Happy Veteran's Day to Dex and all those who have served in the military and thank you for your service! ♥️
I worked so hard all Sunday to try and post the chapter on the actual Veteran's day just to wish everyone a happy holiday but it took too long to write. :( With this message it's probably 6,000 words now, so enjoy!
Sophie's heart crashed against her ribs as her eyes swam through the scene playing out before her: rebels swarming around the palace and warhorses dragged large catapults and wagons filled with what looked like large clumps of metal held together by colored wires moving in and out of the jagged edges. Bombs. She realized and a chill ran up her spine, jerking into her shoulders hard enough that Fitz looked over his shoulder to check on her as her eyes glued to their surroundings and she realized that this wasn't just a siege; it was a war.
They slowed to a stop at the edge of the woods and Fitz dismounted before lifting Sophie off. When Keefe touched down next to them, Fitz ordered, "Take Clyde and your horse and hook them up to a carriage and have one of your men take it and hide it along the path where we just came from, then you go get my mother, the triplets, Biana, and Dex and take them to Song Manor. Dex and Lady Linh's guards will protect them."
"We need to get your sword," Sophie reminded Fitz.
"Yes," the prince nodded, "we'll do that first."
"What about Sophie? What will happen to her?" Keefe asked, confused, "Unless... is it time?"
Sophie and her cognate looked at one another for a moment, the question passing between them until Sophie reminded him, "Your father isn't here with us. You're in charge."
With furrowed brows, Fitz answered, "I feel like this is now or never. What do you think?"
She nodded, "I think so too."
"We are going to unleash the hound?" Keefe clarified.
Fitz nodded, "We need to show that we mean business. They've snuck up on us one too many times, now it's our turn to bring out a new asset."
"I'll give it all I've got," she swore, swallowing her fear to prepare for what was to come.
"And I'll be right there at your side," promised Fitz, resting his hand on her shoulder. He turned to the rest of the team of Black Swan members, all of whom still had their hoods down, "As for the rest of you, I don't know what orders you've been given or who your leader is, but I ask you to fight your hardest to protect my people."
"We shall, your highness," a man with an oddly familiar voice agreed. "Citizens are our top priority. It is why we formed the Black Swan."
"I respect your nobleness," nodded Fitz. "Now we must hurry. I hope to see you all on the other side of this."
"And you as well," Keefe smiled. "Long live Evertalia."
"Long live Evertalia," echoed the prince, and wrapped his hand around Sophie's, their rings snapping together as Keefe and the Black Swan broke away. "We'll sneak in through the wine cellar, it's decently close to my office," he whispered.
"What are we waiting for?" she replied before taking off running, pulling Fitz behind her. They tried to avoid the rebels by crouching and moving quickly through teams of their own guards, but when they were spotted by a team of archers Sophie deflected their arrows with telekinesis while Fitz looked for the wine cellar entrance. When a blinking arrow was launched at them, Sophie launched it back at the archers on instinct and found that it was the right instinct as it exploded when it reached the archers, knocking them to the ground.
"Hurry," she whispered to Fitz who was still scanning the ground below the war. "They're down but I don't know for how long."
"I've got it!" he announced to her and yanked it open. "Let's go."
Quickly, she began to climb down the latter, but she was pulled down by the waist the rest of the way by a strong, gruff hand, making her yelp. Immediately upon hearing her distress, Fitz jumped down into the cellar, not bothering to use the latter.
"A pretty one, ain't she?" the man holding her chuckled, his breath smelling like rotten fish in her face. In the dim cellar light, she could see dark tattoos circling up the bald man's arms, and that he had holes punched in the cartilage of his ears with specially shaped metal gauges to line the hole's edges, undoubtedly made through ruthless means. Panicking, Sophie tried to squirm out of his hold, but his muscly grip tightened further. "Might keep her for myself."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Fitz grunted before slugging the goon in the face.
The lug of a man stumbled slightly, giving Sophie enough time to break free and deck him herself, using her telekinesis to drive her fist into his face harder, sending him flying backward.
"Gah," she winched and shook her hand out, her knuckles red from the hit.
