Page 126 of Fallen Thorns
Rani is there too, head resting on Carmen’s tear-stained shoulder. As is Marianne, a black, silk scarf crossed tightly over her neck to hide the scar.
I should be there. A friend.
Michael stands by my side as we watch from a distance, unseen and silent.
I cannot let them suffer, my friends. After all they did to protect me. I need to do this. It is the only way.
From beside the grave, as the final biblical words are spoken, Casper steps forward and speaks from his heart:
“Most of you knew Ben as the sweet guy who could play any instrument you threw at him. He had a heart of pure gold —someone you could trust with anything, no matter how big or small. He never talked about it much, but he had a strong faith; he believed we were all put on this earth for a reason and made it his mission to find his true purpose.” Casper wipes his eyes, pulling out a small metal chain from under his clothes.Ben’s cross.He holds the base between his fingers and looks to the sky. “I think we can all agree he left his mark.”
Everyone nods in agreement; Ben’s mother falls to her knees, and his father pats her back.
“Although he is no longer with us,” Casper continues, clearing his throat and sniffing back the pain, “a soul as big as Ben’s cannot possibly leave us. He will always live on, for eternity. As we both promised. The Eternal.”
The humans hold their hearts at such a touching statement, but The Thorns know the true meaning.
Neither I nor The Sun move, snow dancing onto our eyelashes and wind whistling through our heavy wings.
I am still growing used to the weight of them. The bird-like feathers trailing clumsily across the ground, my fingers stretched and sharp.
I mourn him, Ben. In the two weeks since The Star and Arlo joined for the final time, I learned to accept his sorrow. I would get nowhere without emotion, even if it choked my very core.
It is necessary, what we must do. I cannot let myself waste any more time.
We wait until the crowd dissipates, Katerina the last to leave, her sun halo’d silhouette placing a final, gentle finger kiss to the soil. Her final goodbye to her only child.
“Come,” he says, squeezing my hand. “It is time you finally meet him.”
Epilogue
From the echoes and shadows in the depths of the cathedral catacombs, far away from human acknowledgement, Jerome sits on his wooden throne, his long fiery hair flowing down past his shoulders, and his chin resting on his jewelled fingers.
When the creature first told him its beliefs, he scoffed and shooed it away. He did not have time for foolish antics. He would not be toyed with and mocked.
Thirty years ago, The Sun promised him the world. Freedom from his undead state and the promised life he had always yearned for. He could live, start a family, be human.
But hundreds and hundreds of years beyond the light had shredded him from his old way of thinking. He could not bear growing old, after all this time.
So, he joined with The Moon.
“Do you ever get bored?” Michael once asked him, not long after they met for the first time. “Being stuck in this plane, restricted to humanity, to this body?”
He had been asked that question before. Jerome’s answer was always the same. “Yes, but what else can you offer me? You too are trapped by your desires. You will never leave us now. That was your decision, to walk this earth. I had no choice.”
The Sun sulked, folding his arms in defeat. It was, as Jerome grew to learn, always just an act.
“Well?” Jerome would push.
“One day, I will bring you with me, my Moon. When I find a vessel for The Star, we shall be strong enough to do what we were made for, together. It will take time, but I refuse to believe it impossible.”
Jerome considered the confession. He never did understand why Michael cared that much about changing a world he was not even originally part of. Jerome had never felt that strongly about anything before. He would move the earth for no one, and there was no one he would willingly spend eternity with.
Until he regained his humanity for ten short years: after a couple of years of childish, teething antics, he met Melissa. Sweet, sweet Melissa Everett.
Years they spend travelling the world, seeing things he could have only ever dreamed of. Heloved. For the first time in centuries, heloved.
It hurt him, having to leave her. He never even let her say goodbye, but it was better that way, he told himself. Better he left her like that so she would forget him. She would move on, find another, and live her life as he wished she could. To the fullest.
