I stared at her bewilderedly. Why would she put herself in harm’s way for us?
“I can’t! You don’t know these guys I work for. You don’t understand!” Michael’s desperation was at a breaking point. Sweat streamed down his face. His hands shook violently, but the gun they held remained pointed towards Lila.
Nobody moved. Nobody said anything. My heart pounded in my ears, and my confident armor was crashing to the ground piece by broken piece. My frazzled nerves underneath were about to snap.
That’s when Donovan made his move. Without warning, he dove to Michael’s feet and swirled around them, gradually slithering up Michael’s legs. Donovan’s bitter, vengeful eyes zeroed in on me as he performed the task, and as much as I wanted to look away from the horrific scene, I couldn’t. Once Donovan reached Michael’s waist, he slimed around his stomach at a much faster pace until he eventually cloaked his entire body up to the neck. One final motion and his intentions were clear.
Donovan’s nebulous form trickled down Michael’s arm. The arm that was still outstretched and aiming a gun at Lila.
Just as Donovan reached the tips of Michael’s fingers, another part of the demon’s darkness swarmed around Michael’s head, effectively overwhelming him completely. He was no longer human. He was a tool. A tool that could be used and manipulated just as easily as the gun in his hands.
Michael’s thumb flicked the safety catch. I inhaled sharply and glanced at Lila. Her eyes grew wide. But instead of falling to the ground for safety, she looked at me with terror in her eyes…as if I was the one in danger.
I flicked my eyes back to the demented circus that had consumed Michael in time to see what Lila must’ve already seen. The barrel of the gun moving ever so slightly from her…to me.
“No!” Lila screamed at the top of her lungs and flung her body in front of me, just as the fatal bullet left the gun with a thunderous crack.
Lila collapsed to the ground.
Donovan immediately ripped himself off Michael and vanished, leaving his pawn to stare in shock at the irreparable damage he’d done. He stood as still as a statue, his eyes glued to Lila. His arm that held the gun slackened at his side.
I slumped to the ground beside Lila. She was still breathing but it was labored, and she winced at every breath. I fought away tears with the back of my hand as Patrick kneeled down beside me. I wanted to be brave for her. Even though blood covered her stomach and drenched the pavement beneath her, I had to believe there was a chance. “You’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. Gregory can fix this. Right?”
I lifted my head to Gregory and studied his face for any signs of hope. His softened, apologetic eyes said everything. She was too far gone.
But I wasn’t ready to give up yet. This girl who had once despised me had, for some reason, risked her life to save mine. I couldn’t simply let her die.
Lila’s lips turned up at one corner in a weak smile. “It’s okay, Iris.” She winced again. “I deserve this.”
“No!” I shouted, letting the tears fall. “No, you don’t! It doesn’t matter what you did before. You saved me! You can’t die now.”
I felt Patrick’s hand on my back, and the tears poured even faster down my cheeks and neck. “Why? Why did you jump in front of me? Why did you even come in the first place? You knew this would be dangerous! You had to have known!” I probably sounded like I was scolding her, but I didn’t care. I needed answers.
“I knew what they were planning.” She coughed violently but finished in a hoarse whisper. “I needed to save you.”
My heart ached with guilt. “Save me? Why me? I’m not that important. I’m not.” I shook my head vigorously as if doing so would somehow undo Lila’s fate.
She smiled knowingly at Gregory and then returned her eyes to me. “Yes, you are. You just don’t know it yet.”
I continued to shake my head, but she spoke again, her feeble words barely audible. “Iris…your kindness and passion…you helped me see the light differently. I hadn’t known the light could be so forgiving.” She began to cry too, softly. But she twisted her head to the side to avoid my eyes. “Nobody’s ever forgiven me for anything. Not even a little. But you… All the crap I did to you…”
I charged up my aura full-force and grabbed her hand, squeezing until she met my eyes. “Lila, it’s never too late. You can still change.” I sighed and looked down. My lips trembled into a soft smile. “You already have.”
Lila glanced up at Gregory. The love and grace in his eyes were more than enough to cover all of her transgressions.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Gregory stepped in closer and knelt down to her, brushing wet strands of black hair from her face. As his entire frame began to glow, he gazed at her tenderly. “That’s all it takes.”
