My focus was Kovu … she was lying a few paces away, and her cream clothing was stained red with her blood. Instantly, I had her gathered up in my arms and focused my lissa. I heard myself cry out when I saw how much damage had been done to my precious female. Her heart was pounding away, faster than ever, but her wounds were so great that she was losing pints of blood by the second. I couldn’t heal the wounds quick enough because of the poison from the borak’s talons, so by the time I had them all sealed, there wasn’t enough blood left in her body to circulate.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Look at me, shilo.”
I did something I had never done before. I kept my lissa focused on trying to find a way to help my intended, and I opened my eyes at the same time. I was shaking with panic as I stared down at Kovu’s face. She was smiling, but she was becoming paler and paler by the second. Her skin no longer looked blue, more grey like mine.
“I’ve loved you for my whole life,” she said, trembling. “When you picked me out of every female to be yours, I prayed to Thanas and thanked him every day.”
Pain filled my body.
“I love you more than any male has loved a female,” I told her. “You are mine.”
“And you will always be my male, and I will always be your female, but … but I don’t think you can heal me, Ezah.”
“I can,” I assured her. “I will.”
“I feel so very tired … You must promise me something.”
“Anything, nenna,” I choked out.
“Do not shut down.” Her eyelids fluttered. “Do not mourn me for long, okay? We have not mated. I want you to find a female who makes your heart happy like I do and make her your mate. I want this for you. I want true happiness for you, my prince.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Never,” I growled. “You’re my female, and the only one I have ever wanted. Only you. My beautiful nenna.”
“Promise me, shilo,” she pleaded. “I need to know you will not walk this planet alone all of your life.”
Saying the words tasted like poison, but I knew she was dying in my arms, and I wanted to bring her as much peace as I could, even if it meant going against every instinct in my body to do it.
“I promise,” I said, almost not being able to stomach saying the words. “But you must promise me something too.”
“Anything, shilo.”
“Wait for me,” I begged. “Wait for me in the fields of the Beyond, please. I want your beautiful face to be the first to welcome me. I already miss you so much it hurts.”
“I will wait an eternity to be with you again,” she said, tears falling down her temples. She gasped slightly for air. “I love you, Ezah.”
“I love you too, Kovu. So much.” I rasped. “I should have told you every day how much. You’re my heart, beauty.”
“My male.”
She said those words with her last breath, and a strangled wail left my throat when I felt her heart suddenly stop. I tried to use my lissa to restart it, but I couldn’t. The poison from the borak’s talons had caused too much damage. She bled out before I could get to her and heal her. I held my blood-soaked female against my chest as I lowered my head and screamed into her neck. My screaming turned to an endless roar of pain. My throat was on fire by the time I stopped. I couldn’t think. The sky had gotten a little darker around me. I didn’t know how long I was on the ground holding my dead intended. Time, life … it lost all meaning to me.
When I felt the presence of a living female, I began shaking.
“Ezah.”
I looked up from Kovu’s face and stared into my mother’s orange and silver eyes as she kneeled down next to me, not caring that her clothing was being ruined by Kovu’s drying spilled blood. My senses seemed to return to normal then, and I could sense my brothers and father were close by. Tears were running down my mother’s face as she reached out and closed Kovu’s eyes. I hadn’t realised they were still open. I was still trying to restart her heart with my lissa up until my mother distracted me.
“She’s gone.” I choked out. “My Kovu … she’s gone. Please help me, Muma.”
I hadn’t called my mother by that term since I was a very young male, but at that moment, I had never needed her embrace and comfort as much as I needed it right then and there.
“I’m so sorry, my brave male.” Mother said to me as she kissed Kovu’s cheeks. “She is with Thanas now.”