“There are people waiting for you in the future, in my realm,” Ben said quickly, a little desperately, taking another step toward the male.
“People who love you, who depend on—”
“Many depend on me,” Sol interrupted, his voice a barely-there rasp.
“I am King, after all. These are my responsibilities. I have served and led my people as best I could. It is time for a new age. My legions are strong. Our aeries are impenetrable. I am not needed any more…”
“You are always needed,” Ben practically shouted, growing increasingly worried and frantic.
“I don’t know how much I can reveal without fucking up the Universal Balance, but your Soulmate needs you, Sol. He—”
At this the Eagle King turned fully toward Ben, spearing him with opaque, soulless black eyes that made Ben stumble back a step at the haunting, awful sight.
“My soulmate is long dead, human,” the Eagle King rasped harshly, his chest heaving as if he’d just flown across the seven seas.
“You know nothing of what you speak. He isgone.”
“But listen,” Ben tried, “In the future, your soulmate—”
But Sol would not listen. He plunged on as if Ben hadn’t spoken at all.
“My heart is gone. My mind is gone. My soul isgone. There is nothing here but a physical husk. It has been thus for millennia, but it will not be thus for even a fortnight more.”
“Wh-what—” Ben stuttered, backing up another step even though the Eagle King had not moved.
Even so, he could feel the powerful male bearing down on him, and this awful foreboding combined with the altitude made it difficult to breathe, much less speak.
Sol turned away again, facing the distant horizon, his profile a bleak, emotionless mask.
A strong wind churned and whistled suddenly around them, strong enough to make Ben stagger back and struggle to maintain sure footing.
The Eagle King kept his stance but swayed a little on his feet, still balancing precariously on the edge.
“There is one thing more I can do for my people. For all Kinds oppressed by Dark rule,” he murmured to himself.
“I will not take the cowardly way out.”
He looked down as he said this, and Ben knew that he meant plummeting to his death in suicide.
“I have resisted that path and will resist to the end. But, by the unmerciful gods, therewillbe an end.”
He closed his eyes with head bowed, a forceful shudder racking through his body.
There was so much pain, Ben saw, as the stoic mask was momentarily stripped away.
There was so much undiluted, torturouspainon Sol’s weary face.
I cannot keep my promise, Ben somehow heard Sol’s voice in his mind.
I cannot bear it any longer without you, Rai. My soul is dead without you, yet my body continues on. I have tried to die so many times. I have invited the Dark Queen’s wrath and fought her armies without fear.
Why can’t I die?
Why can no one kill me?
Why did you make me promise?
Why did you make me promise!