by Cate Tiernan
“I own the building!” It was amazing how many times I had to keep pointing that out to everybody.
“My name is on the lease.”
Why did I keep walking into that one?
Reyn moved toward me with big-cat grace. I frowned really hard at him. He put his arms around me and leaned down to kiss my forehead, my ear, my neck. My stomach gave a little flip.
“Come to bed,” he whispered, and I ruthlessly suppressed a whimper. His large, strong hands stroked my back as he kissed his way across my cheek. It took way too long for his lips to move onto mine, but at last they did. My arms uncoiled and wrapped around his neck, and I couldn’t help smiling against his mouth.
He started to walk me backward toward our small bedroom, past the little dining alcove with its Formica table and four unmatched chairs, down the hallway, and past the bathroom. Our bedroom looked out over Main Street, and Reyn yanked the shades down as he walked me toward the bed.
By the time I fell backward onto the mattress I was laughing, happier and more full of joy than I had ever imagined I could be. Dúfa jumped on the bed and licked my eyelid. “Stop,” I told her. “That’s so icky.” She grinned at me, showing her big-girl fangs that had finally come in.
Reyn came down beside me, and I reached for him. We clung to each other, kissing as if it were the first time, or maybe the last time, as if we would never get enough of each other. Over and over I drank him in, loving his scent, the feel of his hair on my forehead, the weight of his hard body on mine.
Pulling back, Reyn looked into my eyes as if still memorizing my face and everything about me. My hands moved restlessly on his back, all smooth muscle and lean strength, and I tried to rise up to kiss him again.
“Let me look at you,” he whispered. “I love you so much, my Lilja.”
I swallowed, hoping I didn’t get all weepy. “I love you so much, Eileif.”
It seemed we said that to each other a hundred times a day. Maybe because neither of us had expected to ever love someone again.
“I never want to be with anyone but you.” His voice was so quiet, his face so solemn.
“I hope you never are,” I said, my voice breaking, feeling the sweeping wave of emotion taking me over. “Because I’d have to kill you.”
I loved his smile, loved how his eyes closed as he kissed me again. One hand pushed under my shirt and then under the waistband of my jeans. He unsnapped them and ran gentle fingers along the top of my underwear.
“I can hardly feel the scar,” he murmured. “It’ll be gone soon.”
I nodded, turning my head to kiss the smooth skin of his throat, feeling his pulse beating so strongly and steadily. “It’s been two months. Should be okay by swimsuit season.”
At that Reyn pulled back again, his eyes full of laughter.
I popped open the buttons on his shirt one by one, delighting in the beautiful, golden chest that was revealed inch by inch. I was never able to help tracing my fingers across the scar there, pressing my lips to it as if I could maybe someday kiss it enough to heal.
It didn’t matter if it didn’t heal, if mine never did, either. So many other things had.
“That color sucks. What is that, like pond-scum beige?” Dray looked critically at the section of wall I’d put a first coat on. She crunched through more potato chips and shook the bag to get all the crumbs in one place.
“It’s Toasted Marshmallow,” I said, irritated.
“It’s not that bad,” Meriwether said loyally, looking up from her magazine.
“This is your bedroom,” said Dray. “And your guy is the hottest, hottest thing I’ve ever, ever seen in my entire li—” She stopped when I glared at her. “What I’m saying is, you should paint it like blood red, something passionate and sexy.”
“Actually, it’s amazing how unsexy blood is.”
“Peach is a nice color,” said Meriwether. She took another one of my sour apple Now and Laters and unwrapped it.
“I like this color!” I said.
“Whatever.”
“You know, you’re my neighbor. Not my mother,” I said to Dray, and she grinned.
“Knock-knock!” Brynne’s voice came down the hall. “Girl! You coming? Hey, Dray, Meriwether. School out yet? Um, is that the primer?”
“Four more days,” said Meriwether, brightening. “I’ll be able to see Lowell all the time—Dad gave him a job at the store.”
“Oh, that’s great,” I said, pleased.
“Yeah,” said Meriwether, blushing.
“Yeah, I’ll go in there, and you guys will be making out in the bathroom or something,” Dray said darkly.
“We will not,” said Meriwether, but I could see she thought the idea had merit.
“Are you going like that?” Brynne gestured to my paint-spattered clothes. The long scar across one cheek was fading and shrinking every day, and it was now a very thin line. Soon it would disappear. As is our way.
