Chapter 601 This Is Just The Beginning

It's probably going to feel like an odd choice, but… if you like music while you read, try "I'll Follow You into the Dark" by SayWeCanFly (who also sing Gahrye & Kalle's love song, "Always Love You.") Again, this is more about the chorus than the verses, but I hope it also means something for you and me.

AUTHOR NOTE: Don't give up, friends. Trust me.  (Also, there will be FOUR chapters tonight!)Â

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GAHRYE

They tumbled through the portal and to the dusty ground inside, Gahrye hissing with pain when he braced his injured arms on the ground to catch their weight.

Kalle gave a small cry, but caught herself, turning immediately to grab him. "Are you okay? Are you—"

"I'm fine," he said quietly, taking her hands, ignoring the knife on the ground that had just been in his skin. She didn't need to focus on that right now.

In truth, he felt nauseous and shaky, but he wouldn't let her see. They had only minutes left, and he would be strong for her.

That must have been the moment the darkness registered for Kalle because her eyes went wide and she looked around, her throat bobbing.

"I thought… where are they?" she whispered.

"They'll come as soon as we take a step," he said quietly, helping her to her feet, holding her close. "But you don't focus on them, okay? You focus on me."

Behind him, a whisper of wind tickled the small hairs on his neck and his spine went cold as a rush of wind followed with a hollow, hissing scream echoing within it.

Kalle looked back towards the portal, to Aaryn outside, but Gahrye shook his head. "We have to… be grateful for him," he said, his voice shaking. "He was sent to help us." Gahrye sent up a silent prayer that somehow, Aaryn would live and find some kind of happiness, some reward for his selfless acts."

Kalle nodded then turned back to him, her eyes wide, but dry.

"Are you ready?" he asked, his voice cracking.

She nodded, though her racing heart and shallow, huffing breaths made it a lie.

He felt her body tense as he drew her under his arm, held her hand, and turned to take the first step.

The assault was immediate and horrific. It started with the voices circling above their heads, like some kind of sick tornado full of cackling laughter and bloodthirsty howls. But with each step they took deeper into the traverse, the voices descended and grew in number.

"She's ours! She's ours!"

"You cannot Protect her, Hero!"

"She took the curse!"

"Her blood is ours!"

They painted images of torture and death, torment. But Gahrye swallowed back his nausea and forced Kalle to look at him.

She was already crying, but her hand was tight on his, and her steps strong. She hated this. She hated them. She didn't want to die.

But damned if she was going to let them have her without taking her shot.

His eyes blurred with tears and he blinked them away so he could see her and her dignity clearly.

To keep her going, to keep himself from listening to their torturous howls, he reminded her of their story.

"The first time I saw you, I was here," he whispered. And then he described that moment when, despite the bone-chilling fear, and utter self-doubt, he'd seen her and felt her and known. "And then… then I got out to the Big House and you were there. You walked into the dining room and I stood up and…  my heart was already full of you, Kalle."

She sobbed, pulled his hand up to her mouth and kissed it. "Me too. Me too."

He told her, all the ways he remembered her. All the treasures in his mind—the things he prayed he wouldn't lose, even in eternity.

Their first kiss.

The night he proposed. The vows they shared.

The first time they made love.

The day he returned from Anima, broken and bleeding, but free of the shackles of his old life and so ready for her.

The bloom of her beauty when she was pregnant. That incredible day Reece was born.

Their tenth anniversary.

Their twentieth.

The voices were closer now, the wind of their passage fluttering her hair around her shoulders. And Kalle sobbed, open-mouthed, and clinging. But her head was up, and she nodded. "Me too, Gahrye. Oh god, me too."

He swallowed the fierce lump in his throat, the one that wanted to strangle him and make him scream.

"You're still the most beautiful woman in the world to me, Kalle. You gave me the most incredible son—who's just as selfless as you are. He's so… so special. And one day he's going to find his mate and discover everything you showed me. And I just… I just wish we could have seen it."

Kalle sobbed so hard she coughed, struggled to breathe. But she walked on, nodding and squeezing his hands as his blood pattered to the dirt below them, and her hair began to whip around her face in the wind of the voices.

"You, Gahrye…" she cried. "You're the best thing the Creator ever gave me."

Gahrye grunted, aware that her words were truth—because he would have said the same thing to her.

"I'm so proud of you, Kalle. So proud." And so terrified.

The wind rose, and with it, the howls and shrieks of the voices.

"She is ours!"

"She wears the curse!"

Claws made of wind and smoke began to tear at their clothing, despite Gahrye's blood, still dripping off his arm—and being sucked into the wind that screamed.

He was looking down at Kalle, about to warn her that he thought they were close when her eyes went wide and she grabbed at him, pulling him back from his next stop.

"Gahrye, watch out!"

He jerked to halt, turning to find that the wind had become a wall of darkness, black, roiling vapor that whirled and shrieked—and from which two thick, monster hands now extended, swiping with claws and reaching for them.

Gahrye looked over his shoulder, but the wall of darkness had completely encircled them and the voices were laughing.

"Ours!"

"Only ours!"

"You don't get to keep her, Hero! We told you!"

Gahrye's blood ran cold and he pulled Kalle tight into his chest, wrapping his arms around her, shaking from head to toe.

The air was sick and dark and sucked at their clothing, their skin. But he didn't waver.

,m "Pray with me," he whispered, uncertain if she could even hear him. But she clung to his waist, her head bobbing whenever he made a request.

For truth.

For victory.

For those left behind to know and be safe. Let their son be safe. Let him find this kind of love and know its worth.

Kalle sobbed for that one, but he plowed on.

Creator his son, his friends… and everyone who had ever loved him, whether he knew them or not.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Make us strong enough for this.

Bless her, Creator. Bless her for her heart to do this. Bless her for loving enough to do this. Save her. Somehow, please… save us both.

They both pulled back then, hands clasped between them. He had to kiss her one last time, and pulled her in, desperate, sobbing into her mouth.

Kalle's hair dashed and stung his skin, but he didn't care.

And as the hands finally reached him, grasping the back of his shirt and pulling him from her, he didn't let go.

She never took her eyes from him, even when they grabbed her and tried to pull the two of them apart.

"You're the best thing He ever gave me, Kalle," he shouted over the noise of the voices and the freight-train wind.

"I love you, Gahrye. I love you more than anything. I'm… I'm glad because… I don't think I could live without you," she cried. Her breath was beginning to break and catch, wheeze as the darkness sucked in around them.

"OURS! SHE BELONGS TO US!"

"SHE WEARS THE CURSE!"

"IT WAS AGREED, HERO."

"LET. HER. GO."

Kalle's face screwed into pain and she screamed at that. "You are sick, evil motherfuckers and you'll never steal love from me! Do you hear me?!" she screamed so hard her voice broke into a guttural crack. "This is for every person you ever harmed! Every human whose heart and will you ever stole! Every disformed who ever failed to protect! And this is for my mate—the strongest and bravest male I know!" She sucked in a breath, her eyes locked on Gahrye's, then suddenly she let go.

Gahrye gasped "Kalle!" and grabbed for her, but she threw her arms wide.

"CREATOR TAKE ME!"

"NOOOOOO!" Gahrye screamed as the entire world sucked into dark, silent pain.