Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, they belong to Libba Bray
Gemma POV
"NO!" I sob, holding Kartik as close as I could. "I won't lose you, not after everything that's happened. It can't end now, not this way!"
The others surround us near the tree. Felicity, Ann, Fowlson, Gorgon and other creatures from the Realms, including Amar, who is but a faint image, barely there, staring down at his younger brother's dying body. I didn't see any of them though, not really. I only have eyes for the man in my arms.
"Gemma, I love you. It has to be this way; this is my destiny, to be here to save you. No matter what happens, I will always be with you." I could see tears in his eyes as he said this. This is wrong. It has to be an awful dream. A nightmare in every sense of the word.
"Gemma, we have to leave. If we don't go now, we will never be able to." Felicity looked down at me from where I was on my knees holding Kartik's head in my lap. How can she expect me to leave him when he is dying?
"What she speaks is true, Most High. If you do not leave the Realms now, you will perish here." The gorgon said this sadly to me, confirming Felicity's words.
"I WON'T GO! It isn't fair! I won't leave him!" I scream at them. How could they not understand? My life meant nothing to me without Kartik to share it with. I stopped caring along time ago about society's expectations and the scandal of running off with an Indian.
"Gemma…" The roots have started to constrict around his neck. I tug at them, but to no avail. They are like metal surrounding his throat, unmovable and growing tighter by the second. "You…must…leave….Save…yourself…my… love…" His eyes closed, blocking those beautiful chocolate brown orbs from me forever. The Ann and Felicity try to pull me away, dragging me across the hard ground away from the dying body of my true love.
"NO! PLEASE! DON'T MAKE ME LEAVE HIM!" They do not listen, but as I continue to struggle with them, Fowlson, who had been silently watching, grabs me around the waist and lifts me over his shoulder, carrying me away from Kartik. Amar is now the one standing over his brother's body with an odd expression I barely notice. I continued to scream and they ignore me, but I could see the tears streaming down Fee's and Ann's faces as we crossed the river and I was carried into the destroyed garden and through the portal. The portal that would seal as soon the last of us stepped through, forever barring me to the Realms, and never seeing my Kartik ever again.
Goodbye, my love, I thought as we took those last pivotal steps to our world. I will always love you, forever.