The Princess's Revenge Chapter 122

Valencia’s POV

The path to the eastern cliffs was overgrown and rarely used. Branches caught at my dress, but I didn't slow down. My lungs burned. My legs screamed in protest. I ignored all of it.

Please, I begged silently. Please let me be wrong. Please let her be somewhere else, anywhere else.

But I knew. Deep in my gut, I knew I was right.

The trees thinned ahead, and I could see the cliff edge through the gaps. My heart stopped.

There, silhouetted against the darkening sky, stood a single, thin figure.

"Delphine!" I screamed. "Don't!"

The figure turned slowly. Even from this distance, I could see her face—pale, hollow, with an expression of such profound emptiness that it made my chest ache.

"Don't come any closer, Valencia." Her voice carried on the wind, flat and lifeless. "Please."

I skidded to a halt about twenty feet away, my chest heaving. Wind whipped around us, stronger here at the cliff's edge. Delphine's sandy blonde hair flew around her face, and her simple dress pressed against her thin frame.

Behind her, the world dropped away into nothing. One step backward, and she would fall hundreds of feet onto the rocks below.

"Delphine," I said, fighting to keep my voice steady despite my terror. "Please. Step away from the edge."

"I can't." Her words were barely audible over the wind. "I'm too tired, Valencia. I don't want to do this anymore."

"Do what?"

"Wake up." Fresh tears streamed down her face. "Breathe. Exist. Isaiah is gone, and I don't understand why I should keep going."

My own tears started to fall. "Because people love you. Because you matter."

"To who?" Her laugh was bitter and broken. "Isaiah was my whole world. Every morning I woke up thinking about him. Every night I fell asleep worrying about him. And now..." She swayed slightly, and my heart lurched. "Now I open my eyes and all I can think is that he's not here anymore. That this pain will never end."

"It will end," I said desperately. "I promise you, Delphine, this pain won't last forever—"

"You don't understand!" Her voice cracked. "You have Logan. You have a future, a purpose. I have nothing. I am nothing without Isaiah."

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The wind grew stronger. I saw dark clouds rolling in from the north, heavy with rain.

"That's not true," I said, taking a careful step closer. "You're not nothing. You're my friend. You're the first real friend I made in this pack."

Another step. My hands were trembling, but I kept them at my sides, trying not to make any sudden movements. "Delphine, I know what it feels like to lose everything." My voice broke. "I lost my parents. I lost my entire pack. For years, I thought I'd lost Kai too. I know what it's like to wake up and feel like there's a hole in your chest where your heart used to be."

The wind howled around us. I felt the first drops of rain on my face.

"Then you should understand," Delphine said quietly. "You should understand why I need this to stop."

"I understand the pain," I said, my voice shaking. "But Delphine, if you do this—if you jump—do you know what will happen?"

She didn't answer, just stared at me with those haunted eyes.

"Your pain won't disappear," I continued, forcing the words out past the lump in my throat. "It will just transfer to everyone who loves you. It will shatter them the same way losing Isaiah shattered you."

"No one cares that much—"

"I do!" I shouted, my voice cracking with desperation. "I care, Delphine! If you die, my heart will break exactly the way yours is breaking right now! Don't you see? You'll just be passing your suffering on to me!"

The rain began to fall harder, cold drops that stung like ice. Delphine's body swayed in the wind, and I felt panic claw at my throat.

"And Isaiah," I said desperately. "Isaiah wouldn't want this. You know he wouldn't. He loved you, Delphine. He would want you to live, to be happy—"

"How do you know?" she screamed suddenly, her voice raw. "How do you know what he'd want? He's dead, Valencia! He killed himself rather than live in this world! Maybe he's showing me the way out!"

"No!" I took another step forward. "No, Delphine. Isaiah was in pain—terrible, unbearable pain. But that doesn't mean he wanted you to follow him."

Lightning split the sky, illuminating Delphine's face for a brief, terrible moment. I saw the tears streaming down her cheeks, mixing with the rain. I saw the way her whole body trembled.

And I saw, for just a second, a flicker of doubt in her eyes.

"I miss him so much," she sobbed. "Every breath hurts. Every heartbeat reminds me that he's gone. How am I supposed to live like this?"

"I don't know," I admitted, rain plastering my hair to my face. "I don't know how to make the pain stop. But I know that Isaiah loved you. And I know that the best way to honor that love is to keep living. To survive. To find a way to carry him in your heart while still moving forward."

"I can't—"

"You can." I took another step, close enough now that I could almost reach her. "You took care of Isaiah for months. You fought for him every single day. That strength doesn't just disappear."

The wind nearly knocked me off balance. Rain poured down in sheets now, soaking us both to the bone. The ground beneath our feet was becoming slippery with mud.

"Please," I begged, reaching out my hand. "Please, Delphine. Take my hand. Step back from the edge. Let me help you."

For a long moment, she just stared at my outstretched hand. Thunder crashed overhead, so loud it made my ears ring. Lightning flashed again, turning the world white and black.

"What if the pain never stops?" she asked.

"Then we'll carry it together," I said simply. "Please, Delphine. Please trust me."

A gust of wind made her stumble backward, and my heart stopped. She was teetering on the edge, one foot already over the precipice.

I didn't think. I just moved.

I lunged forward, my hand shooting out to grab her wrist. My fingers closed around her arm, and I yanked her toward me with all my strength.

We both went down hard, hitting the muddy ground several feet back from the edge. I wrapped my arms around her and held on tight, refusing to let go even as she struggled weakly against me.

"Let me go," she sobbed. "Please, Valencia, just let me go—"

"Never," I said fiercely, holding her tighter. "Never, Delphine. I will never let you go."

And then she broke.

All the grief, all the pain, all the anguish she'd been holding inside came pouring out in great, wrenching sobs. She clung to me like I was the only solid thing in a drowning world, her whole body shaking with the force of her crying.

I held her and let my own tears fall, mixing with the rain that poured down on us both.

"Tell me what happened," I said softly when her sobs had quieted slightly. "Tell me about Isaiah. About that day."

Delphine was quiet for so long I thought she wouldn't answer. Then, in a voice barely audible over the rain, she began to speak.

"Valencia, you should have seen his face. You should have seen Isaiah when he first sat in that wheelchair."

I held her closer, feeling her body tremble against mine.

"For the first time in months, there was light in his eyes," Delphine continued, her words coming faster now. "Real light. Hope. He could move himself. He didn't need anyone to carry him anymore. He could go where he wanted, when he wanted."

"I found him a job too," Delphine said. "In the castle library. As a record keeper. The work didn't require walking—he could do everything from the wheelchair. And Isaiah loved stories so much, Valencia. It was perfect for him."

Thunder crashed overhead, but neither of us flinched.

"He said yes," Delphine's voice cracked. "He took the job, and even made it through day one without me having to step in. He even started talking about the future, about maybe telling stories again once he got more comfortable with the wheelchair."

"He was healing," I said softly.

"Yes." The word was a sob. "For three days, he was different. He wasn't angry anymore. He talked to me—really talked, not just cursed at me or told me to leave. He smiled."