The Dragon King's Hated Bride
Chapter 16: Asha

Chapter 16: Asha

>>Aelin

Tears spilled from my eyes before I even realized I was crying. The sound that left me was raw, a mixture of grief and longing, the ache of losing something I had never even had the chance to hold.

"Asha," I stood up, my eyes watching her as I saw the long locks of her hair swayed. She didn’t have distinct body colors but I knew her hair must be the same as mine. I stumbled my way her, only to crumble onto my knees once I was near her again.

My entire body was shaking as I looked at her. "I’m so sorry," I choked out, my voice breaking. "I’m so, so sorry. I should’ve protected you. I should’ve... I should’ve been there."

The silhouette tilted her head slightly, and I could almost feel her smile, though her face was blurred by the light. "Mommy, it’s okay," Her tiny hands came to touch my tear stained cheeks, "I still love you," Her figure looked about to be five years old or so.

"Asha," My pupils shook as I looked at her and as I kept staring, it was almost like I could see her features.

"I love the name you gave me, mommy," She seemed to be grinning

My heart skipped a beat at her confession,"This is how I wanted you to be," I cracked a broken smile, "To live well, to be hopeful-" I gulped as I reached out for her cheek, "To be happy..." I whispered as my eyes stung with hot unshed tears.

I didn’t want to cry though, I didn’t want to blur my vision and not be able to look at her. But I was breaking inside. I placed my other hand on her other cheek but my head dropped in defeat, "I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,"

Everything in my life was so full of despair, I had never managed to ever do something worthwhile. I was nothing more than a disappointment who couldn’t even protect her child, much less have her husband look her way

"Mommy," I felt her warmth through her hands, "Don’t lose hope. Daddy needs you."

Her words hit me like a blow, shattering the fragile resolve I had built around my despair. My head shook instinctively as I raised my head to look at her again, a torrent of disbelief rushing through me. "No, he doesn’t," I whispered, the bitterness spilling out unbidden. "I’m useless. I couldn’t save you. I couldn’t—"

"No, Mommy." Her voice grew firm, and her figure seemed to flicker, her light distorting.

!??!

I felt my heart drop. I could feel her slipping away, and my heart seized in panic. "Don’t. Daddy is in danger. You have to help him."

Her words shook me to my core. Draegon? In danger? What danger? I didn’t know what she meant, but the urgency in her voice, the desperation in her fading presence—it tore through my doubts.

"Mommy- please, help- daddy-" Her voice began to flicker as her form began to ascend. Her hands slipping away from my face

"NO!" I tried to hold onto her, to reach her. "Wait! Please! Don’t go!" I screamed, my hands reaching out as her figure flickered like a dying flame.

Her light began to dim, the glowing plane around me crumbling like ash in the wind. "Mommy, please," she whispered, her voice echoing, distant. "Don’t give up. He needs you."

The glowing plane around me trembled, fracturing like shards of glass suspended in midair. I could feel her slipping away—the light silhouette of my daughter, so small and delicate, yet filled with more warmth than I had felt in years. I stood up frantically, my hands reached out instinctively, trembling as I tried to grasp the outline of her tiny fingers. I wanted to hold her, to feel her against my chest, to tell her how sorry I was again, and how much I loved her.

"No," I whispered, my voice cracking, my throat raw with desperation. I lunged forward, my arms outstretched, my fingers clawing at the empty space between us. "No, please! Don’t go! Please, I need you—I need you!"

The ground beneath me felt like it was collapsing, pulling me down, threatening to bury me in an abyss of despair. But I couldn’t focus on anything except her fading form that kept going further away. The light that had reignited something in me was disappearing, slipping away like sand through my fingers. I straightened up, trying to reach her again. My fingers grazed her as she stretched her hands towards me.

"Mommy," her small voice broke through the chaos, sweet yet tinged with sorrow. "Please, don’t lose hope."

The weight of her words shattered me. Hope? How could I hold onto hope when she was leaving me again? When I had already lost her once, when life had taken everything from me? "Don’t leave me," I choked out, my tears blurring the faint glow of her figure. "Please, don’t leave me. I can’t do this."

Her light flickered again, her silhouette wavering like a candle in the wind. "Daddy needs you," she whispered, her voice soft but urgent, her words cutting deeper than any blade could. "Bad people are around him."

Why would Draegon need me? I was nothing. Useless. Broken. But before I could say anything more, the world around me began to dissolve.

"No!" I screamed, my voice shattering the silence. "Please, don’t leave me! Don’t—don’t go!" I reached out again, jumped with all my might towards her, my fingers desperate to catch even a fragment of her light.

I saw her smile, "I love you," Her voice came one last time, faint and distant. "Mommy... you’re stronger than you think."

And then she was gone.

The glowing plane shattered completely, and I was pulled back into the cold, suffocating reality of the library by some process I could never explain.

The air felt heavy, oppressive, as though the walls were closing in around me. I sat there on the hard, wooden floor, my hands clutching at nothing, my chest heaving with sobs that tore through me like a storm.

My legs gave out and I fell to the ground

Tears simply refused to stop and I cried like I never had before. I cried for her. For the daughter I would never hold, never see grow, never hear laugh or cry or call me "Mommy" again. I cried for the warmth of her touch that lingered on my skin like a ghost, fleeting and fragile. I cried for the emptiness she left behind, a chasm that no amount of time or magic could ever fill.

My tears fell in torrents, soaking the dusty floor beneath me, my body trembling with the force of my anguish. My hands curled into fists, nails digging into my palms as I screamed into the silence, a sound so raw and guttural it barely sounded human.

I pressed my forehead against the cold floor, clutching my chest as if I could physically hold my heart together, but it felt like it was shattering all over again. "I’m sorry," I whispered through my sobs, my voice barely audible. "I’m so sorry. I couldn’t save you. I couldn’t... I wasn’t strong enough."

But her words echoed in my mind, relentless and unyielding.

’Don’t lose hope. Daddy needs you.’

Her voice was like a fragile thread, tying me to the present, refusing to let me fall completely into the abyss. And yet, I couldn’t stop crying. I cried until my throat burned and my eyes were swollen, until my body felt like it had been hollowed out, leaving me an empty shell.

The tender memory of her touch lingered, haunting me, a bittersweet reminder of what I had lost—and what I had to protect.

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