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“She sacrificed herself to protect us all,” Faunus stated, as he curled his arm backwards and around Mayumi to pull her flush against him. “She was the only one who could do it.”

“I would have done it!”Ingram roared.“I did not mind if I died so long as the Demon King did as well. I would have just gone to the afterworld to be with Aleron!”Once more, he wheezed as blue flickered in his reddened sight momentarily.“Emerie... she... I did not want her todieforme.”

At first, he had not cared. He would have killed her himself if it were the answer to his problems.

But now? After everything they’d shared?

He couldn’t think of anything worse.

“You wouldn’t have been able to stay conscious!” Faunus yelled. “You would have fallen into your bloodlust and hunger. You were too unpredictable, too unreliable. You wouldn’t have even remembered the task bestowed upon you.”

It was true. What the feline-skulled Mavka said couldn’t be argued with, but...

Not her. It should not have been her.

Ingram looked down at his claws, but the shaking of his hands made him feel dizzy. He retched when it felt like his heart was trying to crawl up from his throat so he could vomit it. He dug at his chest, right over it, unsure if it was to keep it from violently exploding from him, or to rip it out himself.

I cannot do this,he internally whined.I cannot lose another I care for.

Aleron’s loss had been devastating to his psyche. The only reason he’d survived it was because he believed there was a way to bring him back. Mavka were a part of life and death, this he’d always known; he’d been told it dozens of moons ago.

His revenge had given him meaning and direction since Aleron was no longer there to lead him, as Ingram led him in return.

Then Emerie had come along and begun to... distract his thoughts. The pain from his kindred’s loss had been waning, and each time she melted some of the frozen ball inside him, she slowly replaced it with herself.

He didn’t think she would have fully removed it from him, that icy chill, but she’d startedshieldinghim from it. Through her warmth, her touch, or just simply her embrace, she’d given him something else to dwell on: her.

Even if he hadn’t truly understood that he loved her, it had still been there, just waiting for him to accept what he thought he couldn’t have. He’d been obsessed with that little female, every fibre of his being frantic to be up against her until she’d totally and irrevocably stained him.

Ingram wasn’t too late in figuring out his feelings. He wasn’t devastated and only valuing what was already lost.

No. It had already been there. Whether it was before or after today’s realisation that he wanted her as his bride more than anything inthisworld, learning of her death would have devastated him either way.

As it did now.

I cannot do this.The anger and betrayal towards Mayumi and Faunus – who obviously knew what was happening, and had let it happen – deflated out of him. Dark blue flooded his orbs, before the bottoms of them cracked and produced cold, ethereal tears in his wobbling sight.

As much as he wanted to attack them, the chilling shiver that assaulted his spine ate away at the flames of his rage. His pain was too heavy this time, engulfing him in hopelessness.

“Aleron... Emerie,”he whimpered, reaching up once more to his skull to hold it.“Why did you leave me here by myself?”

Was he cursed? Was he not supposed to keep hold of anyone in this world? If so, why the fuck was he trying to stay in it?

Other than trying to bring Aleron back, and he had no idea how to even begin that journey, there was nowhere else for him to go.

He had no home, no path, norevenge. It had been taken from him by the female he’d just lost... and needed just as much as he needed his kindred.

There was no point in being here when they werethere.

His floating tears tickled his fingers and palms as he started to dig his fingertips and claws into his skull. With heavy, agonised breaths, he pressed harder and harder until there was pressure all around.

He shook and shuddered in repulsion at what he was trying to do, and his neck dipped instead of giving way. His scales and spikes puffed, while tangled growls and whines echoed from him.

I do not want to be here if neither of them are.

“Fuck!” Faunus bit out, before his paw steps could be heard sprinting closer. “He’s trying to break his skull!”

Just when Ingram felt his rigid skull starting to bend in multiple places as it creaked, one of his arms was ripped back.