Chapter 343: Blood And Ashes
[Music recommendation: Skylar Grey - Words]
.
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Ivan continued to hold her tightly, whispering mindlessly. He hoped and prayed she would suddenly wake up, wrap her arms around him as she always did, and use her sweet, soothing voice to respond to his desperate plea.
But as time stretched on, nothing happened.
The silence was louder and more deafening than the chaos of the world around them.
Ivan’s entire world began to still. His grip loosened as he created enough distance to finally look at her.
Ivan’s entire world seemed to still as he slowly moved away. His grip loosened around her as he created some distance between them to finally look at her.
As he did, his eyes slowly widened as the inevitable devastation finally struck him right through the chest.
The loud sound of something shattering within him echoed in his ears as his trembling gaze took in the devastating state she was in. Something he could never have imagined, even in his worst nightmare.
Evelyn. His Eve. The light to his dark world and the very beat of his heart lay in his arms, pale and lifeless. Her beguiling, deep blue eyes that always shone like two beautiful jewels were now dull. Her lips were slightly parted, with blood staining the skin beneath her nose and mouth.
As if that were not enough to crumble his world completely, his gaze travelled lower. He saw a deep, gaping wound over her heart that continued to ooze blood.
Ivan’s lips trembled. Before he knew it, a broken whisper escaped him. "N-no. No!" He shook his head in denial, unable to accept the cruel reality before him.
With trembling hands, he laid her on the ground ever so gently. He reached out and covered the wound with his large, warm palms, as if simply shielding it could reverse the inevitable.
"No. No, you can’t....baby. Eve....you cannot leave me! No!" He continued to murmur in a quivering voice, sounding like a man who had lost everything.
Without thinking, he began to pump Evelyn’s stilled heart. He lowered himself to cover her mouth with his, blowing air into her lungs. He pulled away only to breathe and then returned to the compressions, desperately trying to breathe life back into her.
Alex, watching the heartbreaking scene, felt his eyes fill with a wet sensation he never imagined he was capable of as a sudden memory intruded upon his mind.
"I hope you will accept my allegiance as well, Your Highness."
"Please do not die for me. I will not allow it," Eve blurted out, startling him and everyone else in the room.
"But, Your Highness, it would be a knight’s greatest honour-"
"No," she cut in firmly. "I will accept your pledge only if you promise to live instead. No one dies under my watch." Her eyes flashed gold as she met Alex’s gaze head-on, reminding him, and everyone present, just who she was and how serious she was.
Something painful squeezed his heart as he watched the woman he had pledged to protect....was no more.
He could tell Prince Ivan was on the verge of a total collapse, and he knew that when it happened, nothing would be able to stop him.
Even knowing this, Alex finally took a deep breath and took slow, heavy steps toward Ivan.
When he was only three steps away, Ivan looked up at Alex with a crazed, devastated expression. "Alex! She....call Edward! Find him and bring him now! Eve needs to heal! She is not breathing....Please!"
Alex’s grip tightened around the hilt of his sword. He swallowed the lump in his throat and spoke in a low, controlled voice. "Your Highness, it is too la-."
"No! Do you want to die, Alex? Don’t say that!" Ivan suddenly roared in anger, but his eyes were a dead giveaway that he was falling apart.
Then, in a low voice, he hissed, "Get Edward! Dammit, Alex, get any healer! The woman you swore to protect needs help!"
It was then that Alex dropped to his knees. He stabbed his sword into the ground and hung his head low in defeat as a whisper escaped him.
"Forgive me, Your Highness. I failed."
Ivan stopped his frantic movements.
He slowly moved his eyes back to Evelyn, whose eyes were still open. His lips were now coated with her blood and trembling as he called out to her.
"Wake me up, Eve. Tell me....tell me it is just a nightmare."
He lowered himself and caressed her cold cheeks so lovingly before resting his forehead against hers. "Please. You can be mad at me, baby. Scold me. Hit me for being late. But... you are not allowed to leave me. Wake up. Wake up, Eve!"
