by Ainsley Shay
I wished he were talking about someone other than Adelina. Then, maybe, I would know what to say or how to give comfort. It was then I thought of my father’s words. “No matter what seems to be hopeless now, with time, it will be healed, understood, or made right.”
Kenyon turned his head in my direction. “I believe that to be true.”
For some reason, from Kenyon, who was once a creature that could not speak, stand, or live on land, I felt the need to have his validation. I wanted to have his acceptance and his respect. “My father would say those words to me when I felt like the end of the world was upon me. They usually never helped at that moment, but they were always true.”
Releasing Blacwin’s hand, I went to stand in front of Kenyon. I took his curled hand and held it in mine. “Thank you.”
He nodded and stood. “Why don’t you take your friend home? I’m going for a walk on the bridge.” Kenyon closed the door behind him.
None of us said anything for several moments. The noises outside seemed to be in the walls of the huge tree: birds chirping, the rustling of leaves, small animals scurrying about. If I closed my eyes, I’d think I was standing in the center of the forest.
“There’s a lot of nature happening right now, I’m feeling it, it feels nice and all, but I’m ready to get the hell out of here and go home,” Chandler said.
“Me too,” I agreed.
I took the carving knife and the vial out of my backpack as I went to Snow. My heart began to speed up and my thoughts raced. I touched her arm, it was smooth and cool. I wondered if she could feel the contact. The power it held electrified my palm. Carefully, I took the lid off the vial. The scent of Adelina’s blood made me neither sick nor hungry, which was a small, but happy realization. I dipped the tip of the knife into the thick liquid. Blacwin stood on my right, Chandler on my left. I handed the vial to Blacwin. I thought it would be safer in his hands rather than Chandler’s when—if—Snow was to become herself again. A thousand times over I had thought about this moment, I knew what her exact reaction would be, and the first words out of her mouth if the curse could be broken.
I took the deepest breath I had ever taken, filling my lungs until they felt as if they would explode. Holding it in, I stabbed the statue of Snow. Nothing happened. The air seeped through my barely opened mouth. Blacwin placed his hand on my lower back. Chandler cursed under his breath. Frustrated and angry, I raised the knife in the air, poised to stab her again and again, until she was alive and breathing and able to eat pizza with me once more.
“Do it,” Chandler growled. “She has to come back—she has to...” his harsh tone tapered off into a strained whisper.
As I lowered the knife, preparing to strike the stone, the statue began to change.
Blacwin’s hand shot up and grabbed my wrist. We stared as the stone seemed to melt away. Her fingers curled into fists and opened again. The loose fitting dress swayed as she stretched her arms and torso. The chains on her Doc Martens jingled when she shook out her legs. Finally, she yawned and opened her eyes. Blinking away the dryness, her lashes fluttered. Her hair was a mixture of some of the flowers we had passed in the meadow. It was beautiful. Her face was smooth. Her happiness glowed a new color I don’t think even existed yet. Shiny tears rolled down her cheeks.
Disbelief ebbed and flowed through me. Chills rose on my arms. Blacwin released my wrist. The three of us stared at her like a science experiment that had actually worked. In a way, it was. The spell was broken.
“Jeez! What took you so long?”
Yep, those were the words I had anticipated hearing. In fact, I would have been disappointed had she not said them. A group hug followed, like none other before it.
“So, while I’ve been a rock, what have you guys been up to?”
25
We boarded the small plane with only my backpack. It wasn’t like we could jump on a commercial airline with a vial of blood and a knife. So, Chandler had again used his contacts to get us home. We had several stops to connect to other small private jets or planes. I didn’t care how many we had to take, as long as each one took us farther away from Skelside. Chandler had not let Snow out of his sight. Not even at the airport, when she had to use the bathroom. He made me check it out to see if anyone was in there. When I gave him the coast is clear signal with a thumbs up and a stupid look on my face that said he was being ridiculous, he chaperoned her into the girl’s bathroom. I had to admit I was happy his attention and protectiveness had shifted from me to her. And, by the way she looked, sitting a few rows up from Blacwin and me, she hadn’t minded at all. Her head rested on his shoulder, and his hand held hers on his lap. I’m sure she asked a thousand and one questions about what happened at Skelside.
