Terra ~ One Last Wish

by Amelia Grace

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  My stomach churned while I held Ben’s hand when we walked to Gran’s drawing room. I walked backwards, facing him to memorise everything about him, never, ever wanting to forget. I was scared—no—terrified to the core of my being—that I would never see him again.

  We stopped in silence at the coffee table, our hands connected, his life force flowing through to mine.

  A searing pain shot through me as I pulled my hand away from his to move the coffee table and floor rug aside to reveal a hidden floor door. I looked at it and breathed in deeply as pain entered my breaking lavender rose heart.

  I did not want to do this. But I had no choice.

  I retrieved the large old metal key and inserted it into the lock.

  It opened easily.

  I lifted the door upwards to reveal what looked like an old mine shaft, but I knew better. I looked into it, and then to Ben.

  A tear rolled down my cheek.

  This ... was the secret of the house.

  This ... is what I could feel in the house since I was three.

  I hesitated before I went to retrieve the two vials that Ben must take with him.

  When I returned to him he was on his cell phone—talking to Earth Sphere. He finished his conversation and handed his mobile to me. I took it from him and placed it on the mantel of the fireplace. Then I enclosed the two vials securely in his hand before I changed my mind about releasing him to the parallel world.

  Ben’s eyes sort mine and held them like he was holding on for dear life. There was a desperation in them I had never seen before. It was tearing every single, excruciating petal of my lavender rose heart apart.

  I breathed in sharply when I saw a tear trail down his face. I wanted to take away his pain. But there was nothing I could do.

  I moved my lips to his and kissed him like he was the very air I needed to breath.

  When I pulled away, he rested his forehead against mine. We stood, silent and motionless. And my eyes remained closed—I never wanted to forget him. I never wanted to forget the softness of his lips, the lusciousness of kissing him. I never wanted to forget how he made me feel, right to the very essence of my being.

  But now, it was time…

  Our heads parted and our eyes connected in love, and in a silent goodbye that created a catastrophic rip in my lavender rose heart. I gazed into his beautiful cerulean eyes that belonged to me, that had connected us fatefully on New Year’s Eve years before.

  I brushed my lips over his—perhaps for the last time. No words were spoken. We didn’t need to. Our love was written in our eyes, on our faces and upon our hearts. It was a bond that could never be broken...

  Pain seared through my heart and I struggled to breath. I didn’t want to say good-bye.

  ‘I love you,’ Ben whispered, his voice barely audible. He grabbed my hand and placed it over his heart and winced.

  A sob escaped me. ‘I love you, more,’ I whispered.

  Ben kissed my forehead, then disappeared down the mine shaft—the portal to Une Autre Terre. His world. His home.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I did not close the floor door. I couldn’t. And I would not until my true love had returned.

  Every day I sat in Gran’s drawing room and waited. I waited for my eternal love to come back to me.

  Every day for a week, a month, a season, a year.

  I never gave up hope.

  And—he never returned.