When I See You Again

"It's been a long day without you, my friend

And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again

We've come a long way from where we began

Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again

When I see you again"

~ When I See You Again - Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth

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I stared with teary eyes at the little braid of pitch-black hair in my hands. My heart hurt just looking at the little string. After a week of carrying it around and caressing it every chance I got, the sweet smell of peaches was fading. Her smell was fading. Something that made my aching heart hurt even more.

The first tears found their way out of my eyes, and not long after that, the first sob followed.

After maybe an hour of full-on crying, I seemed to be calmed down again. My chest felt tight, my breathing hollow, and my heart was clenching painfully, but I was calm again. I sniffed my runny nose and looked up from the little string of black hair towards the face of my husband. Today was day hundred eighty-two of him not opening his eyes.

I can't believe it's already been six months since I last stared into his beautiful onyx eyes. "It's so hard, Therion." My voice was hoarse from the constant screaming and crying. "I just miss you so much. I miss you both so much." The tears found their way out my eyes again. I pressed myself closer towards my soulmate's comatose form and let my head rest on his bare chest. A chest now decorated with three thick, white lines. Scars left by the claws of the Manticore.

I sighed and rubbed the tears out of my face. The sound of my husband's heartbeat was the only thing that gave me somewhat reassurance. That gave me the courage to continue. I felt as empty as I possibly could be. The attack from the Manticore six months ago wasn't the only one. A lot more mythical animals came. All of them adjusted with iron. All of them deadlier than they already were without limps entirely made of iron.

Kayol became more and more exhausted from disarming the iron limbs of those killing machines. Luckily, he isn't the only one with the power to control metal. But even though they are with a few, they can't hold off those things forever.

A week after the first attack, Kayol, a few others with the ability to control metal, and I went back to that place to see if there was some sort of sign of the creature responsible for the chaos that's been our reality for the past six months, but no. He doesn't want to make himself known yet. He only sends more and more of those horrible things to terrorize Karmina.

All he does is sending more chaos, more death, more fear.

A few weeks ago, the attacks became so bad that I had no other choice than to evacuate the city. The city wasn't safe to live in anymore. The walls were slowly crumbling down. Our defenses got thinned out. It was just a matter of time before all our defenses failed, and those beasts have free passages into the city.

I swallowed the painful lump in my throat and closed my eyes while I used my husband's steady rising and falling chest as my pillow. The warmth of his skin, the feeling of his breath on my hair, the smell of fire and cinnamon from his skin, and the steady and strong beating of his heart were the only things that kept me from giving up. I couldn't give up. I had to keep going.

For everyone, we've lost.

For Siraye.

For Kayol.

For Clarissa.

For Therion.

For my little princess.

And for everyone else that was counting on me.

I couldn't give up. I couldn't let them down. I am their Queen. I'll make sure that I deserve this title by not giving up. I'll give my life if I have to. I'll do anything for this Kingdom. I'll do anything for the people living in it.

I'll do anything to make them proud of me.

"It's so hard, Therion," I sighed. "I don't know how much more I can take before I completely break. I can't do this without you. Please, Therion, please come back to me. I'm begging you to wake up. Please. Only looking in your eyes would make everything alright. So, please, please wake up." I wrapped my arms tighter around my husband's waist. I was clutching the little braid in my hand. A single tear slit down my cheek before I fell asleep.

Mostly dreaming of those blood-red eyes belonging to the Manticore that haunted me every time I closed my eyes and all the things I lost. My little princess included.

***

"How much more do you think we can take before we're dead meat?" I asked Kayol, who was standing beside me on the wall. His labradorite eyes were scanning the drylands separating us from the Malsonee Mountains.

The sun was just making its way into the horizon. In a few small hours, my people would wake up – well, the people who hadn't left the city for a safer place all the way down with the Turquoise River or deep into the Dhamahanhumei Jungles. But who knew how much longer those safe places would remain safe? I shook my head, immediately suppressing those thoughts. I didn't want to think about that. I couldn't think about that.

Elin is safe. Siraye took her with her to her family all the way to Rosewick. The most guarded city after Karmina. A city close to the Dhamahanhumei Jungles, so if the need was there to flee, they could hide deep in the jungle.

Elin is safe.

My little girl is safe.

That is if they can even make it to Rosewick. With horse and carriage, it's a month-long journey, and they only left a week ago.

I shook my head again. God's damnit, Nives! Don't think like that! Oh, Mother, please boil me in a cauldron for having these horrible thoughts!

I shook my head again and looked up from Kayol poking me in the side. I looked at him with an annoyed expression but immediately chuckled from the silly faces he was making. "Now that you stopped looking like you could break down any second, how much did you hear from all the fucking nice shit I just said?"

I rolled my eyes and scanned the dead landscape in front of us again. "Not a single thing," I shrugged, which resulted in an offended squeal. The corner of my mouth curled into a smirk.

"Well, then. To answer your question, again. I think we'll be dead meat in three weeks. At most, we'll keep it up for another month. But much longer than that..." Kayol shook his head. I nodded.

"Your Majesty!" I looked over my shoulder to see Maddy, one of my remaining maids, run up to us. Her long silver hair was put into a messy bun on top of her head. Her wild bangs hung in her eyes, almost hiding her pretty eyes in the same shade of silver as her hair. She looked like a complete mess, even more than she normally does.

