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Her jaw clenched until she thought she’d shatter her teeth. Her hands trembled, while her chest ached so terribly she wondered when someone had pushed a searing blade into it.

I want to be with him. This isn’t fair.

“Emerie,” Delora gently called.

“Yeah?” she croaked, turning her head forward to find all eyes on her.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Reia asked, her lips tight and flat with worry.

“No,” she half-laughed, half-cried.

“Then–”

Before Reia could say anything that could possibly change her mind, Emerie cut her off. “I’m doing this to help all of you, but I’m also doing this for him. He wants Aleron back, and a safer world for him.” She stepped towards the white rift that looked frighteningly empty and cold. “If he wanted me to stay, he would have asked me to be his bride yesterday.”

With everything that had been shared between them, all the intimacy and touch, if he wanted her to be his bride, he would have made her his.

“Did you ask him about it?” Delora’s features twisted in sympathy. “If you gave him more time...”

“I didn’t need to,” she responded, giving her a dull look. “Plus, the whole point of doing this today was tonotgive him time.”

“What if he loves you, Emerie?” Delora pushed.

“He doesn’t,” Emerie stated firmly.

Why the hell is everyone trying to make me change my mind at the last freaking second?She clenched her hands into tight, shaking fists. Why were they trying to make this harder for her? This was already painful enough without them throwing more baggage on her.

“You don’t know that,” Reia argued, scratching at the side of her head. “I already told you of our story, and how Orpheus was... He was devastated the first time I died. Neither one of us knew if I would actually come back, if it was too late. If Ingram loves you as much as Orpheus did me back then... he may not get over it.”

Everything Mayumi had done to settle Emerie’s tears was made pointless by Delora and Reia.

“He doesn’t, okay?!” Emerie exclaimed while swiftly darting her face from them, her eyes shut tight and her teeth clenched. “I’ve been watching all of you, and it doesn’t take a genius to realise what colour their orbs turn when they feel love.”

“Emerie.” Mayumi said her name firmly, attempting to cut in and stop her spiralling emotions.

“I have spent almost every minute of every day with him for the past three weeks and not once have his orbs turned pink because of me.”

Somehow, Emerie had managed to stem the worst of her tears so that the remnants of them only dotted her eyelashes. She opened her eyes and gave them a weak and beseeching grin that likely just revealed her anguish more than anything. She hoped it was enough to make them leave her alone.

“But they have because of Aleron,” she continued. “No matter what he does feel for me, his kindred is the most important thing to him. I am replaceable. He is not. He will get over it, and I will have died knowing I did what was best for him, what will protect him.”

She knew Ingram felt something deep for her: tenderness, fondness, trust, and absolutely lust. He cared about Emerie and had made it obviously apparent. Anyone would be an idiot to deny that.

But it wasn’t enough, and she wasn’t going to give him time to figure it out or fall any deeper.

Not if she wanted to help him in the long run.

She wanted him to be happy, and to have the future he wanted.

He’d spoken many times about wanting to be back in Aleron’s wings. That had always been his true desire; it was why she’d come here in the first damn place.

And when faced with a choice between someone who was alive and who wasn’t, he’d chosen neither. She’d been sitting right in front of him, with a beating heart and working lungs, and he couldn’t choose between her and someone who no longer existed.

His love for his twin was too strong to allow Emerie in. Their bond transcended time, space, and existence.

My life has always been meaningless...She’d spent most of it mourning for herself.At least it will now have a meaningful end.

Although the last few weeks had been filled with pain, fear, and uncertainty, it’d also been the most fun, exciting, and sensual experience of her life. For a little while yesterday, she’d been truly... happy.