Chapter One Hundred & Three
Chapter One Hundred & Three
The ground came crashing towards me as I fell roughly down, unable to cushion the fall. All I could do was accept what had happened and feebly cover the wound at my gut; a futile dream of survival pushing me on.
A dream I knew would die as quickly as I did.
“Aria,” I heard Aleric yell, apparently having shifted back.
My breathing was shallow as my body started to become numb to the pain; a coldness slowly spreading through me.
...It wouldn‘t be much longer.
“Hey, there,” I said weakly.
A small smile crept to my lips as I looked up at the man I loved.
His face was wrought with panic, his eyes holding so much fear in them. And yet it was his wound that drew my attention the most. There were signs of infection on the skin, surrounding where it had been split open again. Since Thea had no intention of Aleric living for long, it made sense she didn‘t have him properly treated. He needed to get to the hospital soon.
“You... You should really... get that looked at,” I huffed out.
“Are you insane? You‘re the one you should be worried about right now,” he yelled back. “What you did was so stupidly reckless, Aria. Why do something so senseless? Why....”
I knew it wasn‘t me he was actually angry at, despite his words. He was just scared because things were ending this way
I wheezed at the air, finding each breath slowly harder to take than the last, but managed to still speak.
“I did it... to save you,” I whispered. “...I did it... because I love you.” 1
His teeth gritted as he furiously wiped at his face, failing to completely hide the evidence of tears there. A sight I never thought I would ever see in my life. Seeing him so suddenly vulnerable only made the situation feel more real.
That this was it. This was goodbye.
Knowing there was nothing further I could do to stop my bleeding, I brought my hand up and cupped his ‘cheek instead, feeling the warmth from his skin against mine.
“Hey... it‘s okay...,” I soothed. “I always knew... this day would come and... I just want you to know... that I don‘t regret it. You shouldn‘t... either.”
“Fuck, Aria,” he growled and grabbed my hand tightly to lean into, covering his eyes. “I don‘t know what I‘m going to do without you. I–I... I need you.”
I would have laughed at that if I could have, knowing that he would be perfectly fine without me. Aleric would live on and become the Alpha destiny had chosen for him, I had no doubt about that. I was just happy to have finally met the man he was always meant to be. The man I was meant to have spent my life with.
Without him, none of this would have been possible. It was only because of Aleric that I was able to fight back against Thea. Only he believed in me when I‘d lost my mind, and only he managed to help me see who I could still become despite my condition.
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Coapter One Hundred & Three
“You don‘t... need me...,” I said, ‘You‘ve got it... backwards.”
“Don‘t say that.”
“Aria?” another voice then interjected, though further away.
I recognised it as Cai‘s immediately.
His face soon appeared next to me, trying to look down with a similar expression to Aleric‘s, but having trouble focusing. It seemed that Thea‘s attack on him was still giving him grief, the effects of the blinding still evident
“Aria... I’m sorry,” he said. “I–I couldn‘t see. I didn‘t know what happened until it was too late.”
But I just weakly shook my head, knowing there was nothing he could have done anyway. This had ended i n the exact way I‘d predicted. It was the most probable outcome.
xact
- me.
you have nothing…
me up, but the jostles to my body only sent fresh waves of pain through me. Small whimpers left my lips at the movement, but I didn‘t have the strength
hospital,” he said desperately. “We need
Aleric then quickly intervened and pushed
one hand to his shoulder. “It‘s done. We can‘t... she won‘t make it. You’re only going to make her last moments worse.”
enough,” Cai said, his face contorting with pain. “I can‘t let her die like this.”
Cai only tightened and instead pulled him closer, forcing him to concentrate. An attempt at getting him to calm down.
you want to be more accurate. Aria sacrificed herself for all of us to survive. She lived through two lifetimes of hell, fighting for
So cold now.
was feeling so goddamn
to curl up next to a fireplace, wrapped
close my eyes
be
maybe I should try to hold off for just a little
to see evidence of a bond forming, feeling relieved that maybe they would continue to get closer. There was no worse outcome ihan if my death were to start a war between them. To see them die at
men I adored. A light heralding the
me as I laid on the deathbed
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blood. This new body only borrowed for her.
merciless
rasped out in greeting.
expression or concern for her public attendance. An odd
began looking around, trying to see who I
about her natural laws; that she could not interfere with the living... only
| continued, struggling to
beside me. Even in my dying breath, I could feel the effect of her presence. Feel the weight of her aura around me.
peace, child,”
tranquillity spreading through me as she did so. An invitation
I simply could only oblige the request, greedily caving into the need for an escape.
went black.
bed, feeling more content than
all blended together so much that I could barely keep track of time anymore. Was it a Tuesday? Morning? Night? I didn‘t know. All I knew was that my last week had been spent with Aleric in the
stairs to the only place I
standing in the doorway of
the drops hitting the roof in a soothing way. The clouds
up after I spoke, a small smile warming on his face as I did so. His eyes reminded me of the moss and trees within the woods when he looked genuinely happy, almost as
“Did you
since there wasn‘t much of
“...Is that so?”
front of him, intending to look at the book in his hands, but instead he reached out and pulled me into his lap, forcing a squeal of surprise out of me at the sudden movement. Not
his broad chest, I‘d never felt so cosy
‘This isn‘t right.‘
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One Hundred & Three
paused for a second frowning, wondering why that thought suddenly popped into
this was right. I couldn‘t think of anywhere else i‘d
off the thought,
said, reading the words on the
this before.‘
déjà vu, freezing me as I tried to chase down the
sat like
had been a blur, but I couldn‘t recall doing anything
to churn, a
my choice... and mine alone,‘ a voice alike my
this Thea? Had she found me?
he hadn‘t just noticed me abruptly pause. Almost as though
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