Just like I decided, I left the palace that day, leaving my husband to Queen Charlotte to handle. I left with not even a single servant from the palace. I headed over to Edward's tent to meet him. I knew I was the last person he may want to see but I still had to try. I gathered information about him camping in a bush. I didn't know why but that's where he lived.
I got to the bush where his camp was and got into his tent. He wasn't there and so I decided to observe his tent while waiting for him to return. I was checking out the items on his table when someone grabbed me and pointed a dagger at my neck.
"Put your hands up." Edward said.
I wore a hooded cloak over my gown and so it was hard for him to tell it was me.
"Edward, it's me." I said to him and on hearing my voice, he lowered his weapon.
"Nardin? What the hell are you doing here?" He asked as I turned around.
"Am I welcomed?" I asked.
"Of course." Edward said, I could still see the emotions in his eyes. He probably still loved me.
I sat on his bed and I felt his nervousness.
"Does... Does prince Liam know you're here?" Edward asked.
"No. I'm here on my own." I said.
"I noticed. What do you want Nardin? I already gave up on fighting for you. I'm at peace here and..."
"Ed... I know. And I know I have no right to come here and ask for your help but I really do need your help. Please."
"You know, I was going to say no to you but considering how terrible I've been to you, maybe this could be a way to make up for my sins." Ed said.
"Ed, I'm not forcing you to help me neither am I blackmailing you. I just..."
"I know Nardin. I'll willing to do anything to see you have the good life you deserve. Now tell me, what do you need my help with?"
Seeing how willing Edward was to help me, I didn't feel the need to lie anymore so I told him the truth. I was going to meet the devil. I had nothing to say to him yet but I wanted to meet him.
"Confronting the devil without a plan?" Ed asked me.
"I'll kill him." I abruptly said without realizing it.
"What? You think you can do that?"
"Yes. My love for Liam is strong enough." I said.
Edward nodded gently and I could see jealousy in his eyes.
"I'll get my weapons ready and we can go." He said.
Edward and I left for the valley of death. I never thought a time would come when Edward would ever help me save Liam.
"So, what changed? The last time I saw you, you desperately wanted to get your revenge." I said to Ed.
Ed chuckled and spoke, "you know, I realized that if you truly love someone, you'll want them to be happy, even if you're not the one making them happy... I... I waited for you to run away from Liam but..." He sniffs a peal of laughter then continues "Liam does love you and you love him. No matter what I do Nardin, you'll never love me again." Edward spoke as a flicker of pain flashed on his face.
"Everything has a reason for happening Ed. You were a very nice person and... I'll always cherish the moments we spent together." I said.
Ed smiled painfully at me.
Throughout the rest of our journey, Ed and I discussed different topics but he was careful not to confess how he had hurt me in the past and I too wasn't ready to revisit the topic.
In not a long while, we got to the valley.
"Here we are." Edward said.
Everything tree in the valley was dead. There was no sign of life there at all. Not even the sounds of birds chirping or crickets. It really was a valley of death.
"Remember Nardin, everything you see here is not real, and anything you hear is a lie. The valley uses your subconscious mind against you. If we must make it alive out of here we must keep our sanity at all cost." Edward said.
I nodded. I already knew all those things from the book I read after meeting with Logain but it was nice to see Edward caring for me again.
"Okay. Here goes nothing." I said to myself then inhaled and we both dismounted our horses and went into the valley.
The atmosphere of the valley was covered in slight fog that got thicker the farther in we went and soon enough I could not even see my hands or Edward who was with me.
"Keep close Nardin." Edward said.
"I can't see you." I responded.
"Here. Stretch out your arms, I'll find it." He said.
I followed his instruction and soon our hands were together.
"How do we find the key?" I asked but I got a response from a weird whisper.
"You will never find it. You will never make it out of here... Alive. You will never be able to save your husband." The whisper said right in my ears. It was high and screeching so I quickly pulled out my hand from Edward's and covered my ears.
"You will lose him to the devil." The voice continued.
"That's not true. I... I..." I said but couldn't continue.
"She is only using you. She lied to you. She never loved you. She always knew she would marry another and yet she led you on. She's brought you here just to kill you. You mean nothing to her. You're the one good for death, that is why she called you to help her." The whisper said to Edward.
"No... No... No..." Edward fought the whisper.
I tried to find Edward but I already lost contact with him. I tried to find Ed using my hands but instead, my hands touched someone that had a very cold body. I looked up and strangely I could see the face of the woman standing before me.
"Gwen?" I said. It was my sister.
"You..." She said as tears rolled down her cheeks. "How could you. You completely forgot about me." She said.
"Gwen, I had no way to contact you. I tried to get in touch but I didn't even know what king father married you off to." I said.
"Liar!!!" She screamed.
"What about me? I always checked up on you but when you never heard from me again, you didn't care." Another voice spoke and when I turned around, I saw my mother.
"Mother?"
"Your father murdered me because of you. For every pain I get, you are the reason, but you never really cared. You never loved your mother." Mother said.
"That's not true mother. You know I cared about you. You know I loved you and I still love you." I said.
"You didn't. You bastard..." Their voices echoed at a go as they started to encircle me and drown me in their voices. I fell to the ground and covered my ears.
"You're not real. This is just an illusion. I loved my mother and sister, and they are not dead. You're just using my subconscious mind against me." I said. "You are not real...!!!" I finally echoed as my voice thundered and I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Nardin are you okay?"
I looked up to see Edward. The fog seemed to have dissipated and I could see Edward's figure.
"None of it is real, okay? Come on, let's go." Edward said as he extended his hand towards me and helped me up.
"Thank you." I said to Ed.
We looked around in search of the key and there it was, laying on a rock.
"There it is." I said and without looking around for traps hurried and lay my hands on the key.
As soon as I took it, the whole ground started to shake and the weight of the key dragged my hand down.
"What's happening?"
"The duroca. Nardin, we have to go now." Edward said.
Suddenly there was a guard of wind and the rock started to melt. Edward quickly pushed me away from the rock and dragged me to run with him.
He was almost limping but I didn't have time to observe why. We made our way out of the valley and a force quickly threw us to the ground as soon as we made our way there.
"Are you okay?" Edward said panting.
"I'm not dead, so yeah." I responded also panting.
"Do you have the key?"
I raised the key in response to his question and began to laugh.
"Tha... That was easy? Much better than I thought." I said, waiting for Edward's response but instead he grunted, and when I looked at him to see why, his right leg was fading away like the rock in the valley...