Chapter 568 - If Only
Chapter 568 - If Only
"I\'m so sorry, my love…" he choked out and he kissed her lips softly. The two of them slowly descended to the ground. The darkness was completely gone now. Even the dark circle on his chest was fully gone as well – as though it was never there in the first place. However, what could be seen there was only a knife, glaringly jutting out from the middle of his chest, firmly embedded right through his heart.
As soon as they landed on the ground, his legs gave out and he collapsed immediately. \'She\' caught him before he could crash into the ground and embraced him tightly in her arms, continuously shaking \'her\' head as her dark silvery locks shook like waves down her back.
"This is not your fault, Gav…" \'she\' cried, tears finally falling from her eyes now as she caressed his face lightly with her fingers.
"I love you," he uttered with much difficulty as blood kept spurting out of his mouth, his veins turning black now and his skin becoming ashen. "I love you, Evie. I will… I will always… always be watching over you… so please…" he struggled to speak as \'she\' kept his hand on her face.
"So please… don\'t be too sad once I\'m gone, Evie… our children… I…" the colours of his eyes turned into an ashy hue as well and his body finally became limp, "… love you…" was the last words that he breathed out as his eyes unwillingly fluttered close and he breathed his last.
"Gav!!!" \'she\' screamed at the top of \'her\' lungs. The shriek that left her lips tore through the hauntingly beautiful but silent and bright atmosphere around them, making it feel as though it was a clashing of moods. Such a brilliant and beautiful day was marred by the anguish and ushering of death.
The few who were left alive could not even shout out their victory, not only because of the piles of dead bodies of their fallen comrades surrounding them, but also because of their queen\'s agonizing cry. It was as though her heart had died within her as well.
\'Her\' scream made their hearts shiver in pain and none of them were able to even stand. They just remained where they were, kneeling on the ground, as they listened to their queen\'s wail. That was… that was the first time they had ever heard their almighty queen shedding tears and screaming outright in pain without holding anything back.
The sun started to set. The queen had long stopped screaming out his name now.
"I love you too…" \'she\' whispered to him as she caressed his cheek lovingly. "And I am so sorry Gav… my love… I was late… too late… I couldn\'t save you…"
\'Her\' body continued trembling as \'she\' embraced his body tighter to herself. "If only… if only I managed to find the arrow earlier… if only… I listened to you when you told me to leave the Under Lands that day… if only… but it is too late now for regrets and \'ifs\'… I\'m so sorry…"
"Mother!!!" The young prince\'s voice echoed behind \'her\', and \'she\' lifted \'her\' face to look at \'her\' approaching son.
…
Gavriel was sitting at the edge of Evie\'s bed as he watched her sleeping face intently, not wanting to miss out on any of her expressions that crossed her face. Gavrael had suddenly came to him and told him what had happened. He was being informed that Evie had passed out as soon as she touched the bow, and she was not waking up even when being called out to.
Even until now, she was still tightly holding onto the bow and would not relax her fingers to let it go. All of them concluded that she was probably still seeing the memories that the bow was showing her right now as she was unconscious.
Gavriel had been worried as her expressions were getting more and more troubled as time went by. She looked as though she was having a nightmare. A horrific nightmare that she could not get out of.
He had tried to wake her up because he could no longer take it seeing her like this. But no matter what they do, she would not be waken up. Zanya had said that perhaps Evie was refusing to release the bow herself when the light fae tried to use magic to reach out to her.
"Wife… that\'s enough… please wake up now." Gavriel said as he wiped her brow that had sweat beading upon it. He did not know how many times it had been that he had repeated those words already. And he was getting more worried about the effects of this obviously horrifying memories she was seeing. Would it affect her and the baby adversely?
"Evie… my love? Can you hear me?" he called her name again, "could it be that you want me to kiss you before you would be willing to open your eyes?"
But as he was about to bent down and kiss her, she suddenly sat up straight in bed, screaming out his name as she panted and looked left and right frantically, as though searching for something or someone desperately.
"Gav!!!" she shouted for him.
Gavriel panicked for a moment. The look on her face shook his heart terribly.
"Evie! I\'m here! What happened?" he cupped her face in both his palms and made her look at him.
Evie\'s wide eyes focussed on him as if in disbelief for a moment. Then out of the blue, she hugged him so damned tight and burst out crying, big fat tears rolling heavily down her cheeks.
"Gav…" she wailed and her body shook like a leaf in the wind. The way she cried and trembled in his arms caused him to be worried sick.
"Yes, I\'m here love… I\'m here…" he did his very best to calm her down, caressing her back as gentle as he could while whispering reassurances that he was here with her. What kinds of horrors did she see in that memory to be behaving like this?
He gritted his teeth, thinking that he should not have allowed her to touch the bow after all. She was pregnant, and she should not be experiencing this kind of fear!
Gavriel took a long while to calm her down. Even when she saw the king and queen as well as Zanya, she cried even harder, making everyone worry even more and wondered what was it that she had seen.
So Gav could only send everyone away for the time being and spent more time coaxing her and calming her down. After a long while, she finally stopped crying. But still, she clung tightly to him and would not even let go of him.
"Gav…" she finally spoke. She curled up in his lap now while Gav was rocking her in a gentle soothing motion from left to right.
"Yes, love?" he purred, kissing her forehead.
She swallowed as she looked at him. "Listen… you need to… hear all of this…"