“Crap, is it five o’clock already?” I put down the roller and threw the cover back on the paint. “One sec. Reyn’s going to meet us out there.”
“What color are you going to put over this?” Brynne asked pointedly.
“You know what?” I said, disappearing into the bathroom. “To hell with all of you.”
The laughter of my friends filled the room. And my heart.
I know. So sappy. So, so sappy. Revoltingly sappy. But true.
River’s Edge had changed a lot in some ways, and not at all in others. Large sections of it had been completely rebuilt after the fire, and most of the furniture in the parlor was new. The fire had been explained as faulty wiring, and had been put out by the time a neighbor noticed the smoke and called the fire department.
My uncle had killed Ottavio inside the house. Jess and Solis had died fighting the nameless minions that Egthor and Agata had collected from all over. I’d found out later that the creepy blond woman was in fact Miss Edna, who had run that grotesque bar that Incy had taken me to. I was glad she was dead.
I’d had bad dreams about Roberto’s death for weeks afterward.
Out of four brothers, River had lost two. Daniel had been bound and taken to an immortal prison/rehab place in California, run by someone Solis had known. So far, neither Daniel, Egthor, nor Agata seemed to be catching the remorse bug, but River held out hope.
The attacks around the world had stopped, but most of us thought it was just a matter of time before some other ambitious Terävä decided to speed up his or her magickal progress.
Are you wondering about the bodies? Of course you are, because you’re macabre and nosy and bloodthirsty. And who could blame you?
As you may have suspected, there was a grisly amount of slain immortals afterward, and there isn’t a person in the world who could have explained them adequately to any modern authority. In the end, we’d taken them down into the tunnels and put them in one of the dead ends. A group of us had worked magick that essentially reduced them to dust. It was really gross and really, really depressing. Then that tunnel had been sealed up as if it had never been there, and spells were put on it that would last for at least a century, to keep anyone from knowing anything was there. I’d dreaded looking at the faces—scared of seeing Stratton or Cicely or even Nell—anyone I knew. But except for the creepy couple, they were strangers to me, though River, Asher, and Anne had gasped or murmured several times in recognition.
Then the dark days were over.
Now Brynne parked the latest little farm car in the gravel area, and we got out. Reyn and I had decided not to buy a humongous fancy house somewhere and instead had been living in town in one of my apartments for almost three weeks. But I came back almost every day for classes or just to hang out.
The crops in the fields and kitchen garden were growing—it had been a warm, wet spring, and the whole world seemed to be bursting with life. Every once in a while, just to keep my hand in, I groomed a horse or milked a cow. The chicken I’d defeathered was now indistinguishable fr
om the others, and the devil-chicken’s little chicks were full grown.
Henrik, Molly’s last puppy, was growing into a showstopper, with a finely molded head, beautiful, perfect conformation, and an elegant gait. Dúfa was Dúfa, but she was bigger.
As Brynne and I walked toward the house, I nudged her with my elbow. “Soooo?”
To my surprise she blushed and put her head down, her bouncy corkscrew curls making a halo around her head. “He succumbed,” she muttered, and I stopped short on the first porch step, my mouth open.
“Reeaaally?” I said. “And are we overcome with joy? Did we hear angels sing?”
Brynne nodded, still blushing, and I made a mental note to say something embarrassing to Joshua later. He’d decided to stick around River’s Edge for a while, first to help repair the house and get things back together, then because he’d realized just how much he’d missed connecting with family, and now, apparently, to make kissy-face with the Brynnster.
“You go, girl,” I said, and we slapped high fives.
“Well,” she said self-consciously, “I figured if he and Reyn could have a bromance, there was no reason why he should hold out on me.”
“Very true,” I agreed, and we went inside.
Yes. Joshua and Reyn, sworn enemies for several hundred years, were now likethis. Every couple of weeks they had horrible, scary, loud swordfights in the yard at River’s Edge. Anne kept begging them to stop because they did occasionally make contact with each other, requiring stitches, tea, and healing spells. But it seemed to satisfy something in them.
Inside, River was just coming out of her office. She had changed, since March. After thirteen hundred years of dealing with whatever came her way, this last battle had taken something out of her. She had lost weight and looked like she had aged ten (human) years in the last two months. I was worried about her, but she kept insisting she was fine.
“Hello, my dear,” she said, and we did the double-cheek-kiss thing. “How’s your real-estate empire doing? I forgot to ask you yesterday.”
