I continued to shake my head and the tears that started springing from my eyes. I wouldn’t take this offer, I would not. No matter how hard I pleaded with him to let me return to my town at the beginning of the month, I would not go back there now.
Not when Dahr was in trouble.
Not when he was risking everything.
“You have to, Milenora. I may not be able to protect you.” The hurt in his voice as he released those words told me everything I needed to know. Dahr was scared.Scared for me. And in order to protect me, he was putting himself in danger. Himself and everyone around.
“I won’t let you do this,” I tried to shout but the corset I had been shoved into still did a perfect job at keeping my ribs tight and preventing too much air from flowing. “I won’t…” I shook my head and blinked away more tears.
“I’m giving you what you asked for, Nora. A chance to follow your dreams,” he nodded and moved away from me to reach the table. I was surprised by his action, but too weak to follow him. Still wrestling my feelings and the breaking of my heart.
I watched how Dahr crouched under the table and jiggled something inside the wood to pull out a small case. If I didn’t know better, I would think it was a large book, but when Dahr carefully placed it in my hands, I felt a weight heavier than paper. Surprised and curious, I opened the leather-bound wooden box to find jewellery. Dozens of precious gems bundled up together: from diamonds to sapphires and rubies, along with strings of pearls, gold brooches with emerald designs and so much more.
“What is this?” I looked back at Dahr with wide eyes, my hands already shaking under the weight.
“I have been saving into it for years, in case I ever managed to escape. It’s a ticket to a new life. Any life you choose for yourself,” Dahr leaned in again to press a kiss on my lips, which ended before I had enough time to respond.
“Run away with me, Dahr. You can escape this. Come with me, somewhere far away, where they can’t find us. Somewhere where you can start a new life with me, away from this place.Away from the burden you’ve been forced to carry for so long,” I begged him, but one look in his night-sky eyes told me that this battle was already lost.
“Don’t you dream of something else? Something better?” I asked in between sobs, understanding that there was no other end to this conversation but my departure. Dahr pressed his lips to mine again, to brand me with a final goodbye.
“I am all out of dreams.”
“All ready,” Markos popped his head into the tent and when I shot him a threatening gaze, he looked at me apologetically.
“Take her to Karisha first. Make sure she has something to eat and changes into better clothing,” Dahr ordered and started to step away from me. His legs moved with heavy weight, as though they too wrestled against this decision.
“Dahr!” I shrieked, begging him not to go. Not to leave me.
It caused him to turn back. Just for another stolen moment. Just enough to press his forehead to mine again and let me taste his lips one final time.
“Burn bright, little flame, and fulfil all your dreams. Reach your destiny. And know… know you would have been the one.”
With a final goodbye, the warrior left the tent without looking back. I heard his voice in the distance, barking annoyed orders at the camp. Leaving me a suddenly-wealthy pile of a mess, fallen on the floor next to a decapitated corpse and a future I no longer wanted ahead of me.
The drakes, Markos and I arrived in town early in the morning, before the sun hung its possessive crown in the sky.
The tribe leader and a few selected warriors set up a mission to destroy the television tower, wiring and electricals to stop all town communication while myself and another group of men spent the day knocking from door to door and convincing people to leave their livelihoods for the promise of another day. Threatening them was a more accurate description. The town alarm sounded the evacuation, and everyone was desperate to run away. To save themselves from the death that would come chasing.
It was hard.
It was painful.
It was effective.
We did not stop until we knocked on every door, until everyone was out. Until the screaming stopped and the abandoned town remained covered in silence.
We did not stop until the town remained a ghost of its once formidable spirit. Until every door remained open and mourning the loss of a family that had just hours ago lived inside. Until the shadows of the streets remained just that, empty paths that used to be walked on, now useless. And ready for the incoming destruction.
I spent a few more hours making sure there was no living soul left, nothing that would be damaged after Dahr completed his cycle of fiery torture.
And then I went home.
When I went to say my goodbye to her, in between tears and long hugs, Karisha had gifted me a cross-body bag where Dahr’s box of jewellery fit perfectly and, without realising, I ended up carrying the worth of an entire town just as I was helping to destroy one. I climbed the stairs to my flat, enjoying for once the peace and quiet the effect of having no neighbours offered. Iknew it wouldn’t last long however, that this was possibly a once in a lifetime experience, so instead of crying for the loss of my old life, I turned the key that opened the way to my home and contemplated the decision lying ahead.
I could start a new life… or what remained of it. I wouldn’t have to work, I could travel, buy a home by the sea and lose myself in the waves every single day until I vanished. I could help another school for girls just like the one I had grown up in, I could change the life of whomever I chose to.
As I lay in the bed I thought I had missed so much but felt empty without a heavy pile of muscles warming my body, I knew none of these options were truly a choice. And that there was only one path I could follow. But if I was going to find my end by fire, I was going to do it far better dressed than this.
