IT WAS quick. In the end, it was quick. She smiled. She closed her eyes. She breathed in and out, and in and out, and….
That was it.
The end.
I felt it the moment she crossed the veil.
When her heart stopped, when she sighed out that last breath.
I felt it.
Brutal. Savage.
Randall had warned me. How it could be.
It felt like I broke cleanly in two.
I cried, of course. How could I not? I loved her.
But.
I didn’t feel… dark.
I never felt shadows.
Nothing whispered in my head.
My magic is as it always was.
I’m grieving, yes. My body aches. I can still smell her scent upon the pillow, though it’s already started to fade.
But I haven’t turned toward darkness.
I think it’s because I did split in two.
And if that’s the case, then Randall broke into jagged pieces.
I knew the end was coming.
I had time. She held on for weeks.
Randall did too.
But he never got to say goodbye.
Gods help me, but we should have killed my brother.
We should have ended his life.
For his sake.
And for Randall’s.
MAGIC IS a curious thing, even after all this time. Why, just today, I made a flower bloom with nothing but a thought in my head.
It’s beautiful. It reminds me of her.
RANDALL TOLD me he’s leaving Castle Lockes.