The blood had all but drained from his weak body. She knew he was dying, truly dying. She cradled his head on her lap, brushing dark hair away from his face; he was even beautiful in death. Her heart was broken; shattered into a million pieces. He had saved her life, but the cost had been great. His eyes fluttered open.
“Forgive me” he whispered. She could not. She would not lie to him as he had to her.
“You know I’ll love you for a thousand years.” She whispered back, and kissed his forehead.
It was true. She would never stop loving him, long after he was but a memory; he would still be in her heart, all those broken shards that ripped at her insides, making it hard for her to breathe. But she would never forgive him. She never could.
Finding it too hard to say more, she remembered a time when he had been her salvation; a time when he had been her knight in shining armor. Not the tarnished shell of a man he had become, but the one who had held her heart, her happiness, in the palm of his hand. She had trusted him with everything. In the end, it was her life he had saved, not her heart.
He reached up with the last bit of strength left in his body and gently stroked her cheek before his hand dropped back to his side as she watched helpless, the rest of the blood draining from the grievous wounds. Sobs wracked her body. A sudden panic overcame her. How could she live without him?
“Please…don’t…leave…me…” She cried.
“No no no no no no…”
Clutching his head to her breast and rocking back and forth, she raised her face to the stars. Tears ran in rivers down her cheeks. She let out a wail that was torn from her soul.
She was unsure how much time had gone by before any coherent thought returned, breaking through the fog of her loss, but when it did, she knew it was not over. She would now have to hunt down and kill the other half of her heart. She had no choice. In the end, she would forgive neither man, but would love them both, even in death.
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