“It’s too late.” Luci sobbed.
Cinnamon burst through her hair, and she could practically hear Ellowen chastising her.
“It isn’t too late as long as her heart beats. We have to try.” Noah said.
Luci nodded and lifted Brielle’s frail and lifeless body up till she could scoot behind her and rest Brielle against her chest. Noah forced everyone away from the bedside and came around the other to hold a black liquid that smelled like cloves to Brielle’s mouth.
“Tilt her head back,” Noah said.
Luci did as he said, and when he poured the liquid in, she lightly massaged Brielle's throat, forcing her to swallow. Choking, but not fighting it, Brielle remained lifeless. Like all the energy in her body was now devoted only to those final rattles.
“Please don’t leave me. I’ll do anything you want, just don’t leave me.” Luci pleaded.
She was five years old and begging her mother not to die. This time, though, instead of a dirty alley, she was in fine sheets. Still five years old, still knowing that life would never be what it was again. All her world was taking its final breaths, and she had to watch it happen.
“Again, Luci. We don’t have time for you to panic, all right?” Noah said, with more confidence and fire in his voice than she’d heard from him.
“I can’t-” she whimpered.
She lifted blurry eyes to Noah, whose lips were pressed tight together as he watched her.
“I can’t do it. I can’t lose her. Please help me,” she pleaded.
Light above her chest was breaking in half. A thousand pieces never to be put back together. It didn’t matter if a prince loved her, if magic was real, if a fairy godmother watched over her. None of it could heal the catastrophic damage happening to her soul.
“I’m trying to, but I need-” Noah huffed out a frustrated breath.
“I’ve got it,” Ira said.
He came up beside them and forced Brielle's mouth open, the rattle growing. It was over. No one came back from that. Over and over, Luci begged Noah, magic, Ira, Elowen, fate, and whatever else existed to reverse time.
Noah poured in the black liquid while Ira forced it down Brielle's throat, all the while Luci held her soulmate and sobbed into her shoulder. There was no morning light or sparkling blue magic. No one was coming for them.
“How long?” Ira asked.
“I don’t know,” Noah answered, voice shaking.
And then that was it. No more questions and no more rattle. In her arms, Brielle gave one last shuddering breath, and then her chest didn’t move again. The terrible noise of her nightmares is gone, but at what cost?
Luci wailed like a woman lost at sea and forgotten. Lost to time and all its promises.
“Noah-” Ira said, voice lethal.
“I don’t- I- I’m sorry,” he said.
There it was. The end of everything. The master healer was defeated. The love of her life was gone.
“I chose her!” Luci screamed up at the sky.
If Elowen was listening, that let her answer for this. She’d made her choice and was prepared to lose Ira for her friend and sister.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she pleaded.
Lord Treveon’s grief was that of an ocean as he pushed Noah aside and reached for Brielle’s hand, begging as well.
But the dead didn’t hear pleas from the living.
And Brielle, the light of their life, was dead.