“How are you?” Blacwin’s voice was low in the quiet cabin.
I chuckled, feeling silly because I didn’t know. Everyone always said, “The calm before the storm,” but what about after the storm? I felt calm until the churning of the past events began to rage inside me. They all came at once. “I’m not sure.”
“There’s a lot to be happy about.”
“There is,” I agreed. A smiled played on my lips. He tilted my chin up, kissed me, and then he leaned back and looked at me.
“What is it?” There was concern in his eyes.
I glanced down, unable to look at him. All I wanted was for him to know I would be fine. “I’m okay.” I tried to smile, but my lips quivered.
“Tell me. What can I do?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do. I just need to work through all of these feelings bombarding me. It’s like every feeling I’ve ever had: terror, happiness, sorrow, dread, excitement, and a ton more that have been scattered throughout all the moments of my life, are at my doorstep banging to get in and celebrate. And now, after all the losing, finding, killing, reviving, it’s as if the moon pulled all of those emotions in like the tide, and aligned them in a perfect line for me to experience all at once.” Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. “It’s all so overwhelming—I mean, it was crazy insane when I had no idea what to do most of the time, losing you, a crazy witch to deal with, almost getting married to a fallen angel, the dungeon, drinking blood, becoming immortal, having to plan a murder, then ending up committing three.” I sounded like a certifiably insane felon. I inhaled deeply and let it out. My skin shivered with chills. I was grateful to be in the back of the plane where no one else could witness my breakdown. It was also a good thing I was strapped in my seat and Blacwin was next to me. I took deep breaths to calm the spasms of emotions racking through me.
“Iris, it’s okay, let it out baby.” He wiped a tear from my cheek. “Let the tears come, the laughs be heard, set the screams free. You have every right to feel everything all at once. For months, there’s been no chance for you to truly feel or express what you’ve been through, let alone process any of it.”
I didn’t laugh or scream. I just cried. I buried my face in Blacwin’s chest and let the tears come. He held me while I tried to let go of feelings, file away memories I no longer wanted in the forefront of my mind, and looked beyond my past and into my future. The release wasn’t instant, but it was a beginning. There were so many things I had to look forward to, and I focused on each one. My breathing steadied. The chills disappeared, and my tears slowed. I wiped my face with the back of my hand, and glanced up the aisle to where Snow and Chandler were. They were still sleeping. At least I wasn’t loud enough to wake them. I didn’t want to explain the aligning of my emotions and going temporarily crazy.
I looked out the window. We were still over the Atlantic. The sun was setting and it was like nothing I had ever seen. “Blacwin, does it always look like that?”
He leaned over me and looked out the window. He knew immediately what I was asking about. The smile on his face was heart stopping. I would never get over how beautiful this man who loved me was. “No, it’s exceptionally beautiful tonight.”
“What are thos
e colors?”
He chuckled. “That’s a tough one.”
I took his hand in both of mine. “Try, please.”
He nodded. “Okay. Orange like a ripe tangerine around the center,” he bent and kissed my forehead, “deep reds like roses around the orange,” his lips touched my nose, “violets as bright as flowers and as rich as royalty reaching off into the skies above and below,” he laid a tender kiss on my cheek, “and gold, like the flecks in Mr. Yves eyes and the...”
“Go ahead, say it, I need to know.”
“The hilt of the carving knife, or the sun itself.” He bent and kissed my lips. For as long as he lingered there, it wasn’t long enough. When he broke the kiss our eyes locked.
I studied his black eyes, which were filled with so much love and passion my heart overflowed. “I think I’m really going to enjoy having you as my professor on the theory of colors,” I said.
