Slay My Soul

Watching the strongest in our circle crumble and weep is heart-wrenching. Eve's sudden death has shocked us to our core and turned our world upside down. She had been a force of nature. No matter what they threw at her or what they did to her, Eve always came back, always! But this time, she didn't come back. I had warned them all. How much more was she supposed to take, but everyone had faith in her ability to keep on going. The enemy had drugged Eve up to the eyeballs, leaving her disoriented. She didn't stand a chance of defending herself when the king attacked her. No last words, no battle cry, no goodbyes. She was just gone.

The bond hasn't snapped as I thought it would. It has shriveled up like a mummified corpse and floods me with the pain of her life force no longer humming through it. My heart thuds out of sync and deep inside I feel like my soul is screaming. The feeling of loss and my heartbreaking, have brought me to my knees. When we had laid her to rest, I felt numb. I told myself it wasn't real as I went through the motions like a zombie, all the while chanting in my head soon, soon, soon. Soon we would be together again.

Garret had torn through the forest in dragon form, destroying everything in his path. Sirus had beat the crap out of Luka for interfering in Max and Eve's mating. Acassus stood guard at the grave site while his brother, the wolves, the Lycan, and the Witch took over the war room to plot how best to proceed. Yet here I am shambling around, no better than a zombie. My vines no longer come out of my wrist and nature no longer calls to me. I exist in a manner that can not even truly be considered living. This first week without her is hell. I can't tell you when I last showered or if I ate, and I'm okay with that. I would rather not exist at all, but we need to destroy Belestine, release the Demons, and free the souls. Nothing will stop me after that, from climbing onto her grave and using the last of my energy to sink through the soil and be with her forever.

"Ly!" Irinda screams in my ear.

"What," I growl at him.

"I've been calling your name for quite some time. Are you alright?" I glare at him. "Yes, quite right." (It was a stupid question.) "Can I assist with anything? What's the next step here?" My brother asks. I scrub at my face. Certainly not the step I wish it was. This way is the slightly more isolated but scenic route to death. But it doesn't matter, the end result will still be the same. I will be rejoined with my soul mate, who is probably already raising merry hell in the heavens. I hope for their sake they have plenty of cheesecake and booze up there to bribe her to behave.

"We try and kill Belestine, or die trying," I answer at last. "Irinda you are the next in line. When I fall-"

"If," he corrects.

"When I fall," I say, my tone steely and my eyes glaring. "You are to be King. Take our people to safety and merge into the human world. Take as many of the other races with you as you can. Our people will all become lost. None of the other races have an heir or a named successor waiting to lead them into this dark world. You will need to try and keep the peace and keep them safe." My brother swallows hard and looks a little pale.

"Or you could just not die and do it instead," he offers. I look away. "Yeah, I get it, and I swear to do my best for as long as the Fates will it."

"Fuck the Fates," I snarl. "We make our own fate from here on out. This whole mess was Fates doing. They don't get to pull our strings anymore!"

"So how do we get to Belestine?" Irinda asks at last.

"The plan we had before they invaded the pack lands was solid enough. I think we should still do it. Except we storm the castle for Belestine instead of the rescue we were going to do."

"You should really go to the war room then. They are trying to come up with some complicated over the top scheme that is as stupid as it is unnecessary. They won't achieve shit. Go and talk some sense into them."

"I will soon," I murmur.

"You have been kneeling at her grave so long the flowers in your hand aren't even upright. Look at them all wilted and it's not even a hot day. Get out of your head for five minutes and go be the King we need you to be for just a moment. Be the man Eve would want you to be." I know he says it to try and prod me out of my funk but all it does is piss me off.

"Eve doesn't want me to be anything, she's fucking dead!" I roar. My head jerks aside as he lands a punch on my jaw, pain flaring as blood rushes to my jaw.

"Do you feel that? That pain tells me you are still alive. So either do something with that life or call it a day. Stop just existing, it's depressing as fuck." He stomps away from me and I fight the urge to tackle his arrogant ass. I turn back to face Eve's grave. The thing that sucks the most is I can't even comfort myself with the idea that she is safe and reunited with Reece, because Reece is still stuck with Belestine. I just hope her parents- actually nope, she was pissed at them for what they did to Sirus. Okay, her brother then. Hopefully, he will be looking out for her and keeping her company until we get there. Soon, soon, soon.

I need to fast-track the guys, the ones doing the planning are taking too long. Irinda is right. The original plan was a good one. It just needs some minor tweaking. I touch the earth of Eve's grave and picture her in my arms, looking lovingly into my eyes. No one could ever stir my emotions as deeply as she could. I let a tear fall, sending my love through the ground to her body below. Her image is crystal clear in my mind.

I reluctantly get to my feet and stagger off toward the war room. I don't bother knocking on the door, just barge on in. Dev, Darius, Carino, and a few of the generals turn to look at me.

"Stop overthinking shit, the original plan was a good one. Bomb them with dragons, infiltrate the castle and find Belestine. If Belestine was able to block portals in my realm, our witches should be able to find a way too. We stop the prick from escaping and release the souls and the Demons. It's straightforward and doable. May even surprise ourselves and win." I blurt. There are nods and murmurs of approval.

"Shit, you're right, we are overthinking it. Carino, you reckon you can figure out how we can stop them portalling out of the castle?"

"I have a hunch. I'll need someone to portal me to the archives to confirm," Carino muses.

"Take Mikyda, he still seems to be keeping his shit together," Dev says. I snort, funny how the most psychotic of us is functioning the best. Then I remember Garret and Sirus are locked up in the cells again, heavily sedated until the guys are ready to let them loose to cause as much destruction as possible to the enemy.

Sirus is convinced his daughter is alive and keeps trying to dig her up and Garret keeps trying to convince us to end his own life. I sympathize with them both. My heart can't accept my head's reasoning that she's dead either, and I certainly don't want to be alive without my girl at my side. Actually, I stand by my original statement. Mikyda is definitely the most psychotic, everyone else is mourning in their own way and he's acting... normal, which is unnerving the fuck out of all of us.

I give a nod of approval to the men at the table.

"Great get to it then, let me know when we leave."

Soon, soon, soon.