“You’re not scarred,” I said, touching his cheek. All this time, since I’d come to this place, I’d held a secret fear that I’d be bringing him home to Mum and Dad all scarred, his skin forever changed by the fire.
“No, child,” said Leirza. “He is returned whole.” Her eyes darkened. “Physically whole.”
I wanted to ask what she meant by “physically,” but Claire’s baby sister started to cry, her screams causing brightly coloured birds to flee the nearby trees and launch into the sky.
Axel stood, frozen, as a small curly-haired boy approached him. The boy stared up at Axel with wide blue eyes.
“Did you die too, Axel?”
Axel’s face crumpled with emotion and he knelt down so that he was eye level with the small boy.
“No. But you’re alive again, Rin,” he said, his lips trembling before he scooped the boy up into his arms and hugged him tight, burying his face in the boys neck.
Little Rin patted his brother’s shoulders and said, “Don’t cry, Axel. Let’s find mother so she can hug you and make you feel better.”
Tears flooded my eyes and continued to stream down my cheeks as I watched, with Sam by my side, as everyone was reunited with their loved ones.
I watched Jacob being embraced by his big father, who was an older version of Jacob in every way. Reece hugged his mum tight before moving to hug a tall, good-looking boy with jet black hair and dark good looks.
I’d almost forgotten. Bella’s boyfriend, Carl. He’d been resurrected too.
Bruce sat embracing his beautiful wife, but beside them stood a lone woman with long, raven hair.
“Who’s that woman?” asked Sam, clearly admiring her beauty, and I stepped forward to her. She was exactly as she’d been painted in the portrait I’d seen in the ballroom.
“You must be the queen,” I said, and she nodded. She was so young and beautiful and she would be returning to an old man, a slightly crazy old man and a seriously wimpy son. I felt sorry for her and for the first time since we resurrected the souls I felt a twinge of regret. Were we doing the right thing by bringing them back to the living world?
Leirza stepped forward and Sam and all of the raised dead stared at her, spellbound.
“Do you agree to return to the land of the living and give up your place at Death’s Garden?” she asked the queen, who was running her hands through her long, shiny, dark hair, touching her face, then running her hands over her breasts, her waist, hips, her own fingers.
“What?” She stared down at the face of Leirza, as though the woman had gone mad. “Of course I want to live! Who doesn’t?”
Leirza nodded and moved on to Bruce’s wife. It was then I noticed that Bruce’s prematurely aged skin had returned to normal.
Leirza asked the same question to each of our loved ones, working her way through them, heading towards Sam.
A sudden fear fluttered in my chest as she neared. What if all this was wrong? What if we were somehow upsetting the balance of life and death? But Sam nudged me with his elbow and shook his head. He was reading my thoughts again, just like he used to when he was alive.
Oh, my, gosh. The enormity of everything that had just occurred hit me.
Sam was here.
He was alive.
A loud sob choked my throat and tears streamed down my face as I pictured walking through the front door of our house with Sam by my side. The look on Mum’s and Dad’s faces.
“They’re going to be so happy when they see you again,” I said, and threw my arms around him.
Axel watched me from over his little brother’s shoulder, his eyes sad, and then it dawned on me.
I’d have to eventually leave him.
We belonged in two different worlds.
But at least it wasn’t goodbye just yet. We still had the journey back to the castle to spend together.
Sam pulled away just as I heard Leirza speak.
“Do you wish to enter the land of the living and give up your resting place at the Death’s Garden?”
Leirza stood waiting for Sam’s answer.
“Yes. I do.”
She spun around and addressed everyone.
“When you raise the dead, wake them from their forever sleep, they will not return to you as they were. They are changed. They have passed. They have witnessed their version of heaven.” Her dark eyes glowed silver before turning jet black again. “You will not be returning to your world with the same individuals you once knew before their deaths.”
I squeezed Sam’s hand in mine. Of course they’d be different. They had experienced the trauma of dying. They would be forever changed. But I didn’t care, my grip was vice-like on Sam’s. I wasn’t letting him go now.
She turned to face death’s gateway, as though waiting for something to happen, for somebody else to emerge from the flames, when suddenly my dragon burst out of the flames, its scales no longer green but grey and smoking. It soared up high into the sky before it dove between the trees behind us towards the river.
“She’s alive!”
There was a great splash and the hiss of steam before the dragon soared back into the air and flew until she disappeared from sight.
“Goodbye,” I whispered to the sky, wishing I could have thanked her properly, and so grateful she’d survived. “Thank you.”
“The dragon protects you. She will always protect you. That is good. You will need it on your journey home.”
I stared at Leirza.
“Did you know she was going to come back?” I was so mad that she’d let me think the dragon had died in the fire.
The woman laughed. “I told you that dragons have a thousand lives.”
“Come on,” said Sam, putting an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s go home.”
“Leave, all of you, before it gets dark,” Leirza said, shooing us with her hands. The volcano rumbled and spat tiny orange sparks that died before they hit the ground.
Bruce and his wife were sitting on the edge of the pool, clinging to each other and sobbing. I let go of Sam and gently coaxed them to their feet. Though I was furious with Bruce for pushing me towards death’s gate, we needed him to fly us home.
“Will the journey back be dangerous?” Noah asked nobody in particular.
The witch laughed in the distance.
I turned to see my brother looking at me and I thought I caught a flash of silver in his eyes. But perhaps it was a trick of the light, because after I blinked and look again, he smiled and his eyes were a perfect clear blue, like my own.
“I hope not,” I said, answering Noah’s question.
But I couldn’t help but wonder about what the woman said, how our loved ones were forever changed.
A shiver snaked its way down my back.
Sam smiled and took my hand in his, giving me a squeeze.
He was warm, and he was happy and he was my brother in every way.
“Which way is home?” said Axel, looking at the empty space where Leirza had only just occupied.
Little Rin had fallen asleep against Axel’s shoulder, secure in his brother’s strong arms. My heart melted. I reached out and stroked the back of Axel’s hand and he smiled.
Leirza laughed as the garden began to swirl and spin before it disappeared altogether, replaced with blackness.
“Get ready for it,” said Reece. “The Change is coming.”
There were hoots and laughs and even a couple of screams, but I squeezed my brother’s hand in mine.
It didn’t matter what I faced on the journey home.
I had my brother back, and together, we could face heaven or hell.
The End
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Alive (The Veiled World Book 1) Page 24