"We'll meet again...Until then..." Lucifer said to Lothaire and he knew what he meant, that they'd meet when he was supposed to fulfill his side of the deal he made with the devil. Lucifer disappeared into thin air as black mists engulfed him, their business didn't bother him as he had fulfilled his side of their deal so all he had to do was wait patiently for the time when Lothaire would fulfill his other side of the bargain.
Lothaire's jaws ticked when he remembered the deal he made with him and there was no doubt that another war would break out if Larisa ever found out, which she most definitely would even if he didn't tell her but for now he had to focus on the present and he'd figure out how to handle the devil later because he couldn't sit back and watch the cunning deceiver take his child. He'd find a way to nullify the deal and the only way was killing him but he wasn't very sure if Larisa's blood could help him kill him since he had no weakness and he was immortal but still he'd do whatever it took to avoid seeing her in pain.
Zion finally healed and he walked in to meet Larisa crying and he was about to ask what happened when his gaze dropped on Onyx's corpse in Avian's arms and he froze for a second but no one needed to explain what had happened because he could no longer hear her heart beating and his knees felt weak as he moved closer to her in fear, hoping that his worst nightmare had not become a reality but it had.
"O..Onyx?!" Zion called almost screaming her name as he stared at her corpse with quivering lips. Onyx was his mother's childhood friend and when his mother died as a toddler, she had raised him as her own and looked after him and her kind nature only made the young lad love her unconditionally, so seeing her dead, shattered his heart completely and broke his spirit. His eyes burned with tears and his veins popped as he gritted his teeth in pain.
Lothaire tried all his best to stop Larisa from crying but she didn't and he wasn't surprised since she was soft hearted and she felt human emotions but the good thing about human emotions was that the pain would subside and forgotten with time but the same couldn't be said for Avian.
Lothaire knew he owed Avian for his mate's life been sacrificed for his to live and he was determined to grant his wishes but he wondered what Avian, who had lost his mate would possibly want if not death and of course he was expecting him to ask for it but he was surprised he didn't and he truly wondered why not since he had never feared death.
Onyx's burial ceremony was held quietly in the secret garden three days after she died. Lothaire made sure she was given a burial befitting a Queen. She was dressed in a floral light blue gown, her favourite colour and her red hair was curled beautifully with beautiful hair pins on it, she was placed on the wooden funeral pyre covered with flowers as they were going to watch her float away on the magical lake in Lothaire's garden as it was Larisa's idea.
Larisa was the first to drop a flower beside her, it was a blue rose, her favourite. It was hard to look at her corpse as she laid unmoving on the pyre, dead. She looked like a beautiful queen that was only in a deep slumber, as she still looked so gorgeous and her red hair still glistened so beautifully under the dim moonlight but her skin had turned dark grey and her red lips had turned pale which was all the evidence that pointed it out that she was truly dead even if it was hard for her to believe. She found it hard to believe that Onyx was dead and she would never see her unique blue eyes she admired shining at her or hear her melodious voice ring in her ears or see her reassuring smile again. She remembered the last words she told her was that everything would be alright but nothing was.
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she stared at her with a painstaking expression and within a second, hot silent tears rolled down her cheeks as she knew this was the last time she was ever going to see her and it was all her fault, everyone warned her how ugly things could get and because of her, lives were been lost and she knew more would with time. She wanted to touch her one last time as she said her goodbyes and her hands shook uncontrollably between heavy sob as her hands were outstretched to touch her and the nearer she got, the louder and heavier her sobs became.
Adina gently pulled her away from Onyx before she could touch her since she wasn't strong enough for it and tears dropped silently from her eyes as she cried softly along with Larisa as she pulled her away, giving her a comforting squeeze on her shoulder because she knew how close they had become in the past two months they spent together.
Avian watched as Zion and Adina bid her goodbye but he wasn't expecting either Darius or Lothaire to bid her goodbye since they weren't close enough. He stood a good distance away from them, as he wasn't going to say his goodbyes because he knew no matter how many goodbyes he said to her, he would never be free from the eternal hell he was in from the moment she died in his arms and he couldn't bear to look at her face or else he'd just lose it, so he watched from a far distance as they positioned the wooden pyre on the lake and watched it float away till it disappeared out of sight.
The palace was dull with mourning especially from Larisa and Zion who acted as though the weight of the world was on their shoulders after Onyx's demise.
Lothaire watched Larisa as she crouched on the bed, she wasn't crying anymore but he could feel the self resentment and guilt she felt for the death of Onyx.
"If I wasn't been so selfish she would have still been alive..." Larisa murmured under her breath but Lothaire caught her every breath.
"You're only feeling self guilt because you're in mourning but in time you'll learn that death naturally happens and it's no one's fault." Lothaire stated in a matter of fact but in a comforting way.
"If I had just left, she'd still be alive, I know it." Larisa argued as she felt hot tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
"Death is an entity, it works in order not by the choices you take, so no matter what, it takes who's next on the list and sorry to tell you this but Onyx was next on it's list so stop feeling guilty over her death." He said, trying to make her feel better but his cold eyes that held no remorse or pity made her feel the opposite, she felt angry at the fact that he didn't care about anyone else but her.
"So your mother died not because you made the choice to murder her but because she was on death's list?" Larisa blurted out furiously, she was angry that he didn't care at all about anyone sacrificing their lives for hers and she thought it was a really heartless and selfish thing to do because he didn't want to lose his mate but he was okay with someone else losing theirs but it wasn't okay with her.
Lothaire stared at her for a second but he wasn't mad at her outburst since she was still in mourning and he didn't really care either about the fact that he took his mother's life but hearing her speak of him murdering his mother with detest in her eyes made him feel....Ashamed of what he was and he had never felt that way, not since he was a child when his mother looked at him like an abomination.
Larisa knew that she had hurt Lothaire as he stared at her speechless with empty eyes but that was what she wanted, she wanted him to realise how heartless and selfish he was and how much pain he put others in because he put his priorities first and no one else, which was undoubtedly her. She would never judge him for what he was but she wanted him to realise that sacrificing others without remorse was too cruel and she wanted him to at least be considerate about others too instead of only her.
Lothaire abruptly got up from the bed beside her and she jerked backwards which only made him feel worse about himself. It didn't help that his breed mate was afraid of him but now she also detested what he was and it cut him deeper than a knife.
"Did you really think I was going to hit you?" Lothaire said and she could hear the hurt in his voice as he stared at her with cold eyes before exiting the room without waiting for her reply. She felt a bit awful about the way she made him feel but she wanted him to realise that he was too inconsiderate when it came to risking lives without a care in the world.
.......
Somewhere in the eerie, magical forest, Onyx's corpse on the pyre abruptly stopped moving on the lake as a gigantic hand pulled it to the earth and took Onyx's corpse effortlessly as it carried her in it's enormous arms.
"They'll never be ready for me, this is just the beginning of my revenge, the sorcerers were merely a warm up." The owner of the arms said with a deep voice that shook the waters as his eyes glinted darkly.