THE LAST DAWN
Chapter 24: The Love That Consumes
The golden light pulsed.
The old woman’s silver eyes gleamed. Her white hair floated in a wind that did not exist. Her dress of gold silk shimmered with every breath, as if it were made of liquid sunlight.
“Love it,” Rowan said. “That’s what you said.”
The old woman nodded.
“Love it. Accept it. Embrace it.”
“That’s what the Council wanted. That’s what the hunger wants. That’s what the end wants.”
“The Council is dead. The hunger is awake. The end is here.”
“Then why should I love it?”
She stepped closer.
Her bare feet made no sound.
“Because love is the only thing that can save it. Love is the only thing that can save you. Love is the only thing that can save the world.”
Rowan looked at the light.
At the golden warmth.
At the pulsing heart.
“The hunger killed my family. It killed my village. It killed my world.”
“The hunger killed nothing. The hunger is nothing. The hunger is the grief of the world. The hunger is the pain of the world. The hunger is the loneliness of the world.”
“Then who killed my family?”
The old woman was silent for a long moment.
“You did.”
Rowan’s blood went cold.
“I did?”
“The hunger is inside you. It has always been inside you. It has been sleeping, waiting, growing. And when it woke — when it fed — it used your grief. Your pain. Your loneliness.”
“I didn’t choose to feed it.”
“No. You didn’t. But you didn’t choose to stop it either.”
He stepped back.
His hands were shaking.
“You’re blaming me?”
“I’m telling you the truth. The truth that the Council hid. The truth that the hunger hides. The truth that you hide from yourself.”
“What truth?”
She touched his chest.
Above his heart.
“That you are the hunger. The hunger is you. You are the same.”