“I like you, Emerie,” Mayumi said with a sigh. “And the only reason I’m not stopping you is because I have a family to think about. Call it selfish, but something in your brain changes when you’re a parent. You will throw yourself and anyone else between your kids and the enemy. It’s probably the only reason she is asking you.”
“Then why the fuck are you shouting at me for?” Emerie snapped back.
She wasn’t really shouting, but her tone was harsh and painful against the fragile emotional exterior she had right now.
“I don’t know,” she grumbled back. “Maybe because I think this is fucked up and I wish we didn’t have to do this? I’m angry because we shouldn’t even be in this shitty situation in the first place.”
Emerie spun around and narrowed her stare at Mayumi. “Then can we think of a solution for keeping Ingram away so I can do this utterly fucked thing?”
“Faunus will help,” Mayumi stated. She threw her hand up when it was obvious Lindiwe was about to protest. “He will. I’ll be honest with you. None of the Duskwalkers care about anyone more than their brides. Each of them would throw each other under the carriage if it meant protecting them. Orpheus may be the most selfish and protective, but Faunus is cunning. He will find a way to get the other three to leave, Ingram included.”
Rubbing at her arm, Emerie turned her face away. “Sorry, Mayumi, but I don’t think I can wait.”
She lowered her hand and stomped forward a step. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t wait for you. I know the longer I’m here, the more I’ll cave. I’ll either back out, or if Ingram asks me for my soul, I’ll give it to him in a heartbeat.”
As long as he was okay with Emerie not being able to give him children... of course.
“You’re kidding me,” the woman almost growled. “Are you really telling me I have to stay behind?” When Emerie winced, she threw her hands up. “Why now? Why when I’m pregnant? I could wring Faunus’ neck so hard right now.”
“I’m sorry, Mayumi,” Emerie muttered with her shoulders falling.
“We can do this without you,” Lindiwe stated. “Reia and Delora would be enough of a diversion to keep the worst of the Demons away with Weldir’s magic protecting us.”
“Do you want to know what I’ve been dying to ask since I met his stupid chalky face?” Mayumi sneered with spite. “Why the fuck isn’t he doing anything to help?”
“Because he is unable to. In order to just have a visible form in this world, he must consume a soul totally, destroying it in the process. It weakens him every time afterwards. He also cannot touch anything here, so he cannot even hold the stone unless he is in Tenebris.”
“Well, isn’t that just convenient?” Mayumi bit back. “I was wondering why the deadbeat hadn’t been helping more.”
Lindiwe’s glare turned so sharp, it was like she wanted to stick daggers into the short woman. “You think this doesn’t pain him? He watches over all of them, and it eats at him that he cannot help. I am both of us in this world, and it’s his magic I use in order to protect everyone. That is how he contributes, because it is the only way he can. Even though it weakens him for me to do so, to the point that sometimes he is forced to sleep to conserve his energy while I drain him more and more. He is at risk of death every time I do so, which will endanger not just us, but the Elves he has sworn to protect.”
Mayumi rolled her eyes and walked to Emerie. “Say I believe you, he or you better figure out how everyone is supposed to make it to the Demon King’s castle within the span of a day, otherwise none of this will work.”
“Like I said yesterday, I have a way.”
“Which is?”
“A portal.”
That quietened Mayumi. She placed her hand on Emerie’s shoulder, before yanking her in for a hug. Emerie froze, not expecting something like this from the usually hard woman.
“I’m sorry you’re being asked to do this, but if it works, there’s nothing in the world I could say or do that would show my appreciation.” She tightened her arms around Emerie’s waist while she plopped her chin on her shoulder. It spurred her into returning it. “I don’t even like hugging people, so this is the best I can do.”
“Neither do I,” Emerie admitted.
“Then why the hell did I start this for?”
She didn’t know how it was possible right now, but Emerie weakly laughed. She pulled away, and Mayumi let her go.
“It’ll take time for me to round up the others and for us to make a plan to get rid of the boys. I’ll let Faunus in on it, and we’ll go from there.”
Emerie gave a nod, her throat too thick with emotion to speak. Her shoulders fell, and she looked at Lindiwe, who appeared guarded, when only a few moments ago she had been vulnerable and soft.
She averted her gaze to the eerie forest before drifting it up to the moon.
Part of her wanted to back out of this more than anything.
Emerie wished she and Ingram had never come here to begin with. They could have journeyed anywhere they wanted to go, and she would have fallen more and more in love with him until her soul jumped out from wherever it came from for him to take.
Maybe he would have accepted that she could never give him what Mayumi could for Faunus. He didn’t seem to mind her scars, and over time, she’d begun to feel more at ease about them around him. He’d provided her solace in times when she really needed it, when no human had been able to do that for her. Even though he’d almost eaten her multiple times, his arms still felt safe and protective, and she’d started seeing him as a shield from the horribleness of the world, as well as her own mind.
And he was trying.
Ingram tried his hardest to be gentle, when everything about his exterior was monstrous and frightful. His raven skull, short goat horns, his scales, spikes, and long, thick tail. His claws were deadly, and yet he’d managed to dance them across her skin with such a lightness it stimulated her into gulping at the air with need.
Sometimes, he was frightening in the most titillating way. His growl unexpectedly had her thoughts clouding.
In the back of her mind, and in a corner of her heart, she was hoping Ingram would find a way to stop her before she did this.
If I’m going to die... would it be selfish of me to ask for one real night with Ingram? A parting gift for her, not just from him, but from the world, and a way to teach him something for when he, undoubtedly, found the bride he was meant to have.
The one that wasn’t her.
Sadness washed over, so heavy and cold it threatened to drown her. She wished her eyes didn’t bubble with tears again, but she couldn’t suppress the ache in her chest no matter how much she tried.
It wasn’t fair. None of this was.
I want to be with him.
Emerie had decided if today was truly going to be her last day on Earth, then she would shamelessly milk it for all it had to give. Other than having a bath at Delora’s because, well, she wanted to go out clean, she spent the rest of the time doing what she wanted.