taken everything from him. It would take everything I had left from me. And I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
A sob escaped me, raw and guttural, as I leaned down, pressing my forehead to his. I whispered into his ear, my voice barely audible, “I love you, Mavros. I love you.”
The words felt like they came from somewhere deep inside me, a place that I had hidden away for so long. Elementals didn’t feel love. But there, on the edge of losing him, I realized that my heart belonged to him. It could only ever be him.
His body quaked again, his golden eyes fluttering as he struggled to stay conscious. The battle wasn’t truly over until he was safe, until he was whole again. I moved to support him, guiding him carefully into my lap. My hands shook as I held him close. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end—not like this.
I whispered, “I refuse to let you go. You’re mine, you foolish beast.”
My heart pounded, the weight of everything pressing down on my chest. Mavros lay motionless, carved from shadow and fire, his dark armor cracked and coated with blood. His breathing was nearly nonexistent. My hands found his chest, slick with a warmth that should have remained inside him. He was too still.
My beast was dying.
“No,” I whispered, as if the word could command the night. “No, no… please, Mavros, don’t… don’t leave me.”
Something stirred somewhere deep inside me. A pulse. My magic, that strange, sleeping thing within me, curled in fear. And defiance.
A familiar warmth unfurled in my ribs like sunlight breaking through clouds. A soft, ethereal light suddenly filled the surrounding air, bathing us in its glow. At first, I thought it was a trick of my tear-blurred vision, but then I realized…
It was my tears. They were glowing.
It was there. The power I thought I’d lost—my power as a spirit—rushed to the surface. The magic that had been lost within me, forever locked away, was awakening. Not erased, simply hidden. Locked until the mage died and allowed my freedom.
I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling it fill me. Not simply magic. It was light, wind, air, and the breath of storms. It was ancient. Pure. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes bathed in sapphire flames.
I opened my eyes, and the world seemed to bend.
His name was a cry caught in my throat, a sob devouring itself.
I cradled his face in my palms, aching with the intimacy of it. “I love you,” I repeated, and it tore me open to say it like this. “I love you. Do not leave me in this world alone.Do not go where I cannot be with you.”
My tears overflowed. A burst dam; a raging waterfall.
Not tears, not truly. Drops of light. Silver, luminous, shimmering with something older than the cursed form I wore. The magic I thought I lost with the breeze that once lived in my bones poured out. Not lost, only buried—like a seed waiting to awaken.
Where the tears touched him, his wounds knit closed.
I gasped, a sob of wild hope.
The glow grew stronger. Light bled from me like pale sunlight on a winter morning. I held him closer, let the tears fall freely now, baptizing his skin, willing the magic to remember him, to love him as I did.
