Vulnerable: Book 1 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

58: When Juliet Loses Her Romeo

The pain of a broken bond was deep and hollowing. I could still feel the tie around my heart, but it was dragging downwards, into the depths of my body. With no other beating heart to link me to, Ben's dead end suspended, limp, crushing me with the weight of his absence.

I don't know how long I was in Lukas's arms, relentless sobs escaping my mouth, him shaking from the electrical current emanating from my touch... but eventually he pulled back.

Grabbing my face between his hands, he made me meet his eyes. Brown, lifeless gaze, tinted red from his own tears he shed. "We need to go, Ollie. I know it hurts, but we need to leave... I need you to be strong for a moment longer."

Bottom lip quivering, I managed to get out, "We can't just leave him here."

"I can't keep an eye on you and bury his body. We have to go. Ben and I said if something like this happened, our priority is getting you away safely."

"Your uncle is dead. Why do we have to go?"

"Just because the leader is killed doesn't mean there aren't others who agree with his plans. We don't want to be here if they arrive before my parents or Stephen."

Another wave of cries erupted from me. "We can't let Stephen see Ben," I whimpered.

Uselessly brushing my tears from my face that were replaced as soon as he wiped them away, Lukas said, "I know. But we have to. The longer we stay, the less chance we have to put distance between us and whomever may be coming."

"I can't get up. I can't leave him. Just leave me here with him to die."

"No. You aren't doing this to me. I am not losing my best friend."

"But Ben is gone..."

"And I'm still here. Get back to your feet for me. A part of you once cared for me. I need you to reach for her and let her give you strength to get out of here. When we are safe, I'll let you cry as much as you want. But get up for me."

"Lukas, he was alone his whole life. I can't leave him alone now."

Dropping his hold from me, Lukas pulled back. His tone angry, he said, "Fine. If you can't do this for me, do it for Ben. He did not spare his life for you to throw it away. He did not jump out in front of you and die so that you could let someone come finish the job. You, Olivia Byrne, are a strong, badass fairy who just killed the most formidable vampire in the world. You are the hope for more fairies alike. But if you die here, your kind has no chance to come back. If you can't go on for me, then do it for Ben and do it for your people."

I closed my eyes, unable to take his pained gaze. He was disappointed in me and it showed. I had let him down by not letting him be my crutch. I had frustrated him by being willing to die by Ben's side, becoming part of the story I had hated him quoting to me the day I remembered meeting him.

Lukas had predicted it though. My love for Ben and his for me was tainted from the start. We fell for the look of each other; for the idea of the other. Two lonely hearts drawn together and jumping at a commitment without considering the weight of it on us. We were our own demise, never changing. Which is why Ben was now dead at my hands. Because I could never heed his warnings, and he never respected my will to protect myself.

But when Juliet lost her Romeo, she couldn't get up and go on. She died right alongside him.

And if Lukas had predicted this to be our story, how could he expect me to get up? To follow him out? To even think of a life forward, onwards, without Ben?

To leave my heart, my love, laying on the floor of his father's living room, and let a boy who wiped my memory of him peel me away?

Me and my fickle heart was the reason we were all fighting and not on our guard when Rüdiger came in. If I had never swayed from Ben, if I had loved him like I was supposed to and didn't falter for Lukas for one moment, we would have been stronger, more prepared.