“Yeah, sweetie, she is going to be right there with Talon. She’s been waiting for you, waiting ... for her mommy.”
Everything ached at his promise, the pain from the curse seeming to come back full force as he turned away in his own pain. I gasped at the fire, my body writhing as I continually tried to fight the pain. I struggled against the scream that tried to rip itself out of me, the blackness that wanted to take me away again.
In a way, it would almost be more preferable, but I didn’t want to lose this, lose these last moments. If only I had a choice.
I stared at Thom as my vision began to waiver, the same courtyard from before materializing around me, the same shadowed figure tucked off into a corner. Except, this time, he wasn’t quite as shadowed, he wasn’t quite as far away.
He stood, his body distorted as though I was looking at him through a fog, like I was only seeing him through a veil of life and death. That was exactly what it was, I realized. He was dead, and I was not. Not yet. He was standing there, ready to take me into his arms, ready to hold me in death as he had in life.
“She will be there,” Thom’s voice came to me as if he was still sitting right there, but I didn’t see him anymore.
I couldn’t seem to look away from the figure before me. Part of me desperately hoped he would step through the fog to take me, while part of me dreaded the moment when he would.
“Do you remember that big smile she had after she lost her first tooth? How she would always push her tongue through the little gap?”
I knew Thom wanted me to answer, but I wasn’t sure I could. I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I couldn’t look away from Talon, my heart a thunder in my chest as I waited for him to do something. His shadowed form seemed more and more ominous with each moment that passed.
“She’s not responding…” Thom’s voice was broken, but until right then, I hadn’t cared. I had only cared about the man before me, about what he was there to do, even if it scared me.
“You have to choose.” The voice cut through the fog, deep and heavy. It resounded through my head in such a way that I knew it had come from inside me. While the deep, haunted rumble of the sound was unfamiliar, it was still comforting, its message clear.
Talon stood before me, shrouded by death. I could choose to be with him. I could choose to die.
I jerked at the realization, at how quickly it came, my confusion rumbling at what it meant.
How could I choose? You couldn’t choose to live through this, through this curse. I was going to die. There wasn’t a choice, only a reality.
“Just keep trying,” Sain’s voice cut through the distanced thoughts, attempting to bring me back into reality. I remained staring at Talon’s shadowed form, the distorted body shifting as it moved forward, as a hand reached toward me through the fog that clouded him.
He extended his hand toward me, his fingers moving through the cloud and becoming more than a shadowed distortion. They became real. They were skin and callouses and a scar I recognized at once.
They became Talon.
I looked up to him, expecting to see his smile, but he was still cast in static. His body was out of focus, as if I couldn’t see him quite right, as if my eyes weren’t powerful enough to see.
“Do you remember when we took her to the beach?” I could barely hear Thom now, even though his voice was deep and loud in my ears. It was almost like it couldn’t move through the fog I was now surrounded by.
“You have to choose,” the deep voice came again, rumbling through me. While clear in meaning, it was still confusing to me. I wanted to tell it I didn’t have a choice, that someone had already made it for me. I couldn’t seem to find the words, though.
It didn’t matter, anyway.
Talon was before me, his hand extended toward me, beckoning me home.
I began to reach toward him, my body feeling light and warm as I moved, the pain of the curse almost gone now. I wanted to rejoice that it was gone, that I had left it behind. Left life behind. However, I couldn’t. Despite the warmth being a soothing balm to the pain, there was something off about it, something foreign.
Something was wrong.
Something was pulling me back.
No, not something—someone.
“N-n-need m-more.” I recognized the voice at once, even through the broken stutter and the fear that trembled underneath it.
It was Joclyn.
It was her magic that I felt move through me.
It was her power that was trying to heal me, to save me,
I looked up to Talon, to his body that was so clear I could reach out and touch him. I wanted to.
I also knew that I couldn’t, not yet.
Sain had seen this. He had seen every bit of this. His need to get me to Joclyn had been so sure, right from the start. It wasn’t merely to say goodbye, either. They still needed me.
What was more, I still needed them.
I still needed to live.