Author's Note: I almost have the next couple chapters done. I had to weave together certain details and move things around to different chapters, so I had to leave my readers in an intense cliff hanger! BTW, I love the passion of all of your reviews for these latest chapters. :D
She searched Bernard's eyes as he held her weak body in his arms. Her breathing was slowly growing raspier every hour as her body fought to stay alive. Bernard would care for and love her. If she told Milori she had needed to marry Bernard for Pixie Hollow, he would understand. It would break him, but he would understand. And he would probably still love her until the end of his life, she thought to herself with tears in her eyes. She would give Milori her heart and hope that it would help heal him so he could move on, although she knew she could never move on. Closing her eyes, a tear caressed her cheek and fell to splash into a dozen droplets on the floor, just like her heart. No one could mate with a queen unless she gave her word, but she struggled to find the word that would tear her apart from Milori.
"Sweetheart, I swear you'll smile again," he whispered, his own voice breaking. "Please, don't cry. I will take care of you and make you happy. We will fill our house with children who will make you smile like the sun. I love you, Clarion." He brushed a kiss over her brow.
Her eyes shot open. "What?"
"I love you."
She weakly shook her head. "Children. How do you know about children?"
He frowned, blinking back his tears. "Everyone knows the queen must have children to have heirs."
Struggling to prop herself up against the wall out of his arms, she panted and shook her head. "No one knows."
His brow furrowed. "Yes, sweetheart. I talked to some fairies to see what could be wrong with you, and we figured out you're so ill because you're going through changes." He reached out to touch her.
She weakly slapped his hand away. "You're lying," she hissed.
He sat back. "Clarion, you're not well and confused. Please, I mean you no harm. Don't get worked up-it'll use more of your dust," he pleaded.
Trying to keep calm, she shook her head. "I won't mate with you."
A deep sigh escaped him, and he got up to pace out his frustration. "It's because of him, isn't it?"
She didn't reply.
"That filthy winter parasite has his hooks in you," he snarled to himself.
Her eyes grew wide.
He spun on her and boomed, "You would mate with that lowlife and taint the bloodlines?! You deem that thing as worthy of your love? Of having his life extended from eight hundred to a thousand years by being the mate of the queen?!" Bernard trembled and his eyes were mad.
His anger was so palpable that she didn't put it past him to try to force a mating or tear her wing to finish her off instantly. But she was a queen, and queens were the strongest of all soldiers. A queen bowed down to no one. He knew something that she didn't, and she'd be damned if she gave him power to the throne before she found out how he knew her secret. She pushed herself up to a sit and held his eyes. "I would rather see Pixie Hollow die than turn it over to you. I will give my last breath to this cave first."
"You always were too brave for your own good. We'll see how long those words last." He backed up a step and sat on a rock to watch her.
Every second she felt weaker. Every second she felt her heart work harder. Holding his eyes she vowed, strong and clear, "Then you will watch Pixie Hollow die with me." She slowly began to slouch as her life started to slip away, particle by particle.
Time slowly ticked by.
Her time was almost up. Looking up into the sky, she saw the stars-the same stars that she had met Milori under time and time again. The same stars she had wished on night after night to find love. And she had found a love that couldn't be any more perfect-she loved to play with Milori and loved to bicker with him. But most of all, she loved to love him. Her wings stopped glowing and the stars above went dim. "I love you," she whispered and raised her hand to let the last of her dust shoot up to the sky to rejoin the tree. She collapsed.