Page 164 of Architecti
One that twists and morphs, crumbling into a single sentence.
One that tells me how to break my contract.
One that shatters everything.
49
Lucy
Two Hours To Go
“Will you come with me?”I ask.
“I’ll go with you anywhere,” Midnight whispers.“We have until twelve tonight.Ignatius will come for me on time, I’ve no doubt.”
I give her a soft smile.I was never going to let that happen.
“Let’s walk,” I say.
Midnight’s brow cinches.She wants to ask what the runes showed me.What I know.But I’m not ready to tell her.Not when there’s so many other things I want to say.
I was so determined to believe we controlled our fate, that we could change our future.But this all feels inevitable.Like we joked, maybe meeting in a graveyard was an omen after all.Perhaps this was always where we were heading to.Are some loves destined to fail, while some are destined to soar?
I smile to myself, wondering if I was wrong all these years.Was Midnight right?Was this always going to happen because our fate is sealed?
Maybe we never stood a chance.
My chest hurts.Every breath aches like a cancer in my marrow.The words I know I have to say build and build in my throat until I swear they’re going to suffocate me.
“Okay, I’ll get dressed,” she says and climbs out of bed.
She knows.She has to.Or perhaps it’s subconscious.
I wonder if she’ll enjoy the fact she was right, that we were always destined to end up here: the demon and the reaper.
I hope she’ll forgive me for what I have to make her do.
We slip out into the night, hand in hand, no longer hiding.What’s the point?None of the academy rules matter anymore.Nothing other than what we do tonight matters.
We walk through the maze and enter the Garden of Death.
“Tell me what our life would be like,” I say.
Her fingers stiffen where she holds me, and she draws in an audible breath, but whether it’s a defence mechanism or denial, she doesn’t question my tense.
“I’ll tell you what it will be like,” she says, stroking the back of my hand with her thumb.“We’ll have a modest house, but an enormous library, filled with books and texts and contracts.”
“I like the sound of that,” I say and close my eyes trying to imagine it.Nothing appears.My mind is blank because it won’t lie to me.Not tonight.
“We’ll always eat dinner together and every evening, I’ll massage your feet because you’ll have spent all day standing and lecturing.”
“Mmm, you would make the perfect wife,” I say.
“I’ll spend my days fixing bikes, and I’ll build my own garage and business on our land.People will come from all different realms to bring me their bikes.”
“I’d run you a bath every day,” I add.
“We’d summer in Lantis, finding some secluded beach to read on.”
