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Verna's lips called to her, red as the blood that their family legacy had spilled.
Inadvertently, Madeline's inner voice taunted - always refuting, always one step ahead. She nearly rolled her eyes to herself, tired of having always been on the defensive.
Years had passed and she knew Verna would come for her, like a lurking shadow just at the corner of her eye, a lingering cloud on a clear day, a sudden chill in the sun.
Madeline wished she could remember warm days, so long she had been shrouded in night. Verna's assessment of her young self as an ice queen was more accurate than she could ever have imagined. Her heart had frozen her corporeal form from the inside out.
She was stirred from her thoughts by the raven haired woman's fingers caressing the silver tendrils of her hair. Madeline caught the other woman's hazel eyes, a wry smile creasing her aged lips.
"You always were my favorite, Cleopatra" Verna purred. Her piercing gaze never ceasing to make Madeline melt.
"Kiss me, one last time." Madeline heard herself say, her voice breathy and tired. A shiver wound its way along her spine, a coil of anticipation sitting heavy in her stomach.
She was weary for this world, and as Verna's - no, Fate's - lips brushed hers, she sighed in gratitude, her heart thumping its last in her chest.
Verna cradled Madeline's limp form in her arms, the last exhalation of the woman's breath sweet on her tongue.
Verna allowed herself a moment of sentimentality before she stood, watching as the silver haired woman's form gracelessly crumpled to the floor.
She barely spared a parting glance as she turned to go, a single black feather drifting slowly down from the ether to rest atop the corpse's chest.
A raven's distant caw broke the silence, bidding final farewell.
-Fin-