One flicker of movement, however small, wrenched us away from our last few moments with our newly repentant friend. Michael dropped to his knees. With an unchanging, unreadable expression on his blank face, he lifted the gun to his temple.
I gasped.
What happened next was not what I expected. Instead of seeing this ill-fated victim pull the trigger and end his own life right in front of me, all I saw was light. Instead of hearing a shot from a gun, all I heard was silence.
The light eventually receded back to its source, and I realized what had happened. Gregory had shielded us. He stood directly between Michael’s lifeless body and us to block our view of the aftermath. But he couldn’t keep me from seeing Lila, who lay in a lifeless heap before me.
In the stillness, in the calm after the storm, the dams were released. I wailed. I sobbed uncontrollably. I bent over Lila’s broken body as my own heaved and convulsed. Time and space were irrelevant. Nothing else around me mattered.
All I was aware of in my own little cocoon of grief was the torrent of emotions that violently shook my body and the tears that kept streaming relentlessly down my face—tears of shock that I had almost been killed, tears of regret that I hadn’t tried harder to reach out to Lila, tears of anguish that her lifeless body was all that remained of her and there was nothing I could do about it, tears of horror that the man who’d almost killed me had just shot himself in front of us, and tears of gratitude that Gregory had sheltered me from having to witness something I’d never have been able to erase from my scarred memory. It was too much to take in.
Ultimately, Robert clearing his throat was what finally brought me back to my senses. I opened my eyes and lifted my head. He was pacing nearby. I sighed and stared at my hands, watching my tears splash on my hands. My breathing slowed, and for the first time I noticed Patrick’s choked breathing beside me. His eyes were red and wet with tears.
A day or so ago, the thought of Patrick crying over Lila would’ve made me seething with jealousy. But now…as I sat watching my boyfriend vulnerable, crying tears of compassion for someone who used to be his enemy, all I could think was how much I loved everything about him.
Realizing I was watching him, he wiped his cheeks with the back of his hand. With one last sniff, he leaned forward to pull me into his arms. One hand held the back of my head. The other pressed tightly against my back. There in his arms was the only place I could’ve possibly found enough strength and courage to eventually stand and face the fact that our lives would have to go on. We couldn’t stay there forever.
“Robert,” Gregory said. “Take them back to Kyra’s house where they can get some rest.”
Sleeping was the last thing I wanted to do, but Gregory spoke up before I could protest. “Iris, there’s nothing more you can do here. And don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything. I’ll let Kyra and Zane know what happened. I’ll call the police. And I’ll make sure…” He paused and looked away to collect himself before finishing. “I’ll make sure they know she died a hero.”
Tears brimmed my eyes once more. “Thank you.” The two small words would never be enough to show my gratitude for everything my mentor and friend had done for me, for Patrick
, for Lila. But the meager offering was all I had. And somehow, I knew he’d gladly accept it all the same.
Robert, Patrick, and I began our short trek back to the Jeep, but Gregory stopped us. “Iris?”
I pivoted on my heel to face him. “Yeah?”
“Don’t worry about Donovan, okay? You’re safe. We’re all safe, and that’s all that matters right now. Besides, we’ll always be here for you. All of us.” He gestured around him. “And you’ve proven tonight that together we can do anything.”
As he gazed at me, his eyes held a confidence that I hadn’t seen before. This time he wasn’t only confident in himself. He believed in me. He had faith in me. Conviction and certainty filled his bright blue, angelic eyes. The person who stood before him was important and powerful and needed. I had never felt more self-assured in my life than at that moment. When Donovan came back, we would be ready.
* * * *
“Wake up, Iris.” Patrick nudged me lightly and then kissed my head resting on his shoulder. “We’re here.”
I opened my squinted eyes and lifted my head, which seemed heavier than before my short nap in the Jeep. We were parked in front of Kyra’s house. I yawned. “That was fast.”
“Yeah,” Robert said from the front seat as he took the key out of the ignition. “It generally is when you’re asleep.”
