Page 52 of The Endless One

“Exactly,” one of the gravesingers said. Her hands were pinned to the ground, but somehow she had slid one of her feet free. It left her crouched with an extended leg in a strange way that made his skin crawl. “All we’re asking you to do is keep your magic so that you can fight him. As you should.”

“The coven would not stand for it.”

Another whispered in his ear, “No, they wouldn’t. They would sacrifice you all the sooner for your magic.”

“So that is your endgame. You want to see me dead. Why?”

A long pause followed his question before the whispers started up. He wasn’t sure what they were saying, but he knew without question that he did not like the intent behind the words.

Finally, one of the gravesingers spoke up. “It’s you or her. She is not what she once was. In case you haven’t noticed, she’s not one of us anymore.”

Every part of him ached at that truth. He’d known it. Somewhere deep in his mind, he suspected that there was something irreparably broken after Ajax’s spell, but he hadn’t ever allowed himself to fear what was happening in front of him.

“She is no longer a gravesinger?” he asked. He had to be certain.

“No.” One of the souls uncoiled herself. Her feet were still bound to the ground, but her hands were free to reach for his face and scoop his jaw in both of her ink-covered hands. “So the next time they kill you, you will be trapped here again. Just like you have trapped us.”

He felt his heart thud hard against his ribs. “There will be another. There is always another.”

“But how many long years will you be stuck, Deathless One? Another two hundred? Perhaps three hundred this time?” The gravesinger cackled out a bitter laugh. “Would you even survive that long now that you’ve tasted freedom?”

No. He wouldn’t.

Elric lunged away from them, wading through the laughing witches until he was finally free of them. Their words remained, however.

If the witches sacrificed him, he would be trapped here again. This time, he wouldn’t be able to survive it. He had no questions about that. Knowing what it was like to live would not sustain him any longer. There would be no dreaming of the beauty of the world in this place. The only thought consuming him would be that he might someday see her again.

But if he didn’t do this, then she would die. At least here, he might be able to find her soul when she inevitably passed on. At some point, she would die. It would be maybe a hundred years, maybe much more than that if she was becoming a witch and no longer a gravesinger. But there was always a chance that they would be reunited.

If he remained in the living realm, he wouldn’t be able to bring her back. Her soul would pass on to that place where he could not follow. There would be no reincarnation to find her in the next life. Only the knowledge that he was stuck here, and she was beyond his reach.

Elric didn’t know how long he walked in that forgotten realm of darkness. Only that he did so until his legs quaked and his lungs burned. Even then, it wasn’t enough. He couldn’t think about the possibility of losing her. He couldn’t entertain the thought of her dying and being gone forever.

But he didn’t want to die either.

He walked until he saw Jessamine, her hair melding into the darkness and her pale skin radiating moonlight in this realm of never-ending misery.

She smiled at him, that soft expression melting the ice around his heart. “I wondered if I would find you here.”

Color bloomed at the sound of her voice. Vivid reds and violets that dropped from her very figure and turned his black-and-white world to color. Emerald green spread from her feet, beds of flowers blooming. Sunlight speared through the shadows of his realm, and he knew without question what he had to do.

He held out his hand, knowing that this could be the last time they would touch. “We will always find each other here, nightmare.”

It all felt like a dream. One moment Jessamine had fallen into her bed, more exhausted than she had ever felt in her life. And the next, she was here in Elric’s realm. Feeling fine. Feeling like she was not about to die anymore.

What a struggle it was to live these days. After all the episodes that had sent her into seizures, even Jessamine was starting to question whether or not she could continue on like this.

But in this realm, she felt like herself. And what a blessing it was to finally be able to breathe.

She could fill her lungs with air, walk as though she couldn’t ever get tired, and lean in to that feeling of being alive. It was… beyond anything she could have hoped for.

To turn around and see Elric there? It was even better. Sometimes she ended up here without him, and that was nice, too. Sure, Jessamine enjoyed time on her own. But knowing that he was here, while she was finally feeling like a person again? Oh, it made every part of her glow.

Color spilled out of her, filling the area with bright colors and flowers like stars. The brightness made her feel safer here, even though the shadows were never all that far out of sight.

Elric took another step toward her, looking like he’d seen a ghost. But she slipped her hand into his and allowed him to easily tug her into his arms. It made both of them heave a sigh as they melted into each other.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “I went to sleep and…”