No. 16: "Would you lie with me and just forget the world?" | "Don't go where I can't follow."
Zoya sat by her husband's bedside, hands wringing the folds of her royal kefta. Her fingers bore a few weathered lines, marks of decades gone by that barely touched a Grisha imbued with near immortality.
Nikolai, on the other hand, had aged as any otkazat'sya did. Zoya had hoped, for the first decade together, that the demon within would extend his life—extend his time with her. But it was not to be so.
His hair had long since lost that golden color, and rested white and coarse against the pillow. For all the toll the years and wars had taken on him, Zoya found him no less handsome in wizened repose.
His chest hitched with a struggling breath, and Zoya surged to her feet. "I'll get a Healer."
He swung his arm out and weakly grabbed her wrist. "Don't."
"They can help."
He gave her a knowing, compassionate look. "My dear Zoya, just stay with me tonight?"
She pursed her mouth but relented. There was nothing the Healers could do at this point except postpone the inevitable.
Nikolai lolled his head toward the window. "I want to look at the stars."
Zoya felt a sharp pang in her chest, but she didn't say anything as she wordlessly went over to open the curtains. Then she used her powers to slide the entire bed across the floor to rest right up underneath the sill.
Nikolai sighed contentedly. "Lie with me?" he asked.
Again, she obliged, crawling up onto the bed and snuggling up next to him. Far above the world, hundreds of glistering diamonds sparkled against the black of night. Nikolai gazed up at them almost wistfully.
Zoya tightened her arms around him. "Don't go where I can't follow," she whispered.
He turned his face toward her, resting his forehead against hers. "My love will never be far. It is eternal."
Her eyes pricked with hot moisture.
"Don't cry for me, Zoya," he breathed, reaching up a frail hand to wipe a single tear away. "I do not regret the many years we had, which is more than I could have ever hoped for."
"I want more," she replied.
Nikolai pressed a kiss to her temple. "I would give you that if I could."
"You've already given me everything."
"It was a fair trade," he said with that smile of his.
They fell silent and turned their eyes back to the stars.
"That one there," Zoya eventually said, pointing to a cluster. "Will be renamed in the star charts as King Nikolai."
His lips quirked. "You hopeless romantic."
"You've rubbed off on me."
"And thus I shall live forever."
Zoya's heart constricted again, and she reached into her pocket to pull out something she'd dug out of an old keepsake box. She placed the faded and worn blue ribbon in Nikolai's hand, and he smiled at her.
"Kiss me before you say goodbye," she said, voice breaking.
He shifted and leaned in to cover her mouth with his, the kiss soft and tender and full of the lifetime of love they had shared.
"No goodbye," he said when he drew back. "Just farewell for now." His tired eyes slid closed. "Till we meet again among the stars."