Those Lovely Shards (BXB)

Chapter Ten

In the room's muggy atmosphere, Neil felt a coldness sweeping over him. The coldness crept up to his leg, to his waist, all the way to his neck. As the coldness began to enter him, he touched his silk shirt and then the coat. His body trembled with even the simplest movement. He held his breath as he felt cold shadows and icy winds crawling up to his face. He bit his tongue sharply, drawing blood within. The queen's piercing stare kept him in his place. He could only hope that his face had betrayed nothing of what was tormenting inside him.

"I'm sorry, your highness, I can't accept..." Neil spoke, but the queen interjected.

"Do you not miss her, that girl, your first love?" The queen's eyes glistened as she leaned closer to Neil.

"Pardon?"

"You know who I'm talking about. Do you not still have nightmares about her as she screamed your name while taking her last breath?"

Neil stilled as his mind kept repeating the queen's words. A horrible image came to his mind. It was the day he saw Pia's body for the first time before burial. He knew she would be altered in appearance. Amma had prepared him and had even written that he would hardly know her. But he would bite the bullet. He would not be astonished. He'd promised himself.

As his gaze fell upon her, he found himself transfixed, his eyes fixated on her like one encountering a bewildering apparition that evoked not only pain but also fear and mistrust. This was not the girl who had once been his beacon of love, the one he had envisioned spending his life with. Instead, he beheld a sight of horrifying transformation, as if she had become a vessel of darkness. 

And at that moment, he questioned the depths of his own despair, for how could he be undergoing such torment in merely contemplating her altered state? 

Her complexion, once radiant, now appeared pallid and unnaturally flushed, with a feverish hue accentuating her cheekbones. Her features seemed distorted, almost skeletal, with a hollowness that accentuated their prominence. Her garments hung loosely on her fragile frame, a stark reminder of the physical toll she had endured. In this heart-wrenching encounter, emotions surged within him, entwining pain, confusion, and a profound sense of loss.

At the sight of her, something within him seemed to be shuddering, shrinking, shriveling together, losing all semblance of what had been. He felt as if it was his heart, but it was only his love.

The queen snapped her fingers in front of his face as he released a small gasp from his mouth.

"I can get her back," she whispered and steadily increased her amplitude as she marched closer. "I can get her back for you. But only if you kill Dove. Keep up your end of this bargain."

"You cannot, no one can. She's gone!" he yelled, losing his calm composure and overcome with emotions.

"I have a potion," she said.

"A potion to bring someone back from the dead?" Neil asked.

"Yes," she said simply.

"And why must I believe you blatant bluffs?" Neil asked.

"Would you believe it if you saw it with your own eyes?" she asked.

"I would," he spoke instantly.

"Follow me then," she said and led him outside the castle. Neil watched the festival for the last time. People were still busy dancing and chatting, their voices obscured by the distance that separated them.

As they kept walking, a blanket of uncomfortable silence embraced them. Neil felt as though he had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be, and there is this peculiarity in such solitude, so that, with lonely footsteps, he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.