Chapter 426: Wrong!

Chapter 426: Chapter 426: Wrong!

This time it happens slowly, and because time moves differently in dreams Khobi doesn’t notice right away that things aren’t moving as they should.

The dancers around him begin to slow, their shapes growing blurry, where Loac’s remains in focus, and the music and horizon begin to grow fainter; more distant. Less distinct.

There’s snow in his dark hair now, like there had been that day in the mountains. And that’s what suddenly strikes him as strange.

It’s summer, so why is it snowing?

​That’s when the smell of burning suddenly hits him, and with start he realises that it’s not snow in Loac’s hair, but ash .

​The castle’s on fire.

​Everything’s on fire. The courtyard, the mountainside, even the sky’s lost it’s blue and has turned a sickening, mangled red. People are screaming.

Or at least he thinks they are –there’s no sound now, only motion; people running, scattering, fleeing, falling as the stone walls begin to crumble around them.

The streamers are gone, burned to tatters, and now they’re chains, rattling harsh and heavy without wind. All those flowers, all those colours; now dead and scattered, and still the ash falls.

​There’s darkness and smoke on the horizon, coming for them all.

​And there are spiders, everywhere. So many spiders, and banners against the sky of green and grey that fill Khobi with dread.

​Briyagi .

​It’s summer, and the world is burning, but suddenly he feels so cold.

​His vision clears, and suddenly all he can focus on is Loac. Somehow he’s further away than Khobi remembers him being, but amidst a sea of confusion he stands out; a single man just standing there against a backdrop of fire and smoke with the dark blue of his hair and the stark white of his clothes dulled by falling ash.

​"Frost?" Loac’s voice sounds different; not like it should. Smaller. Fainter.

​Wrong .

​Khobi’s heart starts racing and his feet start moving; urging him on towards him because something is wrong, wrong , so terribly wrong .

​But his feet don’t move fast enough. And maybe he was already too late, because even as he reaches out, a pinprick appears against the dirtied white of Loac’s breast.

It’s right over his heart, and it’s red.

​It begins to spread.

​Panic claws it’s way up into Khobi’s throat; unfamiliar and terrible and fiercer than he ever thought possible.

​No .

​No.

​No .

​Discomfort pulling at the edges of his lips, Loac takes a single, shaky step towards him. The smile is gone now; the blue of his eyes fogged with confusion.

He doesn’t know what’s happened, and neither does Khobi; he didn’t see it, didn’t see anything, and yet somehow, somehow, he knows, knows, knows.

​"Frost, I –"

​Finally, Khobi reaches him. Too slow. Too late. The stain spreading out across his chest has taken on a life of its own, and when Loac staggers into his arms, Khobi’s hands come away stained an ugly, vicious, unforgiving red.

​"...I don’t feel so good."

​A pit opens up in Khobi’s gut, gnawing and twisting like his stomach is trying to eat itself, eat his heart, swallow him whole.

​Fear .

​He doesn’t want to look, but this is a nightmare now so he can’t stop himself. And as he looks –maybe because he looks –blood begins to soak ever more rapidly through Loac’s clothes, welling up from some unseen wound in his chest.

And while Khobi’s not got a scratch on him suddenly his chest feels as tight as if he’s been rended right along with him. He’s seen Loac bleed before.

Made him bleed before.

But never like this. How can blood so warm, yet the skin beneath so terribly, terrifyingly cold? Tasting bile and iron, Khobi’s hands scrabble for him, frantically trying to find where he’s been wounded so he can stop it, but there’s ash in his eyes and tears in his throat –isn’t it meant to be the other way around –and the more he looks the more Loac bleeds, and the dimmer the light in his eyes begins to grow.

Wrong.

​It’s all wrong.

​Helpless, and drowning in red, Khobi collapses to his knees. Cradled in his arms, Loac falls with him; breath coming quick and unnatural, and blood, still more blood pooling beneath them.

Khobi’s no stranger to wounds, to bloodshed; he knows how much blood a man can lose and live, and he knows without a shadow of a doubt that this is too much.

​No.

​Please, no.

​There’s a horrifying frailness to the way Loac’s hand comes up to wipe away the tears coursing down his cheeks; strong no longer, but still tender.

​" Frost ," he whispers again, and then chokes as blood wells up in his throat. Khobi wants to shush him; wants to tell him not to talk, to just to keep his eyes open and look only at him.

That he’ll find where he’s hurt and he’ll fix it, if only he can stay with him until he can.

​But the words don’t come. And for all his strength and all the battles he’s won, Khobi suddenly feels completely, utterly powerless.

​He’s killed men. He’s watched them die.

He’s lost people he thought he could save.

​I can’t lose you .

​The ash falls thicker now, turning the world grey. The smile’s completely gone now; Loac’s dusky skin devoid of its usual lustre and the light in his eyes fading.

It’s all happened too soon, too fast. But he’s not bleeding anymore; that’s good right, Khobi tells himself almost deliriously as he takes Loac’s face in one of his; fingers shaking as he tries to smooth colour back into his skin.

It’s good that the bleeding’s stopped, because if the bleeding’s stopped then that means that Loac’s going to be okay.

​But then Loac’s eyes slide closed and his hand, fresh with the weight of a new wedding band, falls away from Khobi’s cheek, and he knows in his heart that nothing will ever be okay again.

​Khobi doesn’t hear himself screaming but he can feel it; a soundless cry that leaves his lungs like it’s his own chest that’s been ripped open.

​No.

​Eyes blurring, and bile rising in his throat, he leans in to press his forehead against Loac’s. It’s cold. How is he so cold ? And suddenly he can hear his breath again, and knows he can speak.

​"Please," he whispers desperately, wretched. Breaking. Broken-hearted, as he clutches at Loac’s limp, lifeless body amidst a world that can never again see blue.

​" Don’t go –"

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​I...

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