Jericho nodded and glanced at Aeric. “You ready?”
That night in the woods when Chrysalis had confessed the truth, Aeric hadn’t understood what she’d meant about his sand. How the sand could strip and burn, but how it would ultimately cleanse. He’d thought it nonsense, but she’d told him what to do.
“Yes,” he nodded, “I’m ready.”
Everyone stared on as Jericho took the first step into the water, carrying a sobbing Chrysalis in his arms. She no longer fought him, she’d lost and she knew it.
Immediately a burst of pure moonbeam encased them, shooting straight up toward the eternal reach of the sky.
“Now you.” Esmeralda inclined her head at Aeric.
None of what he was about to do would hurt him, but it would torture Lissa and the thought made him ill. Chrysalis had begged just before turning back to do it, to make it right again. Lissa would want that too.
The moment he stepped foot into the water the cold shocked him, made his limbs want to lock up and freeze, but he shoved it aside as he parted the curtain of light.
Blinking against the sting of its white intensity, he looked at the man in the moon who no longer resembled flesh and blood, but was now only light.
“Are you ready, hunter?” Jericho asked in the disembodied whisper of a ghost.
“Yes.” He muttered, and then, not giving himself time to rethink it, Aeric called forth his sand.
His body was nothing but millions upon millions of particles of sand. He whirled toward the limp body in Jericho’s arms. The second he touched her flesh she screamed.
He didn’t want to do this, didn’t relish the thought of hurting her. So he chanted the only thing in his head that gave him strength enough to do it. Save them.
He poured his sand down her mouth, and filled her body.
Her dying screams echoed through him, filled his brain with raw pain. She was hurting, she was hurting. And even as he scrubbed at the blackness that clung to every inch of her, he wanted to leave. He wanted to escape, wanted to hold his woman and never hurt her like this again. Never cause her such harm.
But Chrysalis had begged and Lissa had loved him.
Her love kept him moving. Kept him gathering every bit of the darkness that did not belong. It wasn’t easy, and took so much longer than he’d hoped it would. But finally, finally he was down to the last part.
Her black, beating heart.
The darkness clung like parasitic tentacles, sinking its roots so deep inside her that Aeric knew one wrong move and he’d kill the host. He’d kill his Lissa.
Savethemsavethemsavethem… repeated like a litany throughout his awareness. It was the only way.
The only way.
Wrapping himself around the black, he pulled, and the echoing cries of her agony almost undid him.
First one dark tentacle came off, and then another, and then another—until only one remained, the one deepest in the center of her heart.
This one would kill her. There was no way he could undo it without causing massive damage. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t do this to her. If they had to live with a daughter and he with a woman who sometimes hated him, then that was what they’d have to do. They’d figure out another way. But he wouldn’t end her life.
Aeric turned, but then he heard a voice whispering to him inside the beating. A gentle stillness that fluttered all around him and it was warm and inviting and so pure it made his own heart cry out in despair.
Do not leave me like this…
This time it wasn’t Chrysalis’ voice he heard, it was Lissa’s and his soul bled.
Lissa!
Aeric… I feel you inside me. I didn’t know I was sick, I swear it, my love. I swear it.
I know.
Her sadness was heavy as it settled on him.
You have to do this. You have to take her out of us.
How do you even know I’m here? He asked. Chrysalis said you did not know of your other side?
Just then he felt the fluttering awareness of a second presence. It was as soft and gentle as Lissa’s, but tempered with a hint of passionate madness.
She told me the truth, Lissa’s words felt like a caress on his soul.
I’m sorry, Lissa. I can’t do this. I can’t kill you. I won’t. I’m not going to lose you again.
That’s not your choice to make. Chrysa showed me the things we’ve done, the peoples we’ve hurt, I will not live that way. Not again. Do what you must to take reflection out of us. I will come back to you. I vow it.
Her absolute belief in him made him feel a level of self-loathing like he’d never known before. Aeric could still feel the agony of her body, and yet she spoke to him with love. The things he was doing to her, it was killing her. She had to know it. And yet she begged him to continue.