*~ Cayden's POV~*
I was prepared to tell my babies goodbye.
I had braced myself for it, rehearsed it over and over in my mind. The final glance. The broken farewell. I had cried until my chest burned. I had destroyed half my room in a blind rage. I had wept, drowned in tears that refused to stop until I felt like a hollowed shell of who I once was. It was like I had reached the edge of every emotion and dropped off into something worse.
But nothing could have prepared me for this.
An empty coffin.
I blinked hard, not once, not twice but again and again. My ears were ringing, drowning out every sound except for my mother's soft shivering beside me. I couldn't hear anything else. Not the whispers. Not the shocked gasps. Not the priest. Not even Caspian, who stood right beside me, stiff as stone.
His breathing was sharp. Shallow. His heart racing so fast I could almost feel it vibrating the air between us.
