CAMILLE ; awelcomedrespite
Cami woke up in his arms. The last memory was trying to take witches by surprise. She remembered vaguely the pain of a spell, her body being crumpled to her knees and then there was blackness. She didn’t remember him being there or picking her but when she began to come to, her eyes gazed at him.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, a hint of protest to her voice. Her body was recovering quickly as he carried her out that didn’t mean that she wasn’t putting forth some sort of fight still. That would mean admitting that he had been right. That would require allowing herself to feel again and she wasn’t prepared for that.
More than that, she didn’t know why he was still there. After everything she had become and everything that she had done, she didn’t know why he would still be there. She had done everything to push him away, to show that she was truly a monster too but he was still there. He was there holding her and taking care of her like he always did.“Why won’t you just let it end?”
He had promised to keep her from this. To at all costs stop her from any move against the witches. From provoking war. From facing those whose power she did not yet understand. To watch the battles as a human meant nothing, gave no insight or experience to participate in them. To join a side and watch as all turned on you. He had promised, and he had failed. The one thing beyond his abilities was to be two places at once, and so... So he arrived too late.
But she would be fine. Perhaps even with a lesson learned. Jaw hard, face stern, he ignored her first question. Where would he take her, but home? Away from this disaster that she might heal. And that he might rain hell down upon her head for her folly, if truth be told... And then, with luck, he and Elijah might patch up the damage she had caused, undo the declaration of war her efforts represented.
And keep her out of this in future.
But the second he could not ignore.
‘ Because this is not how it ends, Camille. ‘
Not in her dying because of him. Because he involved her in this accursed fight and failed to keep her safe. Because he acted instinctively in a moment of fear and took from her all she was. No, if she was to die truly, let it be as Camille, not this twisted monster of his creation.
