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Perhaps if he couldn’t lay beneath the stars with her, he could watch over her from among them.
“You were the only light for me. They stole that away, too, and threw me into blackness. Things I can’t stop seeing, whether my eyes are opened, or closed.” Eyes filling with tears, he presses his fist to his temples, and a harsh breath expels from his nose as he fights to hold back. “They didn’t have to put those scars on my body. They were already inside my head.”
“I’d love to see you without all this worry written across your face all the time.” “It’s the result of being crazy over you.”
“You have a good heart. Deep, deep down.” I purse my lips to hold back a smile. “Like … bottom of the sea deep.” “Yeah.” His lips stretch to a grin again, his eyes lighter than before. “Covered in black murky fish shit.” Both of us laugh, and I rest my ear against his heart. “Well, at least we know where to find it.”
I recall the night I lay beneath the stars with Valdys, and he told me the light we see is the sun’s reflection on its surface. How strange, the way it mirrors my thoughts about him now. How the warmth of my memories has been like the sun on my face in this pitch black world.
“I owe you everything.” “You owe me nothing. We’re brothers. Always have been.”
“I can’t leave him alone down there.” Sobs rip through my chest, and I rest my hand on the hatch, the entrance to the tomb that now houses a piece of my heart. “Cadmus.”
Physical pain is one that often promises an end. But the pain of loss is eternal. It’s the heart’s way of reminding us how fragile it is. How easily it can shatter.
“You and I belong together, Wren. Not even hell can tear us apart.”
“I’m here, Valdys. I’ll never let you wake to that place alone again.” Eyes softening with what I surmise as awe, he stares up at me, stroking his hand down my hair. “I knew you were something special when I first met you, but I had no idea that you were an angel. That you would risk everything to find me.” “Because you would do the same for me.” He slides his hand to the back of my neck, and his face hardens. “There is nowhere I wouldn’t go, nothing I wouldn’t kill, to keep you at my side. Now and always.”
We are broken pieces, stitched together by the pain of our losses. I don’t know if we’ll ever be fixed again. The only thing that’s certain is the uncertainty that awaits us. Moments like these, when we close our eyes, and the images from our past remind us how fleeting life can be. How, in the shutter of an eye, the universe can change. How quickly the world will take what’s given. Yet, we carry on, with bruised hearts and torn skin, because we love, and that’s what gives us purpose. Air gives us breath. Food gives us strength. And love gives us hope. In a world of monsters, love makes us
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He’s still the scarred boy who touched my heart. And I’m the wounded little bird, whose wings he made fly again.