Then fat teardrops rolled from Ivan’s eyes.
They were tears he had not shed for anyone or anything since his mother’s death. The tears slipped from his eyes and fell onto her cheeks, before one of them rolled into her parted lips.
Just then, Dante, Seira, and Oliver rushed out only to be met with this scene, and they paused in their tracks.
To say they were shocked would be an understatement.
Seira raised a shaky hand to cover her mouth as she staggered back, only to be held upright by Dante, whose own face was filled with shock. Oliver also froze, staring with wide eyes in total disbelief.
Behind them, Cece rushed out with Edward and Caleb, who were holding onto Damien’s still unconscious body.
By a twist of fate, when they went through the portal, they had landed in the space outside the chamber where Damien had been left.
Only this time, there was no barrier around him. Seeing that there were no signs of corruption remaining on his body, a wave of great relief washed over them.
So they decided to take him and head toward the source of the commotion occurring outside.
Now seeing everyone looking towards the corner, their eyes immediately snapped to Ivan.
"Ivan... who... is that... oh God-" Cece’s voice trailed off as her eyes recognised who the woman was and she heard what Ivan said next.
"How... How could this happen? Why did I not come earlier?" he continued to whisper.
"Please, Eve... I cannot live without you. How can you leave me all alone?" Ivan wrapped his arms around her body once more. He held her as though she were his entire life, and a painful cry broke from his lips.
"Nooo!!!"
Ivan’s cry was so loud and agonising that it jolted everyone present as they watched the most powerful man completely breaking apart while holding his beloved as though he had lost everything.
Then, before anyone could predict what would happen next, they saw Ivan, who continued to hold Evelyn tightly, suddenly began to glow with a molten orange light that grew brighter by the second.
Suddenly, the air around them shifted. The temperature, which was already high from the volcanic eruption, began to rise even further.
Ivan kept his face buried in Evelyn’s neck. His silent tears continued to stream down before they began to evaporate under the increasing heat emitting from within him. It was as if her death were the final restraint to snap within him, the last thing that had been keeping him human all this while.
The barrage of thunder and lightning continued their frantic dance. At the same time, something began to ooze from the plumes at the cracked mouth of the volcano.
A thick, violent, and heavy ball of darkness began to hum above the volcanic opening. Red electricity zapped around the ball of smoke, as if the very air were charged with something inside that was pulsing and coming alive.
But Ivan’s group hardly cared what was happening there. Devastation was written on each of their faces, while the dark ones turned their attention back to the volcano.
The ground shook more violently as the air grew more turbulent by the second.
Before anyone could react, Ivan’s eyes snapped open. Revealing they were completely orange, with fire spitting from them. His gaze landed on the man kneeling not far from him, and his face became entirely emotionless.
"Alex, get everyone out of here." It was Ivan’s final, quiet command.
Alex, being in the closest proximity to Ivan, raised his head and witnessed exactly what he had dreaded.
This was it.
Their prince was finally losing himself to the point of no return. Even if Alex wanted to stop him, he knew nothing would work. He knew this especially while Ivan still held the body of his beloved.
"Now," Ivan said quietly.
His burning eyes slowly moved toward the place where the dark ones stood, before finally settling on the woman in the red robe. Her attention was still fixed on the movement atop the volcano.
In that moment, Ivan’s deep, crushing grief transformed into a raw, twisted rage. He felt a hunger so wild to burn everything alive and to destroy everyone along with the world that had taken his only lifeline away from him.
He wanted to give them the most painful death possible for treating his beloved this way until she...
Bloodlust oozed out of him as more steam rolled off his skin. He looked down at his Evelyn one last time, as if tracing every single injury she had sustained. He etched each detail into his memory, preparing to return the pain tenfold.....no hundred forth to each one of them.
Leaning over, he pressed one last kiss to her lips.
Pulling back ever so slightly, he whispered, "Rest well, my beloved. I will join you soon, after I turn this place into blood and ashes."
