Then she protected Cray.
“This is what happened to Tiernan too,” she said softly, looking at Aidan again. “He died then...” She searched his eyes, seeing so much. Understanding. She looked from Grant to Aidan. “Something must be sacrificed...because of what the brotherhood did to the unicorn. It’s the only way to seal off this Stonehenge from evil and help save Scotland.”
“Then I’ll sacrifice myself,” she began only for him to put a finger to her lips and shake his head.
“You’ll do no such thing.” His gaze was never more loving. “Not if I can save you.”
“Save me?” She tried to shake her head, but her body remained immobile, her soul hanging on by a thread. “But it’s already too late...” She trailed off, feeling his heroic essence warming her spirit even as she fought whatever he intended to do. “Unless you’re the one sacrificing...”
“Do you not realize by now how far we Hamilton’s will go for our one true love?” Grant said softly, crouching beside them. He was younger now, his features so very similar to Aidan’s, his eye color a dead match. “That we would give up anything? Anything at all?”
Grant’s kind gaze lingered on her face for a moment before his moist eyes rose to Aidan. “Are you ready then, my lad?Trulyready?”
What was happening? What was he doing?
“Do you even need to ask?” Aidan said to Grant.
She looked back and forth between them, confused until she realized. Until she understood why she had returned to this Stonehenge upon death and thought of that day with little Aidan. Why she’d been taken back to the moment his arch-wizard magic ignited.
“Oh God, no,” she whispered, realizing just how far he was willing to go to bring her back.
What it would cost him.
This was what her cryptic words about writing memoirs had referred to.
Before she could write about everything happening and immortalize his beloved clans, he would have to give up who he was. Forfeit everything. His very soul. Or all he loved most would be lost.Whohe loved most. “Aidan, don’t.Please. You’ll end up regretting this.” She panicked, desperate to stop him. “You’ll end up hating me.”
“Never,” he vowed. His gaze returned to hers, his heart in his eyes. “I could never hate you, Chloe. I am incapable of it not just in this lifetime but every one before.”
“Nevertheless.” She didn’t want this for him. “This is too much.”
Because it was.
So very much more than he should give.
“Living without you would be too much.” He cupped her cheek and brushed his lips across hers. “Everything else is manageable.”
“Don’t,” she began, but it was too late.
He was already letting go.
“Oh, Aidan,” she whispered hoarsely. Tears blurred her vision when he and Grant's eyes sparked with magic.
She gazed into Aidan's eyes, remembering when they first shined like this. The incredible magic that had flared to life. He was as much in awe staring at her now as he had been then. His magic just as brilliant.
Only now, she had to watch it fade away.
She had to watch him say goodbye to something that was so much a part of him.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as the bright shining turquoise in his eyes faded ever so slowly, and Grant’s brightened ever more. What had ignited in his great grandson because of DNA filtered back to who had given it to him through his lineage.
Moment by heartbreaking moment, Aidan’s glorious light dwindled until the darkness and Stonehenge receded, and loving warmth filled her. Slowly but surely, life returned to her limbs. The fog shied away, and a setting sun took its place. A fading ball of fire that gave life but could just as easily take it away. Now, in some strange way, it took a piece of him as readily as it had once taken her, changing life as they knew it.
She never looked away but stayed with Aidan the whole time.
There for him when, despite how hard he fought them, tears trickled down his cheeks.
She felt his inner torture as though it were hers.
