Chapter 79 I Will Find You Again
#79 of Fox Hunt 2: The Queen of Varimore
I Will Find You Again
Chapter 79
Etienne saw Azrian run to him, as behind her, the dogs remained on their knees, worshipping and praying, whispering and in awe. He tried to sit up as Azrian knelt beside him. The wound was still bleeding from his chest, and it was strange: it didn't hurt at all. She closed her paw over the wound and asked sadly if it hurt him. He swallowed and shook his head, and he watched as she slowly healed it, sealing it shut and stopping the bleeding.
"He made you mortal," she whispered sadly, when the healing light of her magic had faded.
"But I . . . hurt him a little before that, didn't I?" he managed breathlessly. "Etienne do good?"
She smiled sadly and smoothed her little paw along the strong line of his jaw. "Etienne do good."
Etienne reached up and tried to touch her face, but she shied away.
"Don't," she whispered from the depths of her hood. "I'm different now. You could die if you looked into my . . . eyes."
"No," whispered Judith, and Etienne looked over to see her standing some feet away, ragged and bloody, her long black mane lifting in the black breeze as smoke curled across the sky. Her paws were relaxed at her sides as she said softly, "He's becoming mortal, but he still has some of his immortal side. It hasn't gone yet."
Etienne looked at Azrian. "See? I can still look at you." He reached for her again and frowned when she shied away yet again. "Azrian . . ." he whispered unhappily. "Let me look at you."
"Etienne . . . no . . ."
He realized she was hiding behind her hood, but why? Suddenly determined, he sat up, and ignoring her protests, he smoothed his paw over her cheek and pushed the hood back. It tumbled behind her shoulders and he gasped to see her left eye was gone. All that remained was a shriveled, sunken eyelid and torn lashes. She shrank away and bowed her head in shame, her long red mane slapping across her cheek in the wind.
"D-Don't look at me . . ." she whispered.
He shook his head and pushed her mane back from her face. "I'll die if I don't . . ." he said . . . and kissed her tenderly. He could feel her hesitating. Why was she afraid? He pushed his fingers through her mane, and his tongue gently coaxed, becoming more fervent as he tasted her. A thrill of happiness went through him when she kissed back. She slipped her slender arms around his neck, he wrapped her tight in his embrace, and he thought he would never let go, even as he felt the last dregs of his magic tingling from him and into her.
Etienne could feel the ringing in his ears, the sudden pain. He flattened his ears when blood trickled from them: he was becoming mortal. Azrian whimpered and he pulled back to look at her: she was in pain as well. She clutched at her shriveled eyelid and grimaced.
"Azrian," Etienne coaxed, "let me see . . ." He took her paw away and smiled sadly: his own eye peered back at him from her face, a bright and brilliant blue. And now his left eye socket gaped empty. He closed it as she blinked experimentally.
Azrian touched his face sadly. "You idiot. Why did you give me your eye?"
"Etienne . . .!" Judith whispered in amazement.
Etienne touched his forehead to Azrian's. What better thing could he do with the last of his magic? "Because I don't want you to hurt anymore." He took her paws. They were trembling and he massaged them.
The nearby crowds groaned and wailed as if in pain, and Etienne gasped to see Azrian's paws suddenly glow. He looked at her face to find it was glowing as well, and the light . . . was blinding. But he held on. Her paws trembled harder.
"E-Etienne," Azrian sobbed, "I'm becoming . . . immortal . . ."
Etienne scowled. "No!"
"Etienne --"
"This is what you meant?" he said, waving an angry paw at the giant star looming in the sky. "When you said I couldn't follow you -- you always meant to become immortal!"
"No . . ." Azrian whispered sadly and bowed her head. "But I knew this path would tear us apart."
Etienne held on tighter. "I can't. I can't let you go."
Azrian shook her head and stared miserably at their clasped paws. "We don't have a choice." She was glowing brighter even as the world spinning in the sky behind her grew larger. It was becoming unbearable to look at her.
"Etienne!" Judith begged, her voice strained. She was shielding her eyes and had staggered into the wall. Blood was running from her ears. "Let her go. . . Aonre is poison to her now. She can not stay here. And she . . . is killing us. Killing you!"
The crowds wailed and sobbed as Azrian's burning light made them bleed from their eyes.
Azrian got to her feet, and so did Etienne, still holding her paws. He forced himself to look into her face. It was obscured by blazing white light, but he could still see her eyes, one blue and one gold, burning bright in the wreath of her flowing red mane.
"I'll find a way . . . back to you," he said with difficulty. The ringing in his ears was suddenly too painful to bear and he grimaced and fell to his knees.
Azrian's eyes filled with tears. "We still have our dreams," she whispered. "I will find you there."
Etienne kissed her paws, warmly, ardently, afraid to let go, knowing he would never kiss them again. He saw a tear trickle from her eye, and where it fell, a flower blossomed in a splash of light. She gently disentangled her fingers from his grasp . . . and he watched dismally as she soared away into the sky.