Hellbound With You (WN)

As soon as the vampires left, Zeres seemed to have lost all the strength that he had shown earlier and just slumped onto the ground. He weakly leaned against the tree trunk as if he was now beyond exhausted. As if the weight of the world had finally brought him to his knees. God knows how much he had held back his emotions that were still not quite stable just to be able to appear before all those people and talk to them as normally as he could. It almost caused him to break down all over again.

”I can ’t believe you are doing this, Alicia! ” he groaned in a weak voice as he tugged his hair with his one hand.

A while ago when Alex was questioning Zeres about Alicia ’s funeral, Alicia ’s voice suddenly echoed in Zeres ’ ear. If only he knew how much Zeres had struggled not to show the shock that zapped through his body to escape into his expression. He never thought he would suddenly hear Alicia ’s voice at that moment! Did she not say that once the spell was broken, he would not be able to see nor hear her? What had happened? Was that a discrepancy? Only a one-time occurrence?

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Truthfully, Zeres did not want to conduct a funeral for Alicia. Even if Alicia ’s body was dead, her spirit was still here. No matter what anyone else says, Alicia was yet not dead to him. How could he conduct a memorial remembering someone who have died, when she was clearly alive to him? His heart, his mind, his everything… all of him still could feel her spirit close to him. Thus, Alicia was still very much alive to him. So, how could he possibly agree for her funeral to be carried out when she was very much still here? He could never… and would never… because he was going to find a way to bring her spirit back to her body. No, he will find whatever way necessary. She would not die… she would not disappear. He would search the world to make it happen. No matter how long it will take. He would not let her truly die. Not again. He could not let this last chance to get her back to him slip through his hands… no matter what. Zeres swore to himself that he would achieve this at the cost of his own life!

But Alicia came to him all of the sudden and told him that she must agree with Alexander ’s demand and that there must a funeral to be held. She told him it was the right thing to do, not only because of her friends and comrades but most of all, because of the other witches. It was a way to give closure for everyone who had known her in life. The funeral must also happen so the coronation of the next queen would finally commence. She had also reasoned out that everyone might suspect something else was amiss, not just the witches but the vampires as well if a funeral was not carried out.