Fitz looked at her for a moment, agape, then smiled, "Telekinesis?" She nodded. "Amazing," he breathed and took her hand again, feeling her bruising knuckles to see if they were broken. When he decided she was alright and the goon was starting to get up, Fitz said, "We need to keep going. I've got your back, even without my sword."
Feeling better about their situation, Sophie nodded, and together they bounded up the stairs and closed the door behind them, pulling a nearby table in front of it when they were safely in the hall of the palace. They caught their breath for a moment, but when they saw goons swarming out of the servant's passage at the end of the hall, they pressed themselves against the far wall to avoid being seen. Despite their situation, there was almost an excitement that came with sneaking into the palace while the Neverseen were storming in from the servant's passages - wait.
"They're getting in from the servant's passages," she telepathically transmitted her realization to her cognate. "Aren't those supposed to be guarded?"
"They are," Fitz's brow furrowed and his eyes slowly widened. "We never find or hear about the guards being knocked out before they get in, which must mean..."
"There are traitors among the staff," Sophie concluded. "And we don't know who we can trust."
As the clomping of footsteps started to fade, the two cognates began to peel themselves away from the wall, shocked and confused.
"They're all going in the same direction," noted Fitz. "If they wanted to try to take over the palace, they would want to spread out as much as possible; they would have come this way. It must not be their goal, and if that's true, what's their real goal?"
"We can find that out after we get your sword," she reminded him, and he nodded. Together they continued on their way, moving quickly and cautiously through the halls, only stopping when a loud BOOM shook the palace. Without a second thought, Fitz wrapped Sophie under his arm as tremors shook throughout the building, and Sophie wrapped her arms around his head so it was next to hers, protected as chunks of plaster from the ceiling rained down on them. When it was finally over they slowly moved apart and looked around numbly as the world picked back up to speed again. Servants running down the halls to the safe rooms. Guards rushing to join the fight. Dust raining from the ceiling like snow, covering the rich blue carpet in a thin layer. Sophie was the first one to regain her senses and pulled Fitz along, tearing them out of their little bubble and back into the real world.
To their surprise, they didn't run into any Neverseen members the entire way to Fitz's office and were able to quickly slip inside without a fuss. The fire in the fireplace was down to only a few burning coals when they prowled through the room looking for the sword. They found it in the scabbard leaning against the desk, and after Fitz strapped it on, he paused, scanning the room.
"What is it?" Sophie asked aloud.
"Tam's sword... I don't think the Neverseen are specifically looking for it, but if they raid my office... I don't want them to get it," Fitz walked over to a where it sat in a glass case on a side table by the fireplace. Carefully, he lifted the glass off and set it on the floor underneath the table. He picked it up by the hilt, his fingers under the flat side of the blade, and studied it. "This Great Sword won't fit in my scabbard, the blade is too short and the handle is too long. It would fall out. Tam never used his and it's back at Song Manor, so... hmm." He thought for a moment, weighing the blade in his hands before deciding, "I'll fight with this sword. It isn't mine, but I don't think Tam would mind me using it against the people who killed him. Maybe I'll be able to avenge him somehow."
She nodded, "It would be a good sentiment to pass onto Phillip to not only give him his father's sword but to give him the sword used to avenge his father."
"Yes," Fitz agreed and pulled his own sword out of the scabbard, "and you can use mine."
Sophie blinked in surprise as he handed it to her, "I... But I- I don't know how to use a sword."
"It's better to not know how to use a sword and have one than to know how to use a sword and not have one," he said calmly. "I expect you'll use more telekinesis than anything, but just in case something sneaks up on you from behind... you can swing it back. All you have to remember is to plant your feet firmly on the ground and hold the handle one hand over the other."
Fitz set Tam's sword aside and moved behind her, helping her adjust her grip on the handle, being so close to her she almost blushed. The sword was heavy in her hands and the leather wrapping soft from use. "I know it's a bit heavy for you, but when you get proper lessons we'll get you a lighter sword. Maybe a Rapier. Keefe uses one of those. It's quicker than my Long Sword, but it'll do for now."
