Free Terran Times 18 - Emerald Envisage by Viola Grace

disliked the way her color drained while her every trip to visit him seemed to wear her down. Worried by her second missed visit, he paced along the edge of the forest. When she finally appeared, his heart leapt. Careful with her, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his body. “You have the most beautiful smile.” He narrowed his eyes when her happy expression dimmed. “What troubles, my wood nymph?”
    Lysette wrapped her arms around his neck. “Hold me ,” she whispered, pressing her face against his chest.
    Arrden scooped her into his arms, carried her to his glen and sat on a moss bed. He tightened his embrace, wanting to protect her from whatever was distressing her. “Talk to me,” he said, stroking her hair. “Tell me what troubles you.”
    “I must leave next week.”
    “ What ?” Panic tightened the muscles in his stomach. “No.”
    “Hush and hear me out. There is a unique disease destroying my lungs and the doctor is ordering me from my home.” Lysette pulled back and looked at the man who owned her heart. “If I stay here with you, I die for lack of a sterile environment, but if I let them take me away, I’ll die for the lack of you.” Tenderly she cupped his cheek. “I want to live and I want to stay with you, but I can’t do both.” She sobbed against his chest. “I’d rather a few days with you than a lifetime without. Please just stay with me.”
    Arrden cradled her close and kissed her temple. With his cheek resting against her head, he weighed his options. Ever powerful, he knew he was helpless to cure her unless he surrendered the one thing he possessed for all time—his forest, his immortality, his very life. He looked down at the woman in his arms, treasuring every tear that fell on his chest and trickled down his body. “I can save you, Lysette. I can give you a chance for life.”
    She pushed up and met his gaze. “There’s no cure, Arrden.”
    “ I am the cure.” He framed her face between his palms. “I can give you the gift of live your life if you wish it.”
    Lysette smiled. “How, my sweet forest lord, can you succeed where medical science in all its glory has failed?”
    Arrden adored her. “I don’t rely on machines,” he said. “I listen to Gaia. All cures reside in Nature’s medicine cabinet, if you know where to look.” Suddenly sad, he pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Over the centuries, I’ve witnessed my domain shrink while civilization grows. In time, I will be destroyed with it, but where will I have left my mark to say I even existed? In this chance with you. Just as you lack the desire to live without me so do I lack the will to live without you. Let me pay the price to heal you.”
    “What price?” Her eyes were wary and she pulled back from him. “What are you going to do?”
    “I can trade my immortality for your life.”
    Horrified, Lysette shook her head. “No!”
    Arrden wished to tell her more, but such remained a forbidden secret. He eased her from his lap and sat them face-to-face. “I will help us both.”
    “You’ll die.” She shook her head. “I won’t allow it. Not now, not ever.”
    “It is my choice.” Gathering the immortality from the forest on the wind , he cupped her face and kissed her lips. The power poured from the wind, through him, collected his immortality and plunged into her. Their lip lock broken, he held her. Black mist seeped from her body and faded into oblivion. Weakened, he clutched her close and inched lower until he lay on the ground, his head in her lap.
    “What’s happening?” Lysette stared. “I’ve never seen you so…pale.”
    Arrden smiled when color returned to her face. “And I’ve never seen you more beautiful.” He closed his eyes.
     
    * * * *
     
    As the last breath slipped from his body, the first leaf of autumn floated to the ground and landed on her shoulder. “No.” She sobbed and clutched him tight. “I didn’t want this. It isn’t worth losing you!”