Title: Everything
Rating: 18
Author: Mizuki Perry
Pairing: Beth/Kory.
Fandom: Bedlam's Bard, Elves on the Road universe by Mercedes Lackey
Word Count: 833
Genre: Fantasy
Warnings: hetero sex, angst
Beta (s): unbeta'd atm
Disclaimer: These are not my characters, they belong to Mercedes Lackey. I make no money from this nor will I.
Summary: Beth's POV. Kory leaves Beth after Eric disappears and the Nexus is destroyed, and three weeks later she is in bed, drunk and distraught. Set while Eric is lost in the Elf world of Underhill, and the book continues from the end of this fic.
It ended. Just like that. No big talk, no 'it's not you, it's me,' no avoidance games, no anger or shouting. It just stopped. One minute he was writhing on top of her, making passionate love to her; and the next, he was gone.
His lips on hers, soft kisses, soft caresses down her neck while he pumped into her rhythmically. She moaned as she wrapped her arms around him and held him closer to her, wanting to feel him even more, if that were possible. She let him lift his head and their eyes caught each other at the same moment that he hit her spot. She screamed out in desire, and Kory held her to his shoulder, muffling her, "shh... love, the neighbours."
And then Kory stopped moving. Beth moved her head to look into his eyes, but where they were usually bright and sparkling emerald green, they dulled as if the light had just gone out of them. "Kory? Love, what's wrong?"
He said nothing as he looked away and pulled out of her. Just got up and walked off, grabbing some clothes on the way out of her bedroom.
"Where are you going?" She got off the bed and pulled on her dressing gown from the floor. "Kory?" She followed him out of the room as far as the living room, where he was pulling on his hastily discarded t-shirt.
"It's finished," he finally muttered, "it's over. There's nothing left. Nothing." He turned to face her, wearing an expression she had never seen before. Hopelessness, and devastation, "it's gone. All gone."
That was the last thing he said to her before he turned and left the apartment. She ran after him, but when she ran down the stairs and out of the building he was no where to be seen.
And that was it.
She hadn't understood what he had said at first, but the next day she found that, despite all the protests and all the negotiations, the Faire Site had been destroyed by Ria Llewellyn's corporation. The Faire site that contained the nexus: the source of the elves magic, their life source. Without it, they couldn't survive. Kory couldn't survive.
That's why he left. He had just given up.
Now three weeks later she was laying on the bed, finishing a fifth bottle of beer.
How could he leave me like this? We could have found somewhere else, he's High Court, he doesn't need this nexus. We could have gone to another one. We could have stayed together... No we couldn't. Wishful thinking Beth. He can't be without his kin, if we left without them he wouldn't have been able to live with himself. They would still perish and die while he alone escaped. No, he wouldn't do that.
But why did he take everything? ... How did he take everything? He left and didn't come back, and yet, he has left nothing. No clothes, no property, not even a toothbrush... She rolled over on to what was Kory's side of the bed. I can't even smell him! How could he leave me with nothing!? Did I mean nothing to him at all? A stray tear made its way down her cheek, followed by another, and another, and before she knew it she was wracked with sobs. She dropped the empty beer bottle onto the floor and cried into the pillow, shaking, and wishing Korendil was still there.
FUCK! Fuck you Eric! If you hadn't have run off to fucking Ria's then we could have saved the nexus and saved the elves and Kory would still be fucking here! We would all still be here! Lady, Mother of Earth, what the hell were you even thinking, Eric? RIA? She destroyed the nexus! You knew she bought the faire site just to destroy the grove, you knew!
"ARGH!" she cried out and slammed backwards onto her side of the bed. "You fucking bastard!"
How could he do this?
I fucking hate him.
She frowned. Hate was the wrong emotion...
No... I don't hate him. I want to kill him. If I ever fucking see him again-
A knock at the front door interrupted her thoughts of murder. She lifted her head and wiped away the tears from her face, not sure if she heard the knock or just imagined it. Deciding to chance it, she rolled out of bed and walked to the living room. "Who the fuck would be knocking at this time of night anyway? It's nearly three in the morning." She muttered.
There was another knock on the door, louder this time, and she growled at the unknown person behind it. "Quit waking the building."
She turned the latch and opened the door towards her to see a scruffy vagrant covered in mud and blood, and wearing clothes that looked like they hadn't been changed in fifty years. She blinked and looked again, and saw just who was waiting for her in the hallway.
Eric.