"Does the Vacker family have a special sword? Is that the one Alden uses?"
"Yes and no. We do have a family sword, but we never use it. It's enchanted to be able to withstand Everblaze, the unbeatable flame, so we keep it in the treasury with the last surviving spark of..." Fitz's voice trailed off as he realized, "That's what they're after. Everblaze. Why bother taking the palace when you can burn it, and the entire world to the ground?"
"Where is it?" Sophie asked in alarm.
"The center of the first treasury in a special containment system," he replied as he ran to the door. "The Neverseen were headed down the main hall, the one that leads to the treasury. Maybe all these sieges weren't all about showing who's stronger. Maybe their goal was to find the secret treasury all along. Do you remember the lullaby 'Under the Valley, Over The Willow Tree?'"
Frowning, she asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"
"That song isn't a song about how much you love someone. It's about how much you love something. It dates back to when King Fintan, a pyrokinetic, created Evertalia and became obsessed with Everblaze. It was a song he wrote as he was driven to madness by his love for the unbeatable flame, and the song is a map on how to find it. My ancestor, Orem Vacker, overthrew Fintan and cast him out of the kingdom when he started to become too dangerous for our people, and knew the song, but could never decipher it, so he erased it from most history books," Fitz informed her. "I only learned about it through stories my father told me and he only learned about it through stories his mother told him and so forth."
"Under the valleys and over the willow trees; My love for you as strong as love can be," recited Sophie carefully. "How can something be under a valley? If it's underground?"
Fitz nodded, "Yes, but over a willow tree? That means the vault is underground but over something else."
"A safe room? A wine cellar?" she offered.
He shook his head, "No... Oh! The throne room was built over a spring of enchanted youth water."
"Willows are nicknamed "weeping willows," right? So it's an allusion to water in a way?"
"Brilliant!" praised Fitz, who rushed to the door without a second thought.
Sophie was quick to follow and together they ran down the main hall where they saw the Neverseen heading towards previously.
"How much do you think they know?" she transmitted.
"Enough to know it's in the center wing of the palace," her cognate answered, and when the turned the corner they saw Alden fighting with a team of Neverseen goons in the courtyard with Silveny, who Sophie realized she hadn't seen in a couple weeks, tied up in black rope, cast aside behind the goons.
"Sophie! Sophie! Sophie!" the alicorn chirped in her mind. "Help! Help! Help! Bad men! Help!"
"Silveny!" Sophie cried out and rushed down the hall until she finally reached the door, flinging it open to help the petrified alicorn. While Sophie dashed to Silveny's side, Fitz rushed to help his father with the goons. As the prince and king clashed swords with the Neverseen members behind her, Sophie used Fitz's sword to cut Silveny free. The black rope was thick and coarse and rough strands dared to puncture the skin of her hands as she gripped it tightly to saw it apart.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Silveny moaned as Sophie did her best to pull the rope far away from the alicorn's skin so she wouldn't knick her as she cut the rope.
"I know, I know," Sophie transmitted back to the alicorn, guilt churning in her stomach for hurting the magnificent creature. "I'm trying to hurry, I promise."
She was about halfway done when someone rushed to her side, and she was about to raise Fitz's sword in defense but when she saw that it was Keefe, she sighed in relief. "Hey Keefe, did you get them out?"
Keefe nodded and started to use his own sword to help cut the ropes, "I sent them with one of the Black Swan members. Dex is in charge, and I think they'll be okay. I stayed behind because I found a maid who was directing the Neverseen in. I locked her in the dungeon so we can question her later."
"Good," she nodded, and was about to say something when Keefe, looking past her, shouted, "Sophie! Look out!"
Before she could turn around to see the Neverseen rebel standing over her with his sword raised, Fitz brutishly shoved the rebel away with his shoulder, his anger set so far deep into his face that not even the rebel woman's shriek of pain when she landed on her own sword phased him. For a moment, Sophie was terrified of the prince standing above her, but when he looked down at her, his expression softened, melting the fear in her heart instantly. "I've got your back," he promised as another goon advanced behind him.
