John continued to pull on me, and in my weakened state, his efforts managed to pry one of my arms away from William’s back. The instant my arm parted from him, he came back to life—he came back to the wretched reality that still held us.
His head and upper body snapped up from the floor, resting in a straightened position over his knees bent beneath him. His head turned in my direction, and as my other hand tore away from him, William reached for it, grabbing it before it was out of reach. Even against the force of Stella’s formidable gift, he pulled me back to him, easily besting John’s efforts.
I didn’t need anymore than a second now, and as my desperate eyes met his—the emotions blackening them staggered me—I leaned in to kiss his lips for the last time, letting them linger there for a moment, until I saw John and his four men preparing their offensive.
When I removed my lips from his and recaptured my wits—it was silly I was still having these kind of school girl reactions given the gravity of the situation pressing upon us—I stared into his eyes and whispered, “I’ll see you again soon. I’ll meet you in your dreams.”
I witnessed the acknowledgement and the devastation that soon followed. Looking entirely depleted, William nodded his head. No matter what physically happened to me, no one could ever take me away from William’s mind. That’s where he’d been introduced to me, and that’s where I would now remain.
I felt multiple sets of hands affix to me, pulling me away from the haven of his arms, but this time, I didn’t fight it. Having said what I’d needed to, I would only be delaying the inevitable, and I knew every passing second would drip another drop of hemlock into the veins of my beloved; who was now grasping for me frantically as space continued to separate us. Needing no guard to hold him back with Stella’s hand affixed, the four men pulled me behind the Council table.
I didn’t fight against them, but I kept my back to them so I could keep my eyes on William. So it would be his figure that would calm and guide me as I left this world. His face that would be the last one my eyes would see and my mind would process, burning it with the finality of death into my soul.
I felt a hard edge crush against my heels, and then another, as I was drug up the pillar of stairs to the table that had sent a shiver of dread down my spine when I’d first seen it. The table I now knew, for which purpose it served.
My eyes didn’t waiver from William. I witnessed the beads of sweat that formed upon his forehead while he concentrated, attempting to overcome Stella’s hold on him. I witnessed him growl in misery when he couldn’t conquer the numbing power she had on him, as he watched the four men continue to pull me up the stairs. His eyes were wild, and in between surges of concentration, he’d yield momentarily, panting from his useless efforts, before tearing into the next bout of concentration.
I couldn’t decide which had been worse to witness—William’s wreathing body crushed beneath the weight of pain, or the violent frustration from his strength rendered useless exhibited before me now.
I couldn’t stand it anymore. “Please, William, stop!” I shouted, making my selfishness known over the swarms of chaos filling the room. I didn’t want this to be my last memory of him.
His demeanor changed almost immediately at my request. The furrowed brow of frustration and teeth clenched in concentration, relaxed, and a rare beauty came over his face. He was filling my growing darkness with peace. He was making the passage between worlds bearable, and I felt the tears form before they spilled down my cheeks, wetting the pale silk below.
We must have reached the top landing of the stairs, for the steady beat of each stair pounding against my heels ceased. My assertion was confirmed when Thomas picked me up and laid me down on the table. It was even colder and more cryptic feeling than my nightmares had done it justice. My breath grew heavy and labored, and my grip on sanity began to peel away in quickening layers.
I recognized these frantic reactions had only escaped when I turned my eyes away from his. I turned my head, now lying flat against the stone table, towards his still beautiful face—and while the planes of his face remained flat and unlined, I saw molten torture flowing in his eyes.
I smiled weakly at him, hoping I’d managed the level of reassurance in it I’d intended, as I felt the chill of the metal shackles cinch into place over my wrists, and next my ankles. I understood the reason they’d become a vestige of this death doomed table, but they were needless in my case. I was going nowhere. I would accept the deepest of punishments without a fight, with the knowledge William would live.
The metal restraints in place, the four men swiftly descended away from the darkest of Immortal places. I held no contempt for them as their apologetic faces graced over me, before their hurried footsteps could be heard descending the stairs, leaving me alone—nothing but the comforting solace of William’s eyes to keep me sane.
His eyes shot away from mine for a moment, flitting between the seven new figures ascending the stairs. Panic suffocated me as I watched their dark, determined faces survey me with duty-filled regard.
“I swear to you all that I will hunt each one of you down and make you pay.” If I hadn’t been watching him, I wouldn’t have believed the fierce words were coming from his mouth. “Each of you will suffer,” he continued, glaring his hate at each of the ascending Councilmen. “I will not rest until your Immortal bodies are dead and burning in a fire I’ll never let burn out . . . trapping your souls in an eternal Hell,” he spat. His words frightened me, and I didn’t miss that they frightened a few of his intended targets as well.
