Crying in pleasure

Chapter 29: A song of death and love

" A-Alexander?" I call him still asleep. He's hugging me like he did the day we had to stop into the cave next to Edmund's village after I had won the battle against their pack. It seems like an eternity ago. Everything has changed since then.

" Amber! My love... How do you feel? Oh my- I thought you... you were going to-" He starts panicking, rushing words like he's never done before. He's always be so calm, no matter what. While I'm staring at him with a confused expression, I notice he seems tired, like if he hasn't slept for days, the deep shadows under his eyes making their light blue even more brilliant.

" How long have we been here?" I ask him. Everything around us is desert. Desert and shadows. And then I see him: a shadow, far away from me, like if we were in a dream. He is exactly like I remembered him, with his short black hair and his kind dark brown eyes. Like mines. I'm focusing on his tall figure, muscular but slim, when he disappears. I squeeze my eyes two, three, even four times, but he isn't there anymore. And still, I'm so sure he was there only a few seconds ago.

" D-did you see him?" I ask Alexander. He starts shaking violently, his eyes widen as he shouts,

" Who, who? Where is it? Who is it? Amber-" I take his face in my hands, staring at his enormous blue eyes, full of fear and insecurity, trying to calm him down. He's hyperventilating, but slowly starts taking deep and confident breaths, nodding and blinking and trying to stop shaking.

" What's wrong... who have you seen? Tell me." I ask him, caressing his cheeks and calming him with a reassuring smile.

" They... they've never stopped taunting us, taunting you, since we got here. They... I... She... I can't- Amber- please..."

" Shh, shh. I'm okay, we're okay. You've got nothing to worry about. We're okay. No one will hurt us. We're together. We will always be." I'm trying to reassure him, but he's too worried, too fearful, too lost. What did she do to him?

" You had no right, Oracle! Come here. Now! Some shadows won't scare me!" I shout, standing up, daring her to show up and behave as a real werewolf and not like a wicked witch. A laugh echoes in the valley, but no one showed. She definitely wants me to get tired before having the courage to face me. What a filthy little vomiting coward!

" Fine! Then face the consequences of your actions... I never wanted to do so... But you leave me no choice." I plant my feet deep in the soft sand of the desert where the Oracle had left us and shout:

" For the power I inherited from my ancestors and the strength I was given from the moon herself I, Amber Redshade of the House of Moonshade, claim your wolf form as a tribute. Give it to me willingly or die while trying to escape my curse."

Nothing moves. I have just cursed her until the death, with the most terrible curse between our kind, and she has no way to escape it. The shadows of our pasts stop shouting, encircling our shaking bodies, becoming more and more black and less similar to our long forgiven sins. Alex's eyes become bigger and bigger, widening at the awareness of what has just happened: there's no fear left inside them, only a deep determination. He steps in and holds my hand tightly, eventually smiling again. His eyes bore into mines as to reassure me, to state that we were going through this together.

A curse is always a curse. No matter who casts it, or why they do so. The last one who casted it was the Blood Queen. The legend says only a true royal can cast such a great spell without being instantly killed by the moon herself. The air becomes thinner as a storm approaches the dome of magic above us. I hold my breath as I wait for the end. Maybe my brother was right. Maybe I wasn't the rightful heir to the throne. Maybe even my bond with Alexander was fake. Maybe I am fake, made of all the dreams that people I used to love whispered to me in the depths of the never ending night I seem to be.

I lift my gaze and look straight into Alex's eyes, touching his mark for the last time. If I must die, this is how I want him to remember me: daring, bright and completely fallen for him with every single fibre of my being.

The storm gets nearer. A laugh echoes through the valley. My skin burns again. I'm feeling ripped and burnt, but the only thing I can worry about are the big tears falling on his cheeks. He's crying. For me.

I hold his head firmly and help myself getting closer to him, our bodies craving this last kiss. Our lips collide with a strength and a passion they have never reached before, as the burning need inside me grows wilder and stronger for every passing second. His hands grab my dirty brown hair, as to keep me even closer, his member daring anyone to to take me away from him.

Tears begin rushing down my face as I feel the kiss is going to end, since the desperate need of him is almost fully overcome by the need of fresh air to stop this burning sensation. This is the end.

The laugh in echoing in the plain suddenly becomes a horrifying cry, and a beautiful but suffering woman appears in front of us. She has long black hair and grey piercing eyes full of unshed tears. Her caramel skin looks pale as raindrops begin to fall over our heads. The dome has fallen. And this means only one thing: she's dying. And I'm not.

I lift my gaze up to Alexander's eyes and see the same confusion I'm sure he can see in mines. Then, a sincere smile appears on his face and makes its way through my lips as we both look at the crying lady in front of us.

" She's singing." Alex tells me as I focus on the words she's saying, holding up her hands to the sky. Her words repeat a melodic mantra in a long forgotten language.

" Omnia vincit amor, mater.
Amor meus vita mea est.
Feci quod ipse me dixit,
Feci quod ipse iudicavit iustum.

Omnia vincit amor, mater.
Etiam te.
Te maledico hodie et semper.
Hodie morior, ipse salvus semper manebit."

" What is she singing about?" Alexander asks me.

" About death and love... She cursed the goddess herself... She's saying she did what her lover said was right and that with her death she'll make him safe forever." I translate for him her terrible and melancholic song in Latin.

" Tamen reinae decisio non oblittero:
Ea maledico in nomine amor meus,
Ut semper mors mea memoret
Et hoc die mi ea cogitabit"

With this last words she shouts once more and then, inevitably, falls dead on the soft sand. A shining figure leaves her body, leading toward us. The more it comes closer, the more I recognise it as a ghost of a wolf.

" My Queen," it says to me bowing, " Thank you for having finally made me free. The human part of me was behaving improperly and I didn't get the chance to prevent her from doing so. I therefore swear I'm not the one to blame, since the one she had fallen in love with wasn't my rightful mate, who died years ago after we had met just once. You really are the Queen legends say you ought to be: you'll bring great glory to the house you'll choose to fight for."

" I'm glad you can find a new human now... You're a worthy wolf. I give you my blessing." I say smiling. That wolf has proven to be by far better than the human who had been assigned to her.

" How can I ever repay you for honouring me of such a great present?" She asks me bowing even more. It's my wolf who answers now,

" Keep safe. And don't forget to celebrate the greatness of your Queen." The wolf bows and leaves through the heavy drops of a crying sky.

I grab Alexander's hand and approach the Oracle, who seems to be dead. Her long black hair have been blown up by the wind and her rosy cheeks are becoming pale and hard. We knee down next to her in order to be sure she isn't breathing anymore, the unstopping rain making our simple task extremely difficult.

We have just succeed in grabbing a mirror from her pocket and putting it in front of her mouth when she suddenly opens her big grey eyes, now similar to the dark clouds over our heads.

" Lewis..."

She whispers softly so before eventually dying, her soul leaving her body for the never ending travel that is waiting to be done.

Alexander closes her eyes and then lifts his gaze to stare at me. His eyes show he's looking for the right words to say, I can see he is. At least, his lips disclose to state,

" We need to go home. Seems your brother is being naughty, again." Then he stands up, shifts and tells me through mind link,

" Jump up princess, I'm taking you home."