"Fitz-" Alden started to call out, but Sophie was quicker and lurched forwards, swiping the goon's shins with Fitz's sword behind Fitz's legs. When Fitz saw this, he roughly threw his elbow back, hitting the rebel in the chest as he started to go down, knocking him to the ground for good.
"I've got yours too," promised Sophie. "Now go win."
Fitz nodded and returned to the fight, and Sophie helped Keefe finish cutting the last bit of rope. When they finished and there were only two goons left, Sophie and Keefe helped Silveny stand up, and the alicorn spread her wings anxiously, about to take flight.
"Hey, hey, hey," Keefe soothed gently, "you're safe now. We aren't going to hurt you." When Sophie shot him a questioning look, he replied, "I met the other alicorn in Clementro when I was working with the Black Swan. I'll tell you all about it when we get out of this."
"Alicorn! Alicorn! Alicorn!" Silveny asked hopefully, fluttering her wings. "Another? Another? Another? Keefe! Keefe! Keefe!"
"Yeah, when things are settled we'll get you guys to meet, Glitter Butt," promised Keefe.
"Glitter Butt?"
"Sparkly manure."
"Glitter Butt! Glitter Butt! Glitter Butt!" Silveny parroted happily, causing Sophie to roll her eyes. Great.
"We need to keep going," Fitz urged as he knocked out the last of their attackers. "The Neverseen are after the Everblaze in the ancient vault. We think they're close to finding it. They're getting more desperate."
"Where is the vault?" Alden asked, he and his son moving closer to Sophie, Keefe, and Silveny. "It's been hidden from us for centuries."
"Under the-" Sophie started to say but was cut off by a large shadow passing over them. When they looked up and saw it was a bomb, Sophie and Keefe urged a panicked Silveny down, and they all crouched to the ground. It exploded when it came into contact with the roof of the South West wing, sending chunks of rock flying into the air like water from a geyser. When the pieces of rock started to fall to the earth towards them, Sophie stood up, Fitz crying out in protest, and raised her arms in the air. Concentrating, she grabbed two big pieces with her telekinesis and held them over her friends, letting the other ceiling fragments bounce off of it and roll to fall around them.
Sophie grunted at the weight but found it was eased when Fitz and Alden stood up to help her. Together they waited until the last of the pieces fell before setting their impromptu shield down. Slowly, Silveny and Keefe stood up, and everyone's face was white with fear.
"We need to take out the artillery," decided Fitz. "The palace can't take much more of this."
"What do we do?" asked Keefe.
Sophie, having an idea, turned to Silveny and placed a hand on the alicorn's muzzle lovingly as she transmitted, "Would you be willing to help us out?"
"Scared! Scared! Scared!" whined Silveny in Sophie's mind.
"I know, I am too, but we need to do out part. We need to save Everglen and the people in it. Please, Silveny? We'll have someone protect you. All we'd need is for you to fly around."
"Help! Help! Help! Save people! Save people! Keefe! Keefe! Keefe! Glitter Butt! Glitter Butt!" Silveny replied with a whinny.
Laughing slightly, Sophie announced, "Fitz and I need to go protect the vaults, but we need someone to go up into the sky with Silveny to take out the artillery from the air. She wants you, Keefe. How good is your telekinesis?"
"Not the best," he admitted. "But I've flown an alicorn before."
"But mine is," Alden stepped up. "Keefe can steer and I can focus on using the Neverseen's own bombs against them - at least, if that's okay with you, Silveny."
"Would you let Keefe steer you and Alden take out the artillery to protect us? Remember how Alden was first here to save you from the Neverseen? He's a good man, a strong one too."
Silveny seemed to contemplate this for a moment before eagerly deciding, "Yes! Yes! Alden! Help! Yes!"
Sophie nodded and Alden smiled, a youthful light sparkling in his eyes. "I've always wanted to fly an alicorn," he remarked. "I am only sorry to say it's under these circumstances."
Sophie gave Silveny a big hug and kissed her nose affectionately, "Stay safe and trust Alden and Keefe. I'll see you when this is all over."