"What is it, Maddy?" I asked, frowning. "Are you alright?" I continued when she reached us. She leaned against the stone pillar next to her to catch her breath.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she said, waving away my concern. Kayol and I watched as she continued to catch her breath, making sure she wouldn't collapse from breathlessness. When she was good again, she rose and pulled an invisible lint from her dress.

"What's going on, Maddy?" I asked again. The seventeen-year-old maid looked at me with a puzzled look.

"I darn it! I forgot!" she groaned and smacked her head. Kayol smirked beside me, where I smiled softly.

"It's okay, Love, take your time," I chuckled. Maddy bit her lip and kept tapping her temple with her finger, trying to remember what she wanted to tell me. Kayol poked me in the side with his elbow.

"Are you sure she isn't your little sister? I can see the similarity," he whispered in my ear, smirking. I rolled my eyes and was about to reply by saying that I'd love to insult him, but I was afraid that I wouldn't do as well as Irus, the goddess of Nature, did when Maddy spoke up.

"Oh, I remember!" she squealed excitedly. "It's your husband, King Therion."

"What about him?" Kayol and I asked in sync, snapping our attention back to the young girl.

"He's awake!" she smiled. I didn't even take the time to thank her and ran over the wall as fast as my feet could go. I jumped down the many flights of stairs and ran through the empty streets of the capital, back to the castle in which I immediately made my turn to mine and Therion's bedroom.

I threw the door open, completely out of breath, to see my husband sitting up in bed munching away on a bowl of dried apricots, his favorite. I fell on my knees, crying at the sight. "Hello, My Nives Darling," he said, smirking. I started to cry even harder by hearing that husky, fruity voice for the first time in half a year. I voice I missed so much.

"You're awake," I sobbed. "You are really awake." I quickly stumbled up from the ground and launched myself in his wide-open arms. The bowl with dried apricots went flying through the air, but neither of us cared. Therion pulled me even closer to his chest and buried his face in my long, red hair. "You're awake. You're really here," I cried in his embrace. My entire body was trembling as I pushed myself as close to his embrace as possible. Therion's fingers pierced my shoulders as he breathed in my smell.

"I love you, My Nives," he said as he started pressing small and soft kisses on my bare skin.

"I love you more, Therion."

"That's fucking impossible," he smirked. I laughed a laugh that was full of joy. Therion pushed me back a bit and started stroking my tearstained cheeks with his thumbs. His eyes seemed to glimmer as well, but I could be imagining that since my eyesight was blurry from the tears.

"You promised me you'd be careful!" I said, giving him a gentle but firm push to the chest.

"At least I came back," he said. I went silent on his lap. Yes, he did. He came back. He did come back were eight others didn't. I closed my eyes tightly and bit the inside of my cheeks when I could hear Allen's screams of pain again when the Manticore dove his iron front paw in his chest. Crushing his insides. Shattering his ribcage. I opened my eyes, taking a deep breath, and looking the other way.

Another tear found its way over my cheek, where it made its way to my chin and dropped on Therion's bare chest. "Hey, Nives Darling, it's okay. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." Therion said, his warm hands stroking mine in leather-covered arms.

"It's okay," I sniffed and looked back into his beautiful onyx eyes. Onyx eyes I had missed so much. "I was just so scared when I felt your pain. I thought I'd lost you. I was so afraid I would never look into your eyes again. That I'd never see that stupid fucking smirk of yours, that I'd never hear your hearty and body warming laugh again. You didn't open your eyes for six months, Therion. I felt so alone. And then Elin-" I started crying even harder, and I swore I could see fear flash in his eyes when the name of our daughter left my lips. For a brief moment, his gaze snapped towards her little crib on the other side of our room. The crib that has been empty for the past week.

"What happened to her? Nives, where is Elin? Where is our daughter? Where is our little girl?" His voice trembled with fear.

"I- I... I," I managed to get out before I started sobbing uncontrollably once again. Therion pulled me against his chest again, where I cried my heart out thinking about my little girl. My biggest treasure who I had to give away to ensure her survival. To give her the best chance at coming out of this mess alive.

"Take your time, Nives. Take your time," Therion shushed me.

I pushed myself up from his chest and shook my head. "No. No, you need to know," I sniffed. I rubbed the tears out of my eyes and took a sharp, painful breath. Therion watched me with a cautious look while he had his big hands resting on my muscular thighs.

"You- You've been asleep for six months. Everything went downhill. Every few days, there was an attack by those Manticore creatures. Every time we managed to defeat them. But then, a few days later, they'd come back. It even got so b-bad that we needed... we needed to evacuate. Siraye-" I sighed and rubbed the new tears out of my face. I looked away from my mates' eyes and stared out the window. "Siraye took her with her to take her to Rosewick where she would be safe. They left a week ago. I miss her so badly," I ended my story sobbing.

"I felt so lost with her gone, and you still comatose. I felt like I could break apart any second." I took a sharp breath and grabbed the little braid of my daughter's hair, and started stroking it. Therion cupped my trembling hands with his and carefully took the little braid of Elin's hair. He brought it to his nose and sniffed it. Taking in the faint smell of our daughter's sweet peach scent.

"I'm so sorry," I sobbed, looking at my husband. Tears were streaming down his face while he played with the little braid. Therion looked away from the braid and met my eyes.

"You did the right thing." He said with a voice filled with sadness and pain.

"It's killing me, Therion. I miss her too much."

"We'll see her again," he reassured me. "Someday we will see her again," he repeated himself, nodding, and with that, he broke down.

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