He willed his own life force into her body, but it wasn't enough;
Silently, he bargained with the gods to take anything else-his life, his lands, his people. Anything. Just leave him his heart. He needed it too much to lose it like this.
"I love you, Speirr," she whispered softly.
He choked.
"You can't leave me, Nyn," he whispered as she shivered in his arms. "I don't know what to do without you."
"You will take care of Ceara as you promised your mother." She swallowed as she traced his lips with her cold hand. "My brave Speirr. Always strong and giving. I shall wait for you on the other side until Bran brings us together again."
He closed his eyes as tears seeped past his control. "I can't live without you, Nyn. I can't."
"You must, Speirr. Our people need you. Ceara needs you."
"And I need you."
She swallowed and looked up at him, her eyes full of fear. "I'm scared, Speirr. I don't want to die. I feel so cold. I've never gone anywhere without you before."
"I'll keep you warm." He pulled more furs over her and rubbed her arms. If he could just keep her warm, she would stay with him. He knew she would...
If he could just keep her warm.
"Why is it getting dark?" she asked, her voice trembling. "I don't want it to be dark yet. I just want to hold you for a little while longer."
"I'll hold you, Nyn. Don't worry, love. I have you."
She placed her hand against his cheek as a single tear fell. "I wish I had been the wife you deserved, Speirr. I wish I could have given you all the children you wanted."
Before he could speak, he felt it. The last expulsion of breath from her body before she went limp in his arms.
Enraged and heartsick, Talon threw his head back and gave his battle cry as pain tore through him. Tears fell down his face.
"Why!" he roared at the gods. "Damn you, Camulus. Why! Why couldn't you just kill me and have left her in peace?"
As expected, no one answered. The Morrigan had abandoned him, left him alone to face this pain.
"Why would the gods ever help a whoreson like you, boy? You're not fit for anything except licking the boots of your betters."
"Look at him, Idiag, he's pitiful and weak like his father before him. He'll never be anything. You might as well let us kill him now and spare the food to nurture a better child."
The voices of the past whipped through him, lacerating his aching heart.
"Are you a prince?" He heard Nynia's childhood voice from the day he had saved her from the rooster.
"I am nothing," he had answered.
"Nae, my lord, you are a prince. Only one so noble would brave the fearsome rooster to save a peasant."
She alone had ever made him feel noble or good.
She alone had made him want to live.
How could his precious Nynia be gone?
Sobbing, he held her and the baby for hours. Held them until the sun was shining bright outside on the snow and her family begged him to let them make preparations for the burials. But he didn't want to prepare them.
He didn't want to let them go.