Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
“Peter.” I crushed the bones in my friend’s hand. “Wake the fuck up. Victor’s waiting for you. You have to deliver the killing blow.”
Nothing.
“Ily…” I brushed my nose against hers.
No air from her lungs.
No breath in her body.
I grunted as pain I’d never felt before eviscerated me.
“Please, Ily…please don’t…”
Her head lolled lifelessly on my arm.
I gagged.
I couldn’t breathe.
I can’t breathe!
Things imploded inside me just like the falling fortress.
My ribs tumbled into ruin.
My bones shattered into dust.
My heart pounded, pounded, racing toward its final beat the longer Ily’s wonderful golden eyes didn’t open.
“Please,” I howled.
I rocked.
I sobbed.
I couldn’t stop moving.
Couldn’t stop touching.
Couldn’t stop shaking and quaking and—
A hand landed on my lashed shoulder. Q muttered, “Onn Ree…she’s gone.”
If I had any strength left, I would’ve slaughtered him for that. I would’ve ripped out his motherfucking heart for sending me here. I would’ve torn out his entrails for making me find the other half of my heart, only to lose it on the day we gained our freedom.
But I had nothing.
Just death.
Just loss.
Just nothing.
Venomous calm soaked through me.
Exquisite acceptance slowed my heart.
So be it.
Choking on my tears, I slowly placed Ily back on the grass beside Peter.
Loneliness sliced through me.
Despair crushed.
I couldn’t live with this pain.
I’d never been able to live with this pain.
“I love you,” I whispered as I placed her hand in Peter’s.
“I’ll see you soon.” I kissed her one last time on her blue cold lips.
And then I turned to my brother hovering behind me.
I grabbed his hand still holding his gun.
I jerked it up and pressed the muzzle against my forehead.
“Kill me,” I hissed. “I can’t do this anymore.”
And then, I reached for the trigger.
And squeezed—
Chapter Twenty
………………………….
Henri
“FANCY SEEING YOU HERE.” ILY smiled and waved, beckoning me to join her where she lay on a silver picnic blanket. Her black hair glowed as if the very darkness had transformed into ebony light. A stunning white sari floated around her stunning form. Diamonds glittered in her hair, ears, and around her throat. Hundreds of thin silver bangles clinked on her wrists. But it was the luminous designs painted on her fingers, palms, and hands that enraptured me. Flowers and swirls, runes and scripture. They looked as magical as her wand tattoo.
I went to her in a dream.
She stood and reached for me. “We’re together now. Just like we were always meant to be.”
I smiled with such relief, such an overwhelming sense of home. “God, I’ve missed you.”
“And now you never need to miss me again.” She gathered me close and stood on her tiptoes.
I shuddered as she hugged me.
I groaned as she kissed me.
My arms threaded around her starbright form and crushed her to me.
A familiar arc of energy hummed from her skin to mine. A spark, a fuse, the chemical reaction of our forms, bonding with love and lust and a lifetime of pure, perfect happiness.
Happiness.
After so many years of loneliness.
After so many days and decades of feeling nothing but loss and pain, this was…heaven.
Wait.
I paused as I looked past her to the landscape around us.
Everything shimmered with light. The grass beamed white, the sky almost blinding. A giant weeping willow draped its sterling leaves in a babbling brook of quicksilver.
“Where are we?” I pressed my forehead to hers. “What is this place?”
“This is our wedding day,” she whispered, showing me her hands. “The henna on my skin represents our mortal story. That story has ended, but…this is our true beginning. We get to make a choice. Stay here for a time or…”
Taking her hand, I kissed the starburst on her palm. “Or?”
“We can try again.” She rested her head over my heart. A heart that no longer beat like a man because I had no such need for such fragile things. The heart inside me was pure energy. Pure love. Everlasting and eternal.
Ily kissed that heart.
It vibrated to the same song as my beloved.
“I think I’d like to stay…for a little while,” I whispered.
“Yeah…me too.” She smiled.
But as we stood on our own personal star, veins of black webbed across the glittering grass. Faster and faster, blacker and blacker.
Shoving Ily behind me, I tried to protect her from the threads of evil.
But I was too late.
The cracks grew wider.
A chasm appeared.
I fell.
Screaming.
* * * * *
“Get him stable!” a man yelled.
“I’m trying!” a woman shouted back. “Keep the fucking helicopter still, and I can do a better job!”
“You heard her!” the man bellowed. “Fly better.”
“Fly better, Mr Mercer?” A short huff. “We’re doing the best we can. We’re overweight. We told you—”
“And I told you to get us to Paris immediately!”
“Yes, sir.”
Something sharp pierced my vein.
The discomfort dragged me out of the endless black chasm where I’d fallen. My eyes cracked open. All I saw was hell.
Dr Belford hovered over me. Jewels crowded the dark and noisy place. They all swayed and bumped into each other as we jarred and swooped through the sky.