Page 165 of Architecti
My chest burns, as if each memory we’ll never make nestles between my ribs and swells.
We draw to a stop at the centre of the garden.There’s a fountain that runs all day and night; it’s dark, the liquid reflecting the night sky.It glistens with stars and dreams, and I think this is a nice image to end with.
The ground rumbles, another Veil tear somewhere on campus, a seemingly constant occurrence these days.
“Midnight… I?—”
“Don’t,” she says.“If you say it, you’ll lose your power.”
I give her a sad smile.She doesn’t even realise my power is already gone.
I lean in and kiss her, surrounded by the scent of night blossoms, her grapefruit and vetiver perfume filling the air.My lips move over hers.
So soft, so slow.
She tastes like moonlight and memories.I savour every drop, trying to burn the feel of her onto my soul.I want to take her with me and never forget any part of her.
My lips are wet.I ease away to see streaks carving her cheeks.
“Please don’t do it,” she says.
“Do what?”
“Whatever it is that made you kiss me like that.It felt like goodbye.”
My mouth thins with the desperate need to hold in the words I’d rather keep secret.I glance at my watch.It’s five to midnight.
“We’ve run out of time,” I say.
This is the truth I have to share.
That to be free, I have to lose everything that means anything to me.But worse, this will make me the villain in her eyes.And yet, I’m setting her free.I just have to break both our hearts to do it.
This is right.She’ll understand eventually.
“I’ll fight him.I won’t go down without trying.I got you back from the Societas, remember.Maybe he’ll negotiate…”
I cup her cheek, and she stills.
“I need you to do something for me,” I say.
She shakes her head, a soft no before I’ve even told her.Funny how the heart already knows what the mind refuses to accept.
“Please,” Midnight says, her voice cracking.She gasps as several entropy moths materialise.
It’s already done.The moths are here, there’s no going back.
A shift happens inside me, my crystalline heart cracking as my power siphons out, slow and steady.Red smoke twists in the air around us.I thought it would hurt.I thought I’d shatter and burn and every bone in my body would crumble.
But this is none of those things.
I just feel free.
She has freed me.
One final crimson ribbon bursts from my chest and spirals around us.A lightness comes over me as if I have shed a thousand burdens.
“No, no, I won’t accept it,” Midnight says, waving her hands, swatting the magic away.I grab her wrists and pull her against me.