He grinned over his shoulder at me and I smiled back. Despite the horrors I’d experienced that night, I appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood. One thing I’d learned from my short time being a light warrior was that when you found yourself in the midst of adversity and heartache, the best way to overcome it was to laugh and attempt to go back to normal.
Robert led us to the front door, holding Angel’s carrier for me, and knocked as we stood behind him. Mr. Finley opened the door and stepped halfway onto the porch. His face was somber. “Come on in everybody.”
We started to move forward, but Robert didn’t budge. “Actually,” he said to Kyra’s dad, “I think we should give these two a minute. They’ve definitely earned some time to themselves.” He turned back to me with a slight smile. “I’ll babysit.”
Mr. Finley ushered Robert and the baby inside as he nodded to us. “Take your time.”
Once he’d shut the door, Patrick gathered me into his arms and did nothing but hold me for several minutes. If it had been up to me, I’d have lingered there in his embrace all night. With all we’d been through that night, I needed normal. I needed comfort.
At long last, he pulled back, holding me at arm’s length. The way he grasped my shoulders told me he had no intentions of letting me go any time soon. “You know something?” he said. “Nothing I could ever do in a million years could make me deserve you.”
A staggeringly bright glow erupted all over Patrick’s skin as he drew me in. He gazed into my eyes with pure fire, igniting my own inner light like a match near a flame. Our blazing auras merged into one luminous beacon of light as though our spirits themselves were one.
As his brilliant light flickered around him, his already exquisite features stood out all the more. Burning with passion, his deep green eyes searched my face and he leaned in closer.
And closer.
Finally, his lips met mine, and I marveled at how one kiss could be so gentle yet also so utterly passionate at the same time. After such an emotionally exhausting and tragic night, his tender, affectionate kiss lifted the weight from my spirit. I could breathe deeply again, free and safe in his arms. His love could carry me through anything.
His love…
He loved me. He loved me! The realization grew inside my heart and overwhelmed me. Suddenly, the fact that he hadn’t said the words yet didn’t bother me at all. I knew he loved me. More importantly, I knew I loved him. And I wanted him to hear me say it.
I pulled back just enough so that my lips brushed over his as I whispered those three little words I’d been waiting to hear from him for what seemed like an eternity. “I love you.”
He smiled on my lips and then leaned back enough for me to see him smirk. “You had to say it first, didn’t you?”
I grinned. “Well, I wasn’t going to wait on you forever.”
He sighed and then cradled my face in his hands. He peered into my eyes with an intensity that made me feel weak yet strong at the same time. “Iris, I fell for you the moment I met you. And every day since, I have fallen deeper and deeper in love with you. I love everything about you. Your passion for helping people…your crazy abilities…the way you feel in my arms…the way you kiss me…the way you know me better than anyone else… There is nobody like you, and no one will ever come close. I love you, Iris.”
I crushed the side of my head into his chest and pulled him close. I couldn’t hold him tightly enough. “Okay.” I laughed into his shirt through fresh tears. “You win.”
Patrick chuckled and lifted my head with one finger. “Only because I have you.”
I didn’t wait for an invitation that time but lunged in for another kiss. The moment our lips touched, Patrick buried his fingers in my hair with one hand and pressed me to him with the other. As our auras surrounded us in a luminous cocoon, I couldn’t tell which made me feel stronger and more alive. His love or the light. Separately, they were both powerful.
But together?
There in his loving arms, enveloped in a brilliant force that was more absolute and unwavering than any other in the universe…
I could change the world.
About the Author
Dusty Crabtree loves a good story, but she also loves young people. These two loves are evident in all parts of her life. She has been a high school English teacher since 2006 and a creative writing teacher since 2014. She's also been a youth sponsor at her local church for as long as she's been teaching. She feels very blessed with the amazing opportunities she has to develop meaningful relationships with teens on a daily basis. With her love of reading in the mix, becoming an author of young adult books was just a natural development of those two passions in her life. She lives with her husband, Clayton, in Yukon, Oklahoma, where they often serve their community as foster parents.
http://dustycrabtree.wordpress.com/
Check out Sacrificial Souls, Book 3, here.
Luminous Spirits (Shadow Eyes Series Book 2) Page 33