City of Secrets

Chapter 21: To Love Is To Destroy

The room was dark, so dark that she couldn't even see the outline of her hands in front of her, and cold. Ember wrapped her arms around herself for warmth, desperately looking through the darkness for a sliver of light to help her find a way to escape, but there was none. She was in complete darkness.

"Ember."

Her breath caught in her throat as she turned in the direction the voice came from, but she saw nothing through the heavy curtain of blackness.

"Ember."

Something cold suddenly appeared in her hand, something smooth and cylindrical that faintly glowed in the darkness. She sighed in relief and pressed the glowing tip against the skin on the back of her hand. A few swipes of the stele later and a Voyance rune appeared on her skin. She winced as the Mark flared up with its silver-gold glow.

"Ember."

She slowly turned, her heart pounding wildly in her chest as she did, and for a moment her heart stopped beating.

There he was.

His green eyes were sad, his back arched forward as if in great pain, silver hair tangled and unkempt.

"Ember." His voice was nothing but a faint whisper, yet it echoed loudly through the room.

"Jonathan," she said, her own voice shaking uncontrollably.

"You've forgotten me," he murmured softly.

"No, I-I could never," Ember stammered, and took a step to him, but he took a step back.

"You said you would always love me," he said. "We said the words to each other, or have you forgotten?"

Fleeting fragments of images swirled in her mind– the soft feeling of a chilly breeze blowing on her face and through her hair, a full moon reflecting on the dark waters of a pond, the rough feeling of tree bark underneath her fingertips, and the blinding bluish white light of a witchlight stone Jonathan held in his pale hands.

"No," she whispered. "I haven't."

"For I am yours, and you are mine," he said with sad green eyes. "From this day to the end of my days, from my first breath to my last. I am yours, and you are mine."

"Stop," Ember said. "I don't want to hear it."

"For I am yours, and you are mine, from this day to the end of my days, from my first breath to my last-" he continued, relentless. "I am yours, and you are mine."

"Please stop," she pleaded, and covered her ears, but he didn't stop. A shard of glass twisted painfully inside her heart with each of his words, stabbing, ripping, breaking, opening scars she thought had healed forever.

"Jonathan," she croaked, and looked at him with pained eyes. "Please stop."

But he didn't.

"I am yours, and you are mine," he said. "Or have you forgotten?"

"YOU'RE DEAD!" she screamed. "You left me alone in this world. You said you would come back for me. You left me."

He flinched at hearing her words. "From this day to the end of my days..."

"SHUT UP!" She tackled him to the ground and pounded her fists against his chest. He made no move to stop her. "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"

"From my first breath to my last," he said, and Ember collapsed against him, completely spent. She erupted into tears and buried her face against his chest. Her tears landed on his black shirt, making the already dark material look even darker.