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Elena clutched the child to her Damon had understood, even in his dazed and confused state Everyone was connected
No one was alone
"And he asked so else He asked if you would hold ot sleepy"Velvety dark eyes searched Elena’s face "Would you do that?"
Elena tried to keep steady "I’l hold you,"she proo ever?"
"And I won’t let go ever,"Elena told hihtening him if he had no fear And because maybe this part of Damon - this smal , innocent part - would have some kind of "forever"She had heard that vampires didn’t come back, didn’t reincarnate the way humans did The vampires in the top Dark Dimension were Still"alive" - adventurers or fortune-seekers, or condemned there as a prison by the Celestial Court
"I’l hold you,"Elena proain "Forever and ever"
Just then his smal body went into another spasm, and she saw tears on his dark eyelashes, and blood on his lip But before she could say a word, he added, "I have ed her forgiveness - "I have to give theht at first, bewildered Then she remembered Stefan and Bonnie There were other loved ones
"I cantel theave a tiny smile, his first, just the corner of one lip up
"He left me a little telepathy, too,"he said "I kept it in case I had to cal to you"
Stillfiercely independent, Elena thought Al she said was,
"You go ahead, then"
"The first one is for my brother, Stefan"
"You can tel him in just a moment,"Elena said She held on to the s that this was the last thing she had left to give him She could sacrifice a few priceless seconds, so that Stefan and Bonnie could say their own good-byes She made some sort of enormous adjustment to her real body - her body outside Da and trying to focus
She saw Stefan’s face, white and stricken "Is he - ?"
"No But soon He can hear telepathy, if you think clearly, as if you were speaking He asked to talk to you"
"To ainst his brother’s Elena shut her eyes again, guiding hiht was Stillshining She felt Stefan’s wonder as he saw her there, Stillholding the little dark-haired boy in her arh her link to the child, she would be able to hear every word spoken Or that Daes would couess you think I’m pretty stupid"
Stefan started He’d never seen or heard the child-Damon before "I could never think that,"he said slowly,
"But it wasn’t much like him, you know Like me"
"I think,"Stefan said unsteadily, "that it’s terribly sad - that I never real y knew either of you very well "
"Please don’t be sad That’s what he told me to say That you shouldn’t be sador afraid He said it’s a little bit like going to sleep, and a little bit like flying"
"I’l re brother"
"I think that’s alYou knoatch over our girls"There was another of the terrible spasms that left the child breathless Stefan spoke quickly
"Of course I’l take care of everything You fly"
Elena could feel the grief slash at Stefan’s heart, but his voice was calm "Fly away now, h the link - Bonnie touching Stefan’s shoulder He quickly got up so that she could lie down Bonnie was al, Elena saw While Elena had been in her own little world with Da lock of Elena’s hair Then she had cut one of her own strawberry curls, and placed the locks - one wavy and golden, one curling and red-blond - on Damon’s chest It was al they could do on this flowerless world to honor him, to be with hih her link with Damon, but at first al Bonnie could do was sob, "Daht - that anyone would get hurt! You saved ood-bye!"
She didn’t understand, Elena thought, that she was talking to a very young child But Dae to repeat
"I’h"For the first time the child looked uneasy "And - and I’ht you’d knohat that ive me Butif you don’tI don’t knoil happen - oh!"
Another of the hateful spas her own lip until the blood ca to shield the little boy cos And deep in Dae, from tearful penance to astonished fear to careful control As if Bonnie had grown up al in an instant
"Of course - of course I understand! And I forgive you - but you haven’t done anything wrong I’irl - I"
"We don’t think you’re a sil y girl,"the child said, looking vastly relieved "But thank you for forgiving me There’s a special naainst Elena "I guess - I’ sleepy"
"Was it ’redbird’?"Bonnie asked careful y, and the little boy’s pale face lit up
"That was it You knew already You’re al so nice and so s it easyBut can I say one ?"
Elena was about to anshen abruptly she was jarred completely out of Damon’s mind and back into reality The Tree had sla them and Damon’s body between two circles of wooden bars
Elena had no plans No idea how to get to the star bal that Daent, or it ired to have such efficient defenses that iton the evidence that many, many people had tried for that star bal - and left behind their bones ground to sand
Coone for us, too - especial y for Bonnie She’s been in, and then out, and back in again, which I should never have let her do except that ere al thinking about Da to be strong, trying to organize so that Elena herself si sounds
Between both circular sets of bars a wooden netas spreading - too close-knit for even Bonnie to squeeze through Elena’s group was efficiently separated fro outside the sand pit, and just as efficiently separated from the star bal
"The axe!"Stefan cal ed to her "Throw me - "
But there was no ti it into the upper branches
"Stefan, I’m sorry! I was too slow!"
"It was too fast!"Stefan corrected
Elena held her breath, waiting for the last crash from above, the one that would kil the The Tree was not only intel igent, but sadistic They were to be trapped here, away from their supplies, to die slowly of thirst and starvation, or to gothe others die
The best that they could hope for was that Stefan would kil both Bonnie and her - but even he would never get out
These wooden branches would coain, as often as the Tree felt necessary, until Stefan’s crushed bones joined the others that had been ht of al of the ainside Elena for weeks now, at hearing the stories about children who ate their pets, at creatures who delighted in pain, had, with Da that she could no longer contain it
"Stefan, Bonnie - don’t touch the branches,"she gasped
"Make sure you’re not touching any part of the branches"