CHAPTER 424: HIS MOON GODDESS

DAEMON’S POV

Having lived the kind of life where his life flashed before his eyes more times than he could ever count on one hand, Daemon should have long gotten used to the concept of death.

Back in the days when he led the War Campaign against the Arising Rogues, he lost comrades after comrades. Wolf in Arms that left him one by one after war reduced them to dust.

Throughout that period, it had just been him, Yaren, and Marcus. Yet having a loyal brother and cousin in arms was not enough to fill a certain gaping hole in his heart.

For while he might never have begged for love, he couldn’t deny the harm the lack of it caused.

So walking the hard path, whether it was killing his brother Eldric, or tearing down the legacy of his late father, all of these things eventually became easy.

Far too easy.

But he knew the consequences of living such a bloody, immoral, scheming life. So somewhere at the back of his mind, he always held that thought that one day he too would be taken away by this violent life.

Just the same way he took the lives of others.

Yet nothing could have prepared him for the woman who was Zina WolfKnight.

From loathing her for her lies, to loving her for the woman she truly was, Daemon’s world was crumbled and rebuilt again by her.

At first, he wasn’t sure what exactly he felt for her. The thought that it could be love was maddening, to think it was obsession drove him to the boundaries of mindlessness, and to think it was something far deeper than love or obsession made him—scared.

Because he began to realise for the first time in his life what it meant to give his heart to another. Not just as a lover, but as a lifelong companion.

Through Zina, he began to understand what had been missing his whole life. The same feeling he was chasing when he was banished, to when he led the campaign against the Arising Rogues, Zina showed him how much better life could be for.

Which was why his life flashed before his eyes at that moment. Only for him to realise that the memories that beckoned on him as a dying man were all the memories he shared with Zina.

And they were far too little.

In the kind of speed that he had never expected of her, Zina had twisted her body from Rowan, holding up a branch with a sharp edge reminiscent of that of an arrow. And then she was plunging it into her heart so selfishly and inhumanly.

And before Daemon reached her, he felt the same piercing in his heart. Like Zina was twisting a knife deep in his chest instead.

He caught her while the room erupted in different guttural sounds like chaos meeting chaos.

His people were attacking—and the Deformed whom they couldn’t lay finger on, now staggered on their feet as though pulled by the strings by a bad puppeteer.

Something about their strength was changing, as a ruler, he should be happy. But all he felt was grief and a suffocating need to howl till the skies heard his voice.

The immaculate pale face he had come to love was now stained with blood, while Zina’s white hair fanned about them. Her eyes were unfocused, as though she was blind, but she could clearly sense it was him for her hand crept up searching for her face.

"Da...Daemon." She spluttered, mustering a bloody smile even as her life bled out from her.

But Daemon wasn’t listening. Using his hands to cover chest, he tried to stave the bleeding even though he knew that she hadn’t missed and had nailed the blow squarely at her heart.

But he refused to believe it.

Refused to envision a world where all the careful schemings he had made up until that day ended up with her dead.

"I have a plan," he said shiverishly, his voice shaking from raw fear for the first time in forever, "just remain still and I will take you back home."

"I can’t see, Daemon."

"It doesn’t matter!"

"I once made a silent promise to you. That I will never push you to fight another war as you once did when I betrayed you."

"That war was not your fault!"

"Help me see...if they are dying." She spluttered still, her fingers caressing his face tenderly, "The Deformed—they have plagued my nightmares for the longest time. My bloody nightmares, Daemon. So I must know before I leave this world that it was a worthy sacrifice."

"You will not LEAVE ME!" He thundered, clutching her to him as if afraid that should he let go for one bit, then she would truly leave him. "You cannot... leave me." He croaked a plea, fear settling between them even as snarls and howls rang around them.

But it was Zina that was the center of his world. It was only her that she took notice of.

Blood spilled from her lips even as she smiled while her eyes stared up above listlessly to show that she was now truly blind. "Death... is not so bad, Daemon. I know that I have failed you, and I hope I can repay you in another life. Yet I must shamelessly ask for your forgiveness even if I am undeserving of it."

That was when the strangest thing happened; a tear rolled down his face, and a visceral howl escaped his throat as he clutched her even tighter. The sound cut through air, and for half a second, it seemed every noise halted just to hear him out. But then the commotion resumed.

"Alpha King, the Deformed are mysteriously falling! Beta Marcus reports success from the GreenLands!"

He blocked the communication from the pack link, feeling so hateful towards that information.

For all he cared, the world should burn! The Deformed might as well run it over so long as Zina lived.

"You must not think like that, your majesty." Zina muttered, her voice changing into an entirely different tone as if she was suddenly possessed. "My role has always been to set your path, Great Beast Wolf. This is your chance to unite the North, and let the rest of the world fall on your feet. Claim this victory as yours."

"What Great Beast Wolf!" He scoffed harshly, "Was that not a tale you told as a lie? Was that not one of the lies you told to manipulate me?!"

Her eyes fluttered even as her lips held the smile. And then in that strange but powerful voice that stirred something within him, she continues

"’It is said that when the moon goddess ascended to the moon, she left us a promise that she will come back to us on the ship of the Iron Coast in the west, riding through the GreenLands of the east as her sea of green, the Mountains of the Central Lands as her steed, the Desert of the South as her fuel. Then here at the North where eternal snow falls, she shall appoint the Great Beast Wolf who shall become her eternal guard....’"

Daemon stared at her spell struck like he was beholding a different woman other than the Zina he always knew. She looked about the same, but didn’t sound anything like her.

But he shouldn’t be thinking about this. He should be saving her life instead—

"It was never a lie, your majesty. You’ve always been my Great Beast Wolf. And I, your Moon Goddess."

Then her eyes fluttered close, and the slow beating of her heart came to a complete stillness. Until he could no longer hear it, nor her breathing, nor feel her pulse either.

All that remained was a silence so suffocating it drowned out his howl of grief.

A silence so maddening it drowned the sound of his world crumbling before him.