Page 210 of Eternal
I huffed out something between a laugh and a scoff.Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic.“Doesn’t it?”
He tilted his head, studying me with that same annoying patience. “Monsters don’t sit on cold steps in the middle of the night, wishing they could run away from themselves.”
I clenched my jaw, looking away. “Doesn’t change what I am.”
“No,” he agreed, tightening his grip around my shoulder. “But it changes who you are tome.”
He grew serious again, the humor draining from his face as he turned to me, his hand resting gently on me. “You’re Azra. You’ve always been Azra, myKroshka. And nothing’s gonna change that. You’ll figure it out, just don’t forget that.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, his words didn’t fix anything, but they gave me a sliver of hope, a thread of something to hold on to.
Vik paused for a moment, then added, with a slight smirk, “And no matter what, I’ll always pick you up. Even if you end up getting yourself caught in a goddamn field of roses. You’re alwaysmyiris. The prettiest flower. Okay?”
The dogs settle around us, Vik exhales, rubbing slow circles on my arm like he used to when I was a kid with scraped knees.
I close my eyes. “You would still pick me up?”
He huffs a quiet laugh. “Who else if not me?”
A lump rises in my throat. I don’t answer.
I let out a shaky laugh, my head leaning against his shoulder as he pulled me into a tight hug. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to remind me that I wasn’t alone.
The dogs ran circles around us, their barks filling the silence between us, but at that moment, I didn’t care about anything else. All I needed was this, my family, my brother. Even in the cold and darkness, we were still here.
I could see the irises in the distance. Maybe my mom is seeing them too. Maybe she saw it all and regrets how she left me because of her own pain.
Kat came out a few moments later, the sound of her footsteps soft. “I brought you another blanket,” she said quietly, laying it across my legs.
“Thanks, Kat,” I murmured, feeling her warmth as she sat beside me, wrapping herself in the blanket too. She leaned her head against mine, the three of us sitting in comfortable silence, Mischka and Notch snuggling at our feet.
“I’m really sorry,” I said after a while, my voice small and filled with guilt. “For everything. For bringing this to you.”
Vik’s voice was soft, reassuring. “Don’t apologize for shit. You’re family. No matter what.”
And in that moment, I felt like maybe I wasn’t as broken as I thought. Maybe the darkness was still there, but I wasn’t alone in it anymore.
“We’ll always stay together, right?” Kat’s voice is small.
Vik presses a kiss to the top of my head. “For eternity.”
“Then why is Azra sad tonight?” she asks, tightening her grip on my arm.
“Because flowers can’t run,” Vik replies, warming my hands in his.
And I smile, for the first time tonight, I truly smile.
Because it’s true… Flowers can’t run.
Not when their roots are still buried in the same garden, no matter how cruel the soil becomes, not even when they’re stepped on.
They just stay right where they were planted, even when the ground goes cold, even when it hurts to bloom. They can’t move, they can’t leave, they just keep growing anyway.
I close my eyes and whisper it to myself: “Flowers can’t cry either.”
Maybe just for tonight, I can believe that lie.
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