"See you! See you!" Silveny nuzzled Sophie's face and fluttered her wings.
Keefe moved closer to Silveny and carefully put a hand on her neck, "The stables have been raided so there's no more saddles."
"There's no time anyway," Alden decided.
Sophie asked Silveny to kneel down and Alden and Keefe climbed on her back with Keefe in the front gripping her mane and Alden in the back. Fitz grabbed some of the pieces of rope that once held Silveny, scaring the alicorn until Sophie convinced her to calm down, and used them to tie Alden and Keefe together.
"To Silveny too?" Fitz asked Sophie.
"Can Fitz tie a little rope around you to keep Keefe and Alden from falling off?" she asked, and Silveny shifted uncomfortably. "I know it hurt you last time, but we want everyone to come out alive, okay? We want everyone safe. Please? As soon as you guys are done Keefe and Alden will cut it right off and it won't be so tight like last time." After promising a whole barrel of swizzlespice, Silveny finally agreed and let Fitz secure a rope around her.
"Be safe you guys," Sophie smiled a little and Fitz wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"We need to get going," he whispered in her ear and she nodded.
"Catch you on the flip side!" Keefe called out as Silveny chorused with "Flip side! Flip side! Flip side!" before they shot into the air along with Sophie and Fitz's hopes for their safety.
Sophie and Fitz didn't hang around long after that and rushed back into the palace. Without further delay, they sprinted to the throne room, Fitz's arm still wrapped around her as if the prepare to duck from another explosion at any moment, keeping them together. Together they ran into the throne room to see if the Neverseen had found the secret vault, only to find a large swarm of them trashing the place.
"We need to create a distraction," Sophie transmitted. "To keep them from searching more. They could find it."
"Are you making the suicidal suggestion of announcing our arrival and fighting all of these guys at once?" Fitz asked, almost amused.
"If that's what it takes," she swallowed.
"If you fall, I fall."
She echoed the sentiment with a weak half smile, "If you fall, I fall."
"Let's do this."
"HEY!" Sophie shouted among the crowd, using her telekinesis to throw a Neverseen goon across the throne room, barreling him into his comrades. All eyes turned to them, and Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat. "COME AND GET US!"
To reinforce their message, Sophie and Fitz rushed forwards, swords out, and telekinesis at hand. While Fitz slashed goons to their knees, Sophie cast them aside, knocking them against the wall with only a flick of her hand. Once the goons saw that they meant business, they began to swarm Sophie and Fitz, trying to overwhelm them, with decent success. They came from every direction, swords and knives glinting in the flickering light of the candles and twinkling menacingly in the flecks of glass from the chandelier, windows, and mirrors swirling as rebels soared to smack against the wall and rising into the air as they hit the floor. Sophie and Fitz pushed towards the center of the room, and all was going well until Fitz gasped in pain, clutching his shoulder.
"Fitz!" she cried out loud before transmitting, "What's wrong?"
"Shoulder stitches popped," he explained. "Don't worry, keep going."
"How can I not worry-" Sophie made the mistake of turning back to look at him for a moment, letting a goon slash her knife deeply across her cheek from the corner of her mouth to the cartilage of her ear. Instinctively, she expelled a burst of telepathic energy out in front of her, knocking all of the goons around her halfway across the room and her stomach lurched and she felt nauseous as she tasted the blood from the outside of her cheek seeping into the inside of her mouth.
"Sophie? Are you okay?" he asked worriedly but she quickly dismissed him, not wanting him to have a similar experience.
"It's nothing. Just a scratch. Stay focused!"
As she transmitted, Neverseen rebels from the edge of the room waved more in, and the bodies Sophie and Fitz left immobile on the floor were either stepped on or over as the number of goons in the room multiplied until there was more than there were when they walked in. Instead of taking on three or four each at a time, they now took on six or seven each at once. Sophie couldn't even focus on how Fitz was anymore because the moment she took her attention away from the men and women attacking her was the moment she got nicked by their blades, some deeper than others but the deepest one remaining her cheek which she kept painfully shut by half pursing her lips on one side. They were fighting back to back now with no space between them, and every time Fitz grunted in pain, her heart gripped with the ache to reach back and hold him, but she forced herself to stay focused, even when Fitz's head jerked back and hit hers. He didn't bother apologizing, but he didn't need to. She knew it was an accident, and that whatever caused it would make her stomach churn when she finally got a chance to see.
