Page 47 of Cherry Moon

“What did you say?” I bit out.

My ears better be deceiving me.

Sakura danced past my face. “Gabriel is here to help you make a choice.”

Fury turned my blood cold.

“You can try saving him,” the voice continued. “Or you can help save the world from the coming darkness.”

I winced, smacking back a bolt of grief coming for my soul. “You… You can’t⁠—”

“Take the Cherry Blade, wield it to strike fear in the hearts of the mazoku once again. We have given you this small window, but you must be swift. Our efforts pour into the healing of the world, which allowed the mazoku to abuse our magic.”

G wasn’t dying tonight.

“We need a chosen warrior to hunt The Nine, to obliterate them while we hold back a greater tide.”

Ominous. Scary.

Not my problem while G suffered.

“The choice is yours, Akira. Save Gabriel for you both to die. Or let him go to save the many.”

Choice. My choice. And only one existed.

Gabriel would be saved, no questions asked.

No fucking alternative.

“If you do not claim the sword, he dies, and you die, bound to her for eternity. And she will roam unchecked without the wielder of the blade to hunt her.”

My choice.

He didn’t have to die.

“Take up the sword, and you will have the means to kill her and spare Gabriel’s soul. He will go in peace.”

Leaving me alone, in the cold, sorrow an endless deluge.

Fuck that.

“Give him peace. Avenge him. Choose.”

I balled my hands into fists.

“You must choose.”

We died together. Selfish of me for sure, but I wasn’t letting him die alone. Let us be bound to that Bony Hag. At least we’d…at least we’d be together.

“So close, yet so far, forbidden to ever consummate the burning, aching love again, even with mere feet between them.”

Oh, fuck. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t the choice before me.

The price.

Always a consequence.

G suffering because of her? If it were me, I could take it. I didn’t care about myself, but him? Man, I didn’t want that for him. He deserved so much more. At least dead he would be safe from her, free from⁠—