Elementals || Grishaverse

Chapter 50: Goodbyes

The entirety of Os Alta shook when they saw a certain black figure making his way towards the castle. But he wasn't alone. The royals, the guards and the Grisha - all three were shocked about the sight that they were seeing.

The Darkling. Holding Adaline's body in his arms as he carried her back home.

The Morana's friends were certain that their eyes were deceiving them. It couldn't be. She couldn't be gone. In the crowd that had formed outside, they were the ones that stood in the front.

Carolyn held a broken down Freya while weeping herself. Maxwell tried to calm Irina down as she let out all her tears. He couldn't believe that Adaline was gone. The blood on her white dress was clear as the ocean.

Stefan stumbled his way as he pushed forward through the crowd. He saw the Darkling place her body to the ground and seeing that her eyes were closed, he fell to the ground. His knees trembled at the impact but it didn't matter.

He lost her all over again.

"We will be burning her on a holy pire," was all the Darkling said. "It's what will be done."

He had no explanation for what had happened because no one would have dared question him. Except for that time.

"What happened!" Stefan shouted, his voice echoing all over the castle grounds.

The Darkling was silent.

The funeral took place where the Darkling himself set fire to the pire. Everyone started to leave after the ceremony was over, but the Darkling didn't. And so didn't the Morana's Chosen Ones.

The ashes that remained behind were spread across a lake in her family crypt. The Morana was returning to her elemental nature in her own way. She always let her powers bury her into the ground. The powers would find the Hand and she would resurrect.

But it was different this time.

This time, Adaline Chernoff would not be returning.

Freya held a certain gift in her hand that she handed to the Darkling, but she did not dare to look at him. The Darkling took it with trembling hands.

Her black kefta.

When everyone was gone, he sat before her grave. It felt eerie to say those words because he never thought that he would have to bury her. He did not ever think that he would be losing her.

He buried the kefta in a spot that only the two of them knew - the place where they were going to build their home, which lay exactly outside the Shadow Fold. "You never got to wear it, but I will always be with you. We'll see each other again."

Looking at his own creation, he felt mocked. It dawned upon him that she was right. He had become someone that could never win, because he wasn't who he wanted to be. "Oh for God's sake I hope we do! Because I won't make the same mistake again."

His memories were his gift and his curse, because he won't hurt her again.

They were going to meet again in a different form. He had one more chance to make it right.

And he took that chance.

When he returned to the castle, he found the Golden Prince waiting for him in the hallway. "What happened?"

The Darkling did not have any answer that would convince him of the truth. It was all between him and Adaline, and no one else. "I don't have anything to say-"

Stefan pulled the Darkling by his collar and slammed him against the wall nearby. "You did this."

"Stefan-" There was a murderous fury in his eyes that the Darkling had only ever seen in his own. If he were to die that night, he would welcome it with open arms.

"You did this!" The Darkling looked away. "Why?" His voice broke. "What did she ever do to you?"

The Darkling turned his gaze back on him. "I loved her."

Maxwell heard his friend's screams and decided to search for him. When he saw the scene, he pulled Stefan back from the Darkling. "Stefan, what are you doing?" He whispered hastily. He knew he had to keep an eye on him because he feared the confrontation that he was seeing before his eyes, but he was drowned in his own sorrows.

It was a day of misery.

Stefan's hands trembled as he let the Grisha go. As much as he did not want to admit it, there was pain in his eyes. "I guess we both did." He closed his eyes to not let any epiphanies get to him. "You'll always regret this. I may have lost her once again but this," He poked the Darkling's chest. "This will always be on you."

Stefan didn't know that Aleksander Morozova buried the love of his life that day. Stefan did not realise that he had lost the one that he loved for what felt like the millionth time. Stefan had lost her twice, but the Darkling had been losing her over and over again.

"You need to stay away from everyone." Maxwell told the dangerous man. "We don't need a reminder of the loss that we are forced to face this day."

Maxwell led Stefan to his room and warmed up the fire in the fireplace. He wrapped a towel around Stefan as both of them sat on the settee before the warm fire. but nothing was warm anymore. There was an unexplained darkness that took over their lives in an instant.

"Why risk your life for mine?"

Maxwell turned to his friend. He understood what he had meant. Maxwell had risked his life by speaking back to the Darkling. He was ready to lose his position as the Head of the oprichniki. It didn't matter anymore.

"We all loved her. Maybe mine was not the same as yours but we did love her....and the Darkling killed her."

The Darkling walked into his room with a void in him that he had never experienced before. He was empty. He looked around and saw nothing that mattered. He was alive because of her.

He had turned into his worst fears that day. He trashed the place. He pushed the books off of the study table, he ripped the sheets from his bed and he broke the bedside lamp.

Aleksander Morozova could not sleep that night, because he kept seeing Adaline. He could hear her laugh haunting him. He smiled because when he closed his eyes, he saw her smile....and it warmed his heart.

He broke down.

The Darkling started to cry.

The memories that were with him were not enough. He didn't want them. They didn't help him in any way.

We will meet again, my love.

"I will be waiting for you, Adaline."