It was John who responded with his standard, unimpressed tone. “You will try . . . but if you ever come back here, you will suffer the same fate Bryn is now,” John threatened.
The thought was too much to bear. “Please William, don’t,” I screamed my plea.
“Listen to her,” John instructed, nearing the top stair. “Although, I wouldn’t mind if you did so much as show your face around here one day in the future. I don’t think the Council would let you off the hook so easily again.” He stopped, and turned his head to face William. “I’ll look forward to seeing you again soon.”
The veins in William’s face were bursting through his skin, and his whole body was quivering from the emotions flowing within. “You will die before I do John, that I vow to you. The only difference in our forthcoming deaths is that I will look forward to mine and what awaits me there.” William’s eyes tracked back to me then, indicating what would wait for him.
“So melodramatic all the time, Mr. Hayward,” John chided, still sounding unimpressed. “I suppose we’ll have to wait and see . . . although Bryn doesn’t have long to wait to see.” He chuckled, shaking his head with his amusement.
They were upon me then, the seven men taking their final, unified step which would place them on the flat stone landing where I now lay, awaiting their verdict.
Perhaps knowing his threats had done nothing to change what was coming, he turned his eyes back to me, not wanting to waste the last moments we had together in this world.
“I love you!” he cried over the space separating us, and the echo it came at me with after hitting off all the walls, corners, and crevices in the room, sounded like a symphony playing a song that had been written especially for me.
I bit my lip to keep the calm mask I held over my face from falling, and another tear escaped my eye and trickled down the left side of my face. I nodded my reply, because words were no longer attainable in this world I was now in—caught between the strongest and truest of loves, and the darkest form of evil which would settle for nothing but my life in its quest for blood.
Desperate as my eyes were to examine what was taking place immediately around me, I kept them locked on William’s face. His façade was melting at the nearness of my life ending, but I concentrated on gazing over the lines of his face, and keeping my breathing controlled—hoping these pieces of absorption would get me through this final stage with composure.
After all, William had given me what I’d requested—the final image of him not being an agonized one—and I would do all within my power to give him the same; so the image of me coiling in pain as my life was sucked from my very core would not haunt his dreams and nightmares alike.
I felt seven sets of hands come into contact with my skin, gripping over equally spaced locations on my now trembling body—the seven members of the Council, John now serving as a punisher. Their fingers felt cool on my skin, almost frigidly so, but they were strong and emitted determination.
John was immediately above me, having placed his hands over each of my shoulders, and I could feel his eyes burning into me, willing me to look at him; but when I stayed firmly focused on William, John turned his head to the figure that was keeping me centered.
“Look familiar, William?” John’s maliciousness spewed from his mouth in a concentrated dose. William’s eyes didn’t leave mine to look at him, but his sudden rigidness encouraged John forward.
“The account of your Immortalization always stuck with me when I heard it told long ago. How loathsome one must feel knowing he was the one responsible for the obliteration of his entire family . . .”
William winced, but refused to look away from me.
“Stop it, John,” I whispered, fresh tears flowing down my face.
An evil chuckle sounded in John’s throat. “Here’s to reliving the past, Mr. Hayward . . . enjoy watching yet another woman you love die, while you watch helplessly on your knees.”
William slumped forward, and the age of living the decades he had clouded his hollow eyes. I prayed for the physical pain I knew would be coming to release me from the far more devastating kind I was experiencing now. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Draco signal the Council with a nod of his head, and I braced myself for what I could only imagine coming.
And then I felt it.
It was like nothing I’d ever felt in my life—both Mortal and Immortal—and as I searched my overwhelmed mind for words to describe it, none were nearly fitting. Agony, excruciating, misery, burning, insufferable, blazing . . . none came even close to describing what raged through my body. It threw me into sudden convulsions, and my eyes were forced from William’s as my head threw itself around.
“NO!”
I heard the excruciating wail, and sure as I was of it coming from William, and as desperately as I wanted to turn to face and comfort him—despite the hell coursing through me—something much stronger, and with inescapable hold, wouldn’t allow my focus to take place anywhere else but what was currently scorching every fiber of my body.
No, scorching wasn’t nearly right either. It was violent—like a hundred wild animals tearing the flesh from my bones and sucking the marrow from within.
Another surge of intensity overthrew my thought process, and my spent mind sputtered a weak response, but one that was the closest I could come up with. Given the exponential weakening taking place within my mind and body with each passing second, it would be the strongest explanation I knew I could find. It was like feeling the life siphoned out from every vein, muscle fiber, organ, and most importantly of all . . . your spirit.