Calamity Falls | Wattys 2019

Epilogue

Reinard finished tying the bow around his neck. His glazed eyes barely glanced at himself in the mirror. He wasn't in a very good mood today.

After all, it wasn't everyday you have to bury one of your most trusted confidants and friends, someone close enough to be considered family.

He assessed the bags under his eyes as he reflected on when she told him the truth.

"King Reinard, I need to discuss something with you." She closed the door to his office quietly.

"What is it Calamity?" He asked. He continued to work on the documents in front of him without sparing her a glance.

"This war will be my last," she confided. "What I'm about to tell you must not leave this room."

Reinard set his reading glasses on the desk hastily. "What are you talking about?"

Calamity sighed. "I will die on the battlefield. I saw it in my vision, and I have only seen the other visions come true up to this point." She met his gaze wearily. "I'm not sure when exactly, but it will be within the next couple months. I will die very soon."

Reinard walked out of his bedroom steadily. His face remained void of all emotions. He could not display his inner turmoil to his people. They needed someone strong to lead them, so that's what he would be.

He saw Sable and Phoenix waiting for him down the hall. They knew. Everything Calamity had told him, he relayed to them after her death, as per her request. Their somber expressions mirrored his.

"How is he?" Reinard asked, walking past them swiftly.

"Not good. I'm worried that he may hurt himself. He just gets worse the more I see him," Sable responded. "Maybe he needs to kno-"

"No," Phoenix interrupted. "Calamity made the right call not telling him. His behavior has been extremely erratic as of late. If he found out it may only make things worse."

"Or it could make things better," Sable countered.

Reinard sighed at their continuous argument. "Both of you hush. If anybody hears you, the information we possess may be compromised."

They quieted immediately.

Reinard sauntered into his office with a determined stride. He opened the box on his desk carefully. Inside laid the crown that he had often stubbornly refused to wear. He took it out and placed it gently on his head.

Calamity had always said it was a sign of disrespect to his company when he neglected to wear it. How would she act if she knew that he was wearing it to her funeral? Would she be proud? Would she be angry that he willingly wore it just for her? Only she could provide those answers.

He slammed the case shut with a sudden burst of rage.

But she wasn't here.

"Sable, go check to make sure he is ready. We are to help carry the casket," Reinard ordered.

Phoenix looked at Reinard. "You know she wouldn't have wanted her king to exert himself because of her."

Reinard smirked halfheartedly. "Then consider this my final act of defiance toward her doting."

Sable went to find the grieving fiance, finding only the shell of a wolf king. His black suit contrasted with the paler of his face. Red-rimmed eyes held back barely-contained tears. No man wanted to have to carry his mate's casket to her grave.

Sable gazed at him sympathetically. "It's time."

Leo sniffed and wiped his eyes a final time before walking through the doorway and past Sable.

It was to be a closed-casket ceremony. None of the men had any disagreements with that. They couldn't bare to see her corpse again, especially Leopold.

They met with Phoenix and Reinard in the foyer. Reinard looked at Leopold indifferently.

"What do you mean die?" Reinard asked, jumping from his seat.

Calamity's eyes drifted to the ground sadly. "You know what I mean. It is exactly as I said." She met his eyes again. "I need you to watch Leopold. He won't be able to cope properly. He could become a danger to himself and others. I can't leave this world knowing that he will try to follow after me."

Reinard was still reeling from the news. Die? Calamity would die? "Why aren't you trying to prevent it? If you know it will happen you should stop it!"

Calamity shook her head solemnly. "It isn't that simple, Your Highness. Just please promise me that you will look out for Leopold."

Reinard shoved aside the horrible feeling wrenching his gut. "Of course," he whispered.

Cold, hard determination swept over her features swiftly. "But there is more. I must tell you of what's to come after my death."

The men strode out of the doors of the human castle somberly. Bowed heads of many species greeted them outside. Human, wolf, demon, and fae alike came to commemorate the death of a warrior that had freed many from the slavery and eminent doom Avarice would have brought down on them.

Caius stood confidently in front of the fae faction present for her memorialization. He now looked like the king he really was, instead of the tortured shell they found in Avarice's basement. A silver crown with sapphire gems sat atop his head. He owed his life and sanity to Calamity.

Seeing the man made Leopold impossibly more dejected, but he was proud of his mate, nonetheless. It wasn't Caius's fault that he reminded him of his mate.

The casket laid on the ground in front of him. The sight nearly broke him.

Leopold, Reinard, Phoenix, Sable, Caius, and Josiah each grabbed a rung to transport the glossy black coffin. They began the slow march to the gravesite Leopold had picked out for her, the site of their engagement.

Leopold felt the cold hands of sorrow wrapping around his throat. His breathing constricted, and his eyes watered again. His went weak in the knees, and his legs gave out beneath him. His corner of the coffin hit the ground loudly. He heard the low screech of wood against wood and a thump afterward.

The lid to the casket fell off.

He couldn't look. Anger coursed through him at his own stupid incompetence. Emotion clouded his thoughts as he fought an oncoming shift. It was her day. He would not do this on her day.

"Leo... look," Josiah coaxed.

He pinched his eyes shut tightly. "I can't Jo. I can't look at her like that," he ground through clenched teeth.

Jo fell to his knees at the sight before him. "Leo... her body... it's... gone."

Reinard gazed at the empty casket knowingly as Leopold whipped his head around to look at the atrocity before him. Leopold growled viciously before taking off into the forest where he shifted, tearing his clothes to shreds.

Reinard continued to stare at the lack of rotting flesh. The weight of what was to come hit him full force as he collapsed onto his knees with his head in his hands.

"What more could there be? Why does it matter if you're dead?" He shouted.

Calamity held his gaze. "An even worse enemy is on the rise, and I will be pulled back into the fight."

Reinard furrowed his brows in confusion. When she spoke again he finally understood.

"King Reinard, I will be resurrected from the dead."

Her hefty gaze weighed his shoulders down.

"I will be back."