Into the Dark

Chapter 39

About an hour later, when things had settled down but no one was feeling encouraged, we starting burning the bodies of the innocent. It was for two reasons specifically: so they wouldn't come back as ghosts and so no nightmarish creature or insect could finish them off.

No one had spoken in that hour; it was like we all connected telepathically and knew what to do, no words were needed. The rest of us focused on Maeve as she watched her aunt be eaten by red flames, and how they glinted off her tear stained face. Odis eventually approached her and put an arm around her shoulders. She accepted the gesture and fell into him when he hugged her, beginning to cry heavily once again.

After a few minutes, when her crying started to fade, I hit my fist against a tree so hard it started to bleed. "Maeve, I'm so sorry. If I wasn't so useless I could've killed him for you," I admitted. If only I knew how to use my powers...

"Bella, don't you dare start blaming yourself. I understand your position and I'm not at all mad at you. I just don't like how Vivian had to suffer for something she really had no part in," the weary witch stated. Her words didn't dull my guilt. I was actually the reason we were in this situation. It all trailed back to me being a whiny baby at home.

Maeve came over and hugged my neck tightly, sniffling back her remaining tears. "I love you too much to ever hate you," she whispered. "All that matters to me is that you actually tried."

I hugged her back as another small voice joined the conversation. "Vivian?" It whispered. I looked to my right to see little Delilah staring at the fire with wide eyes. That was all she said as she watched her friend burn and disappear for good. The look on her face wasn't all shock, mainly sadness and disappointment.

She eventually looked at Maeve and tried to smile. "I would hug you if I could," she then whispered.

"Oh, it's fine, sweetheart. We all need to stop moping around, anyway. We apparently only have forty-eight hours until Salazar returns with his army. It's best if we go ahead and rest up for a few hours so we can move on and put this behind us," the witch replied with a dainty smile.

"Maeve... are you okay?" Kade asked. He put a hand on her shoulder and brushed away the crimson hair that had fallen in her face.

"No," she said. "But I will be." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek gently. Kade was so much taller than her that he had to bend over just to hug her back and she had to stand on her toes. She brushed down his raven hair and pulled his face in front of hers, keeping it steady as she studied his eyes.

"I've already lost one family member... I'm not gonna lose another," she whispered. "We'll figure out a way to cure you, I promise. If we get to Galendale, maybe he can help you too."

The way she said "if" and "maybe" made me flinch. I was more worried about their lives more than I was mine. If we made this trip for nothing, what will happen to them? What if Salazar's plan succeeds?

"Sorry for not saying anything about Kade's sickness. I just didn't want-" I began to say before Kade clamped his hand over my mouth.

"Stop apologizing for everything. We understand you didn't want us all to die. It's okay, Bella," he assured.

"But you're still dying Kade. The sickness..."

"We'll worry about that later." He even smiled down at me as if it would make me feel better. Somehow it did... just a little.

"Alright. We better start resting up," Odis butted in. And we did. Minutes later we were all settled on our blankets and relaxing by listening to the blazing fire, even though it was technically burning two bodies. Delilah, since she couldn't sleep, was going to keep watch over night to ensure no one... or nothing tried to attack us.