Despite the odds, all was going decently well until she heard Fitz cry out in pain, and felt him start to collapse behind her. When he sunk to the floor from what Sophie saw from the corner of her eye was a deep gash along his abdomen, Sophie felt her adrenaline take over. Protectively, she stood over him and began to fight harder with new energy. Instead of feeling like she was wielding a weapon, she became the weapon. She left Fitz's sword at his side and used both arms to knock goons aside. Sophie let her body move with the gestures, working in a intervals of singular swiping motions. But it wasn't enough. Yes, her telekinesis was strong, but every time a radical was knocked down, two more stood up, and Sophie was soon starting to use her rhythm. Her telekinesis was less precise as her energy began to leak out from her body and fear set in. What if she couldn't hold them off on her own? What would happen to them then? What if she just wasn't strong enough? What if-
Before she could doubt herself further, Fitz wrapped his hand, sticky and warm with blood, around her ankle and she felt a surge of mental energy course through her body. Energy transfer, she realized and took it well into stride. This time, instead of working harder, she worked smarter. She pulled every weapon from every goon she could and started to slowly spin them around the room as a sort of barrier. As Sophie's arms moved around in a circular motion, her body leaned in the same direction until she became the eye of a storm of blades. She leaned forward from the waist and let her torso roll to follow behind her arms, drifting around and around, letting her arms sweep low and high. The more goons that came in, the more weapons she took, and the more weapons she took, the more radicals went down. Gradually, she moved faster and faster, keeping her breathing even and her heart rate steady, watching in a blur as radicals fell before her.
Then she tried something new. She began moving her arms in opposite circles and created two rings of swords rotating in the opposing directions, more radicals falling, wounded. Eventually, they stopped pouring in from the entryways and Sophie, feeling the exhaustion weigh heavily on her, lined all the blades up for one last expulsion of power and took the remaining Neverseen goons down in one fatal swoop. Panting, she looked around the room and was horrified at how many bodies laid on the ground around her and Fitz in a ring, their blood pouring out onto the marble floor in sickening, rich pools so red they could rival rubies. She sighed in relief when she heard some of the bodies around her shift and groan, but she stiffened when she felt Fitz's hand slide off her ankle.
Falling to her knees next to Fitz came all to easy to Sophie, but being able to hold herself up with her violently shaking arms was the hard part, as when she saw the ugly gash across his abdomen and the deep slice cutting over his eye. When he tiredly opened his good eye to look at her, her arms gave out and she fell beside him, her body curling around him as the wounded side of her face in Fitz's good eye's line of vision. Lifelessly, his arm fell back so his hand fell into her blood-splattered hair, his fingers tangling in the strands.
"That's not nothing," he whispered sadly.
"No, it's not," she agreed, her cheek throbbing as she forced it to help form words. "But I didn't want the same to happen to you."
"You always seem to get hurt because of me," he coughed weakly.
"I could say the same to you," she remarked as stars began to cloud her vision one by one.
A dry chuckle cracked through his voice, "We make a good team."
"We do," she agreed, gazing at him hopelessly while she still could, ignoring all the blood and open flesh between them.
"We've had a lot of close calls lately haven't we?" mused Fitz tiredly.
"Too many. You need to stop letting yourself get stabbed," she joked with a flat voice and a heavy heart.
He laughed again, "Very true. But I'm lucky I have my own knight in shining armor to keep me safe."
"Says the man who took a knife for me in the last attack on the palace."
"Touche, but I went down too soon this time."
"Your stitches popped and a goon slashed you open, I think that's more than enough reason to go down."
He hummed in response and asked, "May I be honest with you for a moment?"
"Always," her heart pounded loudly in her chest at the intimacy of being asked such a question while he was bleeding; maybe even taking his final breaths. She hoped they weren't.