“Going well,” I said, rubbing my hands together mogul-style. “I was talking to that guy who gives away T-shirts if you buy a T-shirt, you know? I think I may have lured him into my old factory, out on Devan Road. I think the crew can fix it up in about ten weeks, and then he could open an arm of his T-shirt conglomerate there. Maybe Skunk could be one of his designers.”
“That sounds awesome,” said Brynne.
“Mwa ha ha ha,” I said. “Soon I will own this whole town!”
River laughed and hugged me. I loved my real-estate empire.
In the dining room, Rachel was putting out a platter of salmon on the sideboard, and Charles was behind her with the last of the season’s spinach. I was glad they had come back—Lorenz hadn’t. But that’s how rehab is—you come and go as often as you need to, for as long as you need to. I thought he’d be back eventually.
Amy had left several weeks after that night—Ottavio had died, and she seemed a bit lost. Everyone asked her to stay longer, but she’d taken off. I knew what that was like—in a new place, she wouldn’t be reminded of everything every time she turned around. She could be someone different, someone who hadn’t just gone through what she’d gone through. She’d be back, too, someday.
Reyn arrived just as we were sitting down. Okay, we hadn’t been together very long, but I was still taken aback by how happy I was to see him, over and over. He kissed my cheek as he sat next to me, and then we all held hands and gave thanks for the food.
Asher stood up and tapped on his wineglass. “Everyone? Can I have your attention, please?”
I quickly took a chunk of salmon—who knew how much would be left the next time the platter came around?
“I’d like to announce that my friend Petrov will be joining us later this summer,” Asher said. “I don’t know of anyone with a greater knowledge of the history of immortals, and he’s also very gifted in spellcraft. His addition will benefit our community greatly.”
“Yay!” said Anne, raising her glass. “I’ve met Petrov, and he’s lovely. I know you’ll all like him.”
River smiled and raised her glass with the rest of us.
“And another thing,” Asher continued, and turned to face River. She raised a quizzical eyebrow. “The last seven decades with you have been the best of my life,” he said, and we all went very still and quiet. Under the table, Reyn took my hand. “I mean, it’s been really hard, also.”
We all chuckled, including River.
“But they have been the best, because I’ve shared them with you.”
River’s face softened, and her eyes shone as she gazed at him.
“And I’m asking you, before family and friends, to marry me.”
No one was expecting this, and there were many quick, wide-eyed looks around the table.
As for River, she seemed stunned, staring at Asher with her mouth open.
Looking unsure but hopeful, Asher took a small box out of his pocket and opened it. Inside was a gorgeous, old-fashioned ring, with a huge emerald in the center flanked by two rose-cut diamonds. Even from where I sat, I could see that the yellow-gold band was engraved with flowers.
Reyn held my hand more tightly.
River was still silent and staring.
“Wow—it’s hard to surprise River, but you did it, Ash,” Anne said, to break the tense silence. We laughed nervously, hoping this didn’t turn into a train wreck right in front of us.
Still Asher stood there, warmth rising on his cheeks as he waited.
“Marry!” River said, her voice thin.
“Yes.” Asher raised his chin.
“Marry!”
“You heard me.”
“I… I’ve never been married.” River actually looked frightened at the prospect.
“Whoa—never?” said Rachel.
“I love weddings,” said Charles. “Like, a September wedding.”
“No… never,” said River, still looking stunned.
Asher just waited.
“Why… well, yes,” said River bemusedly. “Yes. I’ll marry you.”
I was such a soft, little, gushy, emotional clam these days that I actually teared up and had to sniffle. Reyn put his arm around my shoulder and kissed my hair.
Anne started clapping, and of course we all joined in. River was both laughing and crying as Asher slid the ring on her finger, and then they kissed and hugged, standing there holding each other while we all cheered.
Reyn leaned over and whispered in my ear. “So… even River fell.”
I quit laughing and looked at him quickly. He had his “I will be victorious” face on, and I felt a prickle of alarm. “Oh no,” I said, uncomfortably remembering the five other leaves on the vine in my vision. “River’s different. Sure, she should try it once. But no one wants to keep doing it.”
Reyn just gave a slow smile.
Hmm.
Also by Cate Tiernan:
Immortal Beloved
Darkness Falls
Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Also by Cate Tiernan
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Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Gabrielle Charbonnet
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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ISBN 978-0-316-21559-6