Page 24 of The Call of Crimson
I see the first instance of her Visions manifesting and the sheer panic and confusion it left with her.
Every instance of the vision becomes more vivid, greater detail revealed as time progresses.
My gut churns, nausea growing as I watch my people being slaughtered on repeat.
How did this not drive her mad?
Finally, we land on the one memory I’ve been dreading above all others—the night of my father’s death.
It happens just as Elijah had conveyed. The scene unfolds with my mother leaning over my father in bed, an ice blade poised against his neck.
There’s no anger in him. He doesn’t even fight her. Betrayal and confusion fill his eyes as he tries to understand why the love of his life is poised to kill him.
I hear everything from their mouths—the truth of what led to this moment and how much it’s breaking them both.
It’s breaking me, too.
My attention snaps to Mother when she asks,“What do I tell our daughter?”
“When she’s ready… you tell her the truth. And you tell her that I love her—that I am proud of her. Tell her I’m so very sorry.”
He’s sorry? Sorry for what?
My mind screams at me to find out what he meant. But my heart’s caught up in his last confession. What I wouldn’t give to have had this conversation in person with him—to hear him tell me he loves me so I can say it back.
“I will tell her, my love. When she’s ready.”
“Gen, the council will force you to remarry to maintain the throne.”
“I know,” she whispers. “I don’t want to think about that right now.”
“It has to be Aurelius,” he says definitively. “I trust no one else with my kingdom or my wife.”
“I couldn’t possibly marry?—”
“You can and you will. And just know that I forgive you. However you choose to survive this, I understand.”
She stares into his eyes for the final time and says, “Until the very end.”
“Until the very end,” he echoes as she slides the blade into his skull.
The exit from the memory sequence is violent, leaving me gasping for breath as I sob into Elijah’s chest.
“Until the very end,” I softly utter my father’s dying words.
“Until the very end,” Elijah echoes.
I can’t stop the torrent of tears that erupt from my eyes, burning a path down my cheeks.
“I’ve got you, B,” Elijah reassures, squeezing me tighter. He rubs gentle circles into my scalp, while I tremble against him. Gasping, sobbing, pants are all I can manage, the room blurring around me.
I feel his chest shake against me, his own tears flowing freely as we mourn together.
He pulls me into his lap, and I bury my head into the crook of his neck. I wind my arms around his neck and let it all go.
“They loved you, too,” I choke out, needing him to know I recognize his pain.
“I know they did,” he whispers. “There were memories shared just for me.”
