Chapter 465: What He Gave
His blood soaked into the hem of my white dress, spreading through the fabric like something final. Even then, lying against me with a knife wound bleeding steadily through his suit, Julian smiled. Soft, steady, the way he always did when he was trying to make me feel safe.
"Elena, it’s okay. Don’t cry."
Wisteria stood there for a moment, genuinely stunned. Of everyone she had calculated into her plan, a self-serving Julian willing to take a blade for me had not been one of them. She ripped the knife free with brutal force, and blood caught me across the face, hot and blurring my vision.
Julian’s hand found the gun. He fired before she could recover.
Bang.
The shot took her in the chest. She staggered but didn’t go down , still moving, still focused on me with that hollow, hateful stare. He fired again, and this time the bullet caught her legs. She hit the ground hard.
"Ms. Blackwell!" The maid scrambled to her side, voice breaking with panic.
Even on the floor, Wisteria crawled. Her body was failing and she still crawled, her eyes fixed on me, blood collecting at the corner of her mouth. "Ch , Elena... Sis..."
That word , sis , landed somewhere strange and hollow inside me. Even now, in her final moments, she reached for that frayed thread between us. I couldn’t hold onto it. I let it go.
I dropped to my knees and pulled Julian into my arms. The wound was bad , deep, in the wrong place , and no amount of pressure from my hands was stopping it. Blood smeared across my palms, warm and relentless. "Julian, where’s your phone? I need to call for help right now."
He smiled at me, faint and pain-filled. "No need. I had one kidney removed a long time ago. There’s only one left."
"That’s not , the doctors said it wasn’t serious, they said ," I couldn’t finish the sentence. My hands pressed harder against the wound, useless, shaking.
He reached up and touched my face, his fingers trembling. "Elena, I’m not afraid. These past months , I already felt like I was gone. This just makes it real. I can finally rest."
"Don’t say that." Tears fell faster than I could blink them back. "You can still make it. Lewis is almost here. You just have to hold on."
His expression went quiet and calm in a way that terrified me more than the blood. "I’ve already settled everything. My will leaves it all to Everett and Everly. I bought a plot next to Joy’s." He paused, his voice going softer. "When I’m gone, bury me there. Beside him."
"No." The word tore out of me. "You don’t get to say that. You owe me, Julian. You owe me so much , you have to live. You have to."
"Elena." His thumb moved gently against my cheek. "In this life and the last, you were always kind to me. More than I deserved. But Lewis , seeing you with him, knowing you’ll be taken care of , that gives me peace."
I had carried so much against him for so long. Resentment, grief, anger that had no clean place to land. But Lewis had slowly, quietly steadied something in me, and somewhere along the way the weight of what I felt toward Julian had simply... released. Not love, not hatred. Just stillness. I hadn’t expected to be losing him like this.
"Stop talking and save your strength. Lewis will be here ,"
"Elena," he whispered. "Knowing you’re crying for me is enough."
A bittersweet smile crossed his face, the kind that knows it’s a last one. "I’ve always wanted to say I’m sorry about the night of the snowstorm. I left you alone and you must have been so hurt. You shouldn’t have had to go through that. Please don’t cry for me , I never deserved it."
He took a slow breath, and his voice got quieter. "I overheard you and Lewis talking in Jaford. I found out about the death curse. You refused to let him trade his life for yours , so I decided to give mine instead. Please don’t blame Eleanor for any of this."
The air left my lungs. He had known. The whole time.
"You went to her?" I whispered.
"She came to me," he said, eyes drifting somewhere distant. "She knew Lewis’s methods weren’t going to be enough. Your curse hadn’t fully activated yet, but even without Wisteria, something else would have come for you. There aren’t many people with a deep enough bond to you to make the exchange. Besides Lewis, I was the only one." His gaze dropped to the bracelet on his wrist , the one holding a fragment of my ashes. Lewis had used part of them, and the rest had stayed with Julian, always. "Eleanor knew that if you died, Lewis would follow you. To save you both, she chose me. The one with the next deepest tie to you. I’m giving my life force so yours holds."
The tears came and I couldn’t stop them, falling onto his face as everything finally, fully landed. He had put on the same suit from our bonding ceremony. He had come here already knowing. He had dressed for it.
"Julian." My voice broke completely. "Did you actually think I would be happy knowing this? Who told you I wanted this?"
"Take care of Everett and Everly." His voice was barely there now. "Live a full life with Lewis. Forget about me. I’m sorry for everything I put you through."
"I don’t blame you anymore." I shook my head, pressing my hands to him like I could hold him here by force. "You have to fight. You’re so young, Julian , you have so much left ,"
"Elena." A faint, tired smile. "I made a vow once, to your grandmother. I said that if I ever wronged you, I would have no peace, no legacy. Looks like I kept that promise in the end." He lifted the bracelet from his wrist with trembling hands and pressed it into my palm. "This is the last piece of you I had. Can I take it with me? I know it’s selfish. It’s just all I have left to hold."
His fingers curled loosely around mine for a moment.
"Next life , don’t find me. Don’t cross my path again."
"I’m so sorry, Elena." His voice dropped to nothing. "I love you."
His eyes closed. The hand resting against my cheek fell away.
The mountain wind moved through the dark around us, cold and indifferent, and all I could hear was the sound of my own voice breaking apart as I held him.
"Julian."
