“You have to come back to me,” he whispered. “I can’t do this without you, Ivy. Even if I could, I don’t want to.”
Tug. Tug. Tug. It was the weirdest thing—I could feel it in a tangible way, but I couldn’t point to where I was feeling it, since my physical body was down there. I didn’t know what I had here. Disembodied consciousness, clearly, but was there more? Was Adrian pulling on a thread that reached me even here?
“You’re so tough on yourself, but that’s because you don’t know how amazing you are,” Adrian went on. “You try so hard to do the right thing. Even when you tried not to, you still couldn’t help yourself.” Then his voice became ragged. “I was so angry at you over that. I wanted you to love me more than everyone in this world and all the others, and I didn’t care what that meant for the people trapped in the realms. Not until you made me care. From the moment I met you, you made me a better man, even when I didn’t want to be. Even when I didn’t think it was possible.”
Adrian’s head dipped and his shoulders began to shake. Costa looked away, as if doing so would give Adrian privacy while he willingly ripped himself open in order to give power to his pain. Zach stood there, a silent sentry, no expression on his face. As an Archon, he was probably used to seeing the deepest, most personal aspects of people’s pain.
“You know what? I’m still mad at you.”
Adrian’s voice was barely comprehensible from how choked it became. At the same time, those invisible tugs I’d felt strengthened, until they felt less like tugs and more like hard, increasing yanks.
“Letting Demetrius trick you by pretending to be Costa? Come on, Ivy! Didn’t your tattoos flare up? Didn’t he sound different? Or were you too obsessed with getting the spearhead to notice? You were too obsessed to tell me about our baby, and I am pissed as hell about that. You knew I’d tell you to wait, that I’d make you wait if I could, and yeah, you turned out to be right about not waiting to get the spearhead, but I’m still pissed at you. I shouldn’t have heard about our baby from Demetrius. I shouldn’t have learned that I’m going to be a father that way.”
Yank. Yank. YANK!
Adrian’s face began to blur. So did Costa’s, Zach’s and even the entire room. Seeing it made me panic, yet I didn’t know what to do. Shouldn’t they be getting clearer, if I were coming back? What if this wasn’t working?
“But you were right again.” Adrian’s voice was completely broken now, and the sob that heaved out of him made everything vanish. I couldn’t see anything anymore. Couldn’t feel anything, either, yet I could still hear his voice.
“If I had stopped us from coming to the island—and I would have, we all know that—then Demetrius would’ve kept chasing you through his link to our child’s blood. One day, he would have caught you, and he would have made you find the spearhead for him, either by tormenting you, or by tormenting our child, if it was born by then. Things would have been worse, and it would have been my fault. Now we have another chance, and it’s because you were strong when I would have been selfish again. Even at my best, I’m not like you, but come back to me, Ivy, and I swear I’ll try to be...”
Suddenly, I couldn’t hear him anymore. I couldn’t hear anything! What was happening? I couldn’t see, feel, hear or touch. I was supposed to be coming back, not fading away completely. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong! Zach? Zach? Zach! This isn’t working! Don’t leave me like this! You have to help—
“...always,” Adrian said, and relief shattered me when I could hear him again. “For you, Ivy. I promise. I love you,” he whispered, brushing his lips over mine.
Wait a minute. I felt that. I FELT THAT!
I opened my eyes. At first, all I saw was red and my eyes stung. I tried to wipe the red away, which had to be blood, but I used my right arm out of habit and ended up hitting myself in the face with its stump.
“Ivy?” Adrian’s whole body stiffened, then he grabbed me tight enough to hurt and leapt up, swinging me around in a wild embrace. “Ivy!”
“I love you, too, Adrian.”
My voice wasn’t hoarse. I don’t know why I thought it would be. Maybe because my arm hadn’t magically regrown even though the other wounds in my body had to have supernaturally healed or I’d still be dead. I didn’t even hurt anymore, although my arm felt...weird. The skin around it was now smooth and closed over. Not seeing the mangled inside of it anymore was a relief.
“You’re back!”
Costa ran over, hugging both of us, since Adrian had yet to let me go. Not that I wanted him to. I couldn’t get enough of feeling his arms around me again.
“You did it,” I whispered to Adrian.
He kissed me, so hard and fierce, I wasn’t sure if I was tasting old blood from my former wounds, or if my lip had gotten nicked on his teeth. Either way, I didn’t care. I didn’t even care that my right arm now ended at the elbow. I had never felt more whole in my entire life.
“Your tattoos are gone again,” I heard Costa say several moments later.
That caused me to pull back from Adrian’s blazing kiss. I looked down. My top was torn enough to see that the staff etching was gone, and the sling hadn’t reappeared anywhere else that I could see.
“I hope I don’t need them anymore,” I said, looking over Adrian’s shoulder at Zach. “Right? Am I done with all that now?”
“Yes,” Zach said, those tiny lights glowing in his dark eyes. “From now on, the fight belongs to Archons, not humans.”
I was so relieved that I sagged in Adrian’s arms. He bent to kiss me again and I wanted that kiss, but I turned my head. There was something else I had to know that couldn’t wait.
“Zach. Did I...”
I stopped. It was hard to continue on without feeling ungrateful, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I was unbelievably happy to be back with Adrian, and beyond thrilled to know that right now, thousands of formerly trapped humans were making their way into the Archon realms. Asking about more felt insanely greedy, but I had to know.
“Did I come back alone?” I finished in a halting voice, my left hand resting over my stomach.
Adrian took it, lacing his fingers through mine. “Either way, I love you, and it’s going to be okay, Ivy.”
I knew it would, no matter what Zach said. I did. But one way or another, I needed to know the answer.
Zach began to smile. It didn’t stop at the barest twitch of his lips, which was his normal version. Instead, it spread out to one of his rare, teeth-showing, full-faced smiles.
“No, you did not come back alone.”
I started to cry. Hey, pregnant women do that a lot! Adrian hugged me again, far more gently this time, and through my tears, I saw Costa smile and swipe at his own eyes.
“Enough of that, you two. We still have work to do. Demetrius trapped Brutus in a sinkhole on the island, so we have to get him out. Then you two can break the news to that spoiled gargoyle that he’s no longer going to be an only child.”
“It’s okay,” I said, repeating the words I’d heard so often today yet had only believed during the past few minutes. “I know Brutus will make a wonderful big brother.”
* * * * *
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I CRIED WRITING the Acknowledgments page for my last book, since I was giving a tribute to my late mother in it. I don’t want to break into tears again, so I’m keeping this one short and sweet. As always, my first thanks go to God. Some days, I still can’t believe I have the job that I dreamed about when I was a kid. Of course, I also have to thank my husband, Matthew, for far too many things to list, and my family, for their love and support. Thanks also to my wonderful editor, Allison Carroll, and to my fabulous agent, Nancy Yost. Special thanks also go to dear friends Melissa Marr and Ilona Andrews, who dropped everything to give me notes during a very tight turnaround time. Thanks also to the Harlequi
n team for all their hard work with this series. Finally, I’d like to send endless gratitude out to the readers of this series, and to readers everywhere. Each time you open a book, you make our stories come alive.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
THE MOST RECENT full solar eclipse occurred in a different month and was visible over a different continent. For the purposes of this story, however, I changed both.
ISBN-13: 9781460397817
The Brightest Embers
Copyright © 2017 by Jeaniene Frost
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