Golden Prophecy

V I

SHE WAS having nightmares.

She was standing at the edge of the Snow Clan base, back in the Human World. She was standing, watching the Daemonium destroy the people that lived there. There was screaming, so much screaming, and so much death and blood and the screaming.

Andorra couldn't move. She was rooted in place, but forced beyond her control, forced to watch as they terrorized the town square, the same one she had walked once with Lithe and Oberon, buying stalks of brussel sprouts, hoping to build a bridge between Lithe and herself.

That felt like so long ago. Like years had passed between now and then, when things were simple and she was in love with a boy who had a dark past and a darker future.

She watched, trapped, as Oberon and Lithe stepped into the town center. Oberon had his hands around his mouth, screaming, "Andorra!" Beside him, Lithe was crying, perhaps out of fear or out of losing Andorra, there was no telling which.

It was like being held down. She fought the bonds that held her tight, trapped her there, forced to watch as a Daemonium came from nowhere and crashed down on her friends, gripped them with one large, black inky hand.

Andorra felt the scream rip from her throat. She watched Oberon slip through the inky hands, falling falling falling towards the ground. Andorra couldn't watch him hit the cobblestones, wouldn't let herself watch as the red of his blood mixed with the white of his hair.

Lithe was still in its hands, wriggling and writhing and screaming and crying. She was fighting. She was a human and she was fighting. Andorra watched, helpless as Lithe was lifted and then, with no hesitation, swallowed by the Daemonium.

Andorra was speechless. She was floored. She was still as stone, trying to process the death of her friends. Oberon was still on the stone. Lithe was gone. And the Daemonium wasn't finished.

"Andy!"

Andorra spun towards that voice, watching as Noah spilled into the Town Square. He was bloody and torn and upset, tears staining his cheeks. And he was yelling for her, so desperate his voice was raw and broken, scraping against the back of his throat.

Andorra hadn't been sure Oberon and Lithe could see her, but Noah could see her. They made eye contact through the square, and there was real relief in his eyes as he charged towards her. One flick of his wrist and the Daemonium charging towards him turned to ice, freezing up in a moment, frozen in time.

There were no words. Noah wrapped his body around her and held on so tightly Andorra couldn't breathe. She wrapped her arms around him, finding solace in his arms, crying for him and Oberon and Lithe and wishing, wishing things didn't have to end this way.

His hands found her cheeks, rubbing the tears away, and Andorra felt the breath stolen from her throat at the sight of him, there, finally, in front of her. It had been too long. So long. "Andy," he said over and over again, whispering the words against her skin. It was like a mantra he kept saying, and it broke Andorra every time he said it.

And then, when he let her go, there was something about his face. It was dark, cold, murderous. It was not his face at all, and there in his hands was a long, long dagger. There was something about the way his hands caressed it, pet it, stroked it that made Andorra vomit all over the cobblestone beneath her feet.

"My dear Andorra," he whispered to the dagger. "How I will love to kill you. You didn't think you'd come with us, did you? Poor sun faerie, really thought we'd love you?"

He looked her in the eye, and plunged the dagger into Andorra's chest, right where her human heart beat for the last time.

She looked at him, at his eyes, his blue eyes, and she broke. She slumped forward, blood rushing from her mouth, her hands grinding into the stone. With one hand, she felt for the dagger, gripping it tightly. She looked up at Noah, at the love of her life, wondering what she had done wrong. What she had done to deserve this death.