26
Our last flight touched down in Florida in the early hours of Saturday morning. My on-coming nervous breakdown ceased, I learned what colors made a sunset, and I realized charm, lust, or past lives, had nothing to do with being truly in love with Blacwin. He was meant for me since the day we first met, over five hundred years ago. Whoever was in the Heavens had fulfilled a promise to destiny that we would forever be together. I pressed my lips to his before we exited the plane.
When I stepped off the plane, I couldn’t have cared less if I ever flew on another one again. I would probably change my view on that, but it would take a lot of convincing. Drained and exhausted, the four of us walked toward a taxi idling near the curb. Chandler’s hand was wrapped so tightly around Snow’s that Blacwin looked at me questioningly. I smiled and nodded, knowing what he was asking. There was no way Chandler was going to let go of Snow to sit in the front seat, so Blacwin took shotgun, and the three of us climbed into the back.
“No luggage?” the cab driver questioned.
“We have everything we need in here.” Blacwin tapped on my backpack in his lap. “Pretty impressive, huh?”
The cab driver eyed him skeptically. I’m sure he wanted to point out we looked like we had been hiking around the world, and smelled like we’d visited every zoo from here to the west coast. He glanced in the rear view mirror. “Where to?”
“Yves Antique Pages in Gradywoods,” I said. The driver nodded and pulled away from the curb.
I’d left Mr. Yves a note saying goodbye before we’d boarded a plane to Skelside, almost three weeks ago. I was nervous and eager to see him. Trees and signs blurred by. Thoughts of my future and what I had thought I wanted was very different from what they were now. There was a chance I’d have a mom again. Wow! That alone would drastically change my life. All those years without her, I couldn’t pick up and move to go off to college. We had so much to learn about each other. I was grateful my dad was a picture freak. He had taken thousands of me growing up. They would be perfect to share with my mom. And, I would see them in color for the first time.
As if struck by a lightning bolt, I jerked upright.
“What’s wrong?” asked Snow.
“I a... had—nothing, I’m fine.” I smiled. The thought of voicing my fear was terrifying. What if I wasn’t able to save my mom? What if it’d been too long? Or, Adelina’s blood went bad? Or a million other things that could go wrong, or wasn’t meant to be.
Snow mirrored my smile, adding her coined sarcastic edge to it. “And, I hate Boot’s pizza.”
Changing the subject, I said, “We should get that for dinner.”
“Do you want us to drop you off at home?” Chandler asked Snow.
“Probably, I’m sure my mom’s been having a conniption for the last few weeks, thinking I was kidnapped or something.”
“You were kidnapped,” I pointed out. I glanced up to the rearview mirror. The driver was shaking his head. He must have thought we were crazy kids coming down from a high, or hallucinating from very pretty little pieces of paper.
“Your mom is fine,” Chandler said.
“How do you know?” Snow asked.
He shrugged, unsure of how to tell Snow how much he had manipulated the situation. Chandler had visited Snow’s mom before we left for Skelside. I hadn’t quite understood what he told her, or how he convinced her not worry about her daughter for however long we were gone. Chandler patted her leg. “Trust me,” was all he gave her as an answer.
Knowing Snow, she would bug the crap out of him until he gave it up. It might not happen today or tomorrow, but he had it coming. I just hoped I would be there to witness the onslaught of her wrath and how he would try to wiggle his way out of it.
Snow pursed her lips and leveled her eyes on him. “This isn’t over.” She tapped on the driver’s shoulder and gave him her address.
I turned to look out the window and bit my lip to keep the laugh from escaping. Blacwin’s hand slid between the seat and the door and rubbed my leg. He glanced over the seat and offered a half smile. “You okay?”
“Yeah, fine.” He, like Snow, knew I wasn’t telling the truth, but he didn’t push it.
