See You In The Next Life, My Nives Darling

Therion wraps his arms tighter around me and breathes in my scent. He uses his powers to try and keep the darkness at bay. Granting us a few seconds more. I summon a small ball of light with the last bit of energy I have left.

I open my teary eyes and pull out the little braid of our daughter's hair, which I keep in the sleeve of my leather suit. I stroke it for a second before grabbing Therion's hand. I lay the little braid in his open palm. I shift my gaze from his hand to his eyes.

Therion's face is cast in shadows. A single tear falls down his face.

Without looking, I intertwine our fingers so we are both holding onto our little princess.

"One day," he whispers with a hoarse voice from all the yelling, screaming, shouting at our troops, and breathing in smoke. He smiles down at me. His eyes bloodshot.

He kisses my cut brow as the world around us burns and gets sucked into eternal darkness. "See you in the next life, My Nives Darling," he whispers.

"I love you," I sob, staring into my mate's breathtaking onyx eyes.

"I love you more," he replies, pulling me closer to his chest.

"Impossible," I manage to smirk between the waterfall of tears streaming down my face. Therion chuckles and gives my hand, in which we are holding our baby girl's hair, a little squeeze. I squeeze back. I am ready for what is about to come. We both are.

The darkness is rising. It isn't long before we'd be swallowed entirely by it. Therion is trying his best to keep it at bay for a bit longer. But his strength is fading. My little ball of light is flickering. And a few seconds later, it went out completely.

Quickly, Therion's power was completely drained. The darkness didn't waste a moment. It closed in on us and pushed us to our knees into the bloody and oily mud.

Therion keeps hold of my hand like I keep hold of his. We aren't going to let go of each other. We will not let go of the only thing we had left of our little girl. The only thing that had kept us going for the past days and nights. I am beyond exhausted from fighting. We both are.

But fighting Hanera, Lord of Darkness was too much. This wasn't our fight.

Right from the start, we both knew that this was a battle we were destined to lose.

"For Elin," I said through my tears. Just loud enough to sound above the soaring of the darkness. Therion looked at me, his face barely visible in the dark.

"For Elin." Therion squeezes my hand to the point it almost hurt. I squeeze back just as hard.

"See you in the next life, My Nives Darling."

"I love you," I smile through my tears.

And with those words spoken one last time, we let the darkness consume us.