He took a shaky breath, "I know this might be forward of me, but bear with me, for I might never get another chance to express my feelings for you, Sophie."
"I want to court you."
"But I'm just a servant-"
"Don't say that," he begged, "you're more than just a servant to me. You've always been. You will always be. Please, when we're healed, promise you'll go on a date with me? At least one. We'll sneak away from everything and everyone - no titles, no judgment, just us, just two people falling in love."
"Do you mean it?" she exhaled, unable to take her eyes off him, a blush creeping to her cheeks despite how drained she was. How could she not have feelings for this man?
"Of course I do, I mean, if we have more time. And I hope we do. It would be a shame if this was it for us right after I told you how I feel."
Sophie whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks, "It's my fault. I used too much of our energy-"
"You gave us a chance to live," Fitz argued, his voice rasping.
Her heart caught in her throat, feeling guilty, "You're bleeding out, you could die, Fitz."
"So could you, you expended a lot of energy."
"Our energy. You got stabbed, Fitz! Now you're low on blood and mental energy. You're far more at risk of..." she cried in exasperation, her lip quivering as words clumped together in the back of her throat.
"If I do, then it would be an honor to die next to such an amazing woman," he smiled earnestly. "We protected our families, our home, and if I am to die here now, I will die a happy man. The only things I will regret will be that I had not met you sooner, I had not held you closer, and I had not loved you longer."
"No... no," the tears came faster, her chest heaving painfully. "You will... you will!"
"Sophie," he murmured, "Sophie, don't cry." His fingers clumsily stroked her hair as they blindly found their way under her jaw, cupping the side of her face, a sliver of skin away from her gushing cheek, the very tips resting on her almost torpor pulse.
She leaned into his touch and reached back for him, resting her palm on her temple, letting her fingers spill down the rest of his face. With all the energy she had left, she slowly sent the mental energy she had left to him under the guise of inflicted peace. "Hold on for me," she pleaded. "Fitz, just hold on. Don't leave me, I need you. Don't go..."
"Can I ask you something?" he asked suddenly, with such energy it startled her.
"Anything."
"Can I kiss you?"
Her heart slowed so she could hear his fine breaths. He was tired, yes, but he was also nervous.
"You don't have to say yes," he assured her, his voice trembling. "It's just... in case I don't make it..." Without another thought, she reached her head back and kissed him. Their lips were chapped and the kiss tasted like blood, but under all that, there was a softness and them. Just Fitz. Just Sophie.
Sophie let herself be engulfed by the tender movements of their lips, so lost in the moment she didn't know how long it lasted, only noticing it was over when Fitz stopping moving and his eyes were closed. And the world fell away.
Sophie begged Fitz to stay alive as her own eyes fell shut, numbly holding his hand to her face, feeding him some of her mental energy as she prayed someone would save them, but help didn't come until her voice had faded into a hoarse whisper. Mysterious hands slid under her shoulder and knees, and her breath caught when she was lifted away from Fitz. She whispered more frantically, but Alden's smooth and familiar voice silenced her. "Rest, Sophie, or you'll use up what little energy you have left."
"But Fitz..." she desperately reached back for her cognate, almost rolling out of the king's arms. Quickly, he readjusted his hold on her and swore under his breath, something she'd never heard him do before.
"Is alright, thanks to you. There's no reason to worry. Elwin is taking care of him now, it's not safe to move him yet," the king assured her. "I'm taking you to the infirmary, but you need to let Fitz go so you can start to heal as well."
"No... I can't, I-"
"It would break him if he woke up to your heart not beating," urged Alden. "Sophie, please, you need to rest. You fought so hard. Let yourself sleep. It's what Fitz would want."
Even though Sophie hated to admit it, Alden was right, so she did the hardest thing she could do as a cognate, and let Fitz go. What a shame it would be, she thought as she slipped into the unknown with the sibilance of her last audible breath, if this was where their story ended. If the last chapter closed on two hearts intertwined by their veins bleeding out to the clemency of fate. What a shame. What a shame. What a shame.