We pulled up to Snow’s house, and I hugged her and told her I’d call her later. Chandler walked her to the door. I was curious as to how her mom would respond when she saw her. Snow knocked on the door. When the door opened, her mom and soon-to-be stepdad were in the doorway. From the cab, I could see the huge smiles on their faces as they hugged Snow. I got choked up a bit when they also hugged Chandler. He kissed his girlfriend goodbye, made sure she was inside before he made his way back to the taxi, and got in.
I did laugh then. I couldn’t stop the release of it. It felt like forever since I’d truly laughed. I started crying, and I was so hysterical I couldn’t speak to tell them what was so funny. The taxi pulled out onto the street. I caught the driver’s disturbed looked as he eyed me in the rear view mirror. I heard Blacwin tell him to take us to Yves Antique Pages. Finally, I calmed. I wiped my eyes and fought against the urge to start again.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Chandler asked.
I pointed at him. “You.” The laughing started again.
“What did I do to make you laugh uncontrollably like you’ve just figured out how?”
Blacwin turned around in his seat and stared at us. “I have to say, I’m curious, too. He only walked Snow up to her house. Nothing very funny there.”
“When you...” I hated to say the next word because it brought back so many horrible memories, so instead of saying “when you were gone,” I said, “Being in the care of my brother was...” I thumbed in the direction behind me, “that.” I laughed again. “Let’s just say, I’m glad Snow has taken my place in the witness protection program.”
Blacwin chuckled and turned around.
“What are you talking about?” Chandler asked.
I put my hand on my hip. “You seriously don’t know?” He shrugged. “Chandler, my dear beloved, lost and found brother, you escorted her into the girl’s bathroom at the airport—enough said.”
“I was—”
“You were acting like a crazed warden.”
He huffed. “So what are you saying?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure all the threats have been eliminated, so it’s probably safe, and it’s in your best interest to back off. Take my word for it, it gets irritating.” He started to say something, then closed his mouth. “Exactly!” I clapped. “He gets it!”
Chandler sneered, crossed his arms over his chest, and slumped into the seat. I wanted to high-five myself. I, all on my own, actually shut Chandler up. He had no come-back, nothing to back his overly protective behavior, nothing.
I sat up and put my arms around Blacwin’s neck. “I think you should have traded seats with Chandler when we stopped at Snow’s house.”
He brought my fingers to his lips and kissed the tips. “Next time.”
I saw the sign for Yves Antique Pages on the next corner. My nerves were frantic with anxiety and excitement when th
e taxi stopped in front of the bookshop. Blacwin handed the driver several bills. He got out and then opened my door. Standing in front of the store, I sighed. Happy tears were close to making an appearance. The shop didn’t open for another hour. But, I saw Mr. Yves through the window. He was arranging books on a shelf. By the looks of the shop, it looked as if his mission for “organization” was almost complete.
I knocked on the window. Mr. Yves glanced over his shoulder. The smile on his face was more than I had welcomed in my life. He took the unlit pipe out of his mouth and hurried to unlock the door. I rushed into his arms.
“I’m so sorry. I never meant to worry you.”
He pulled back to look at me. “My dear girl, worrying is for fools. There was no doubt in my mind or heart the three of you would return.” He glanced at Blacwin and Chandler. “And, I’m betting, you have quite a story for me.”
“Mr. Yves, you have no idea,” I said.
The old man released me. I glanced at his beret. It was black with a pattern of paisleys that were, I think, dark red. “I like your red paisley beret.” Blacwin nodded, indicating I was right.
Mr. Yves’ head shot toward me. “Did you just say... red?” I nodded, thrilled, I’d impressed him. “How? I mean—never before—”
“I’m finally free,” I said. Those words felt amazing to say. Just hearing them, I wanted to jump up and down. Oh, and by the way, I murdered three people and I’m immortal. I’d tell him those little tidbits another day.
Mr. Yves hugged me again. “Your father would be very happy.”
“He would,” I agreed. Over Mr. Yves shoulder, I saw the backpack Blacwin held. I pulled away from Mr. Yves. “Guess what?”
“Tell me,” Mr. Yves said.