“Lala says love has the power to dismantle our fears and set free the pure, limitless heart within,” she continues. “And you know what? I believe her. So don’t make me eat my words, okay? Follow it back. Feel it and come back to me.”
I’m so close now, I’m practically on top of her.
She presses another kiss to my head.
And that’s it.
The silver tendrils holding me finally snap, releasing me. In a whoosh of warm air and a blur of color, my soul slips into place, filling that broken body with light. With wonder. With joy.
With pure Arcana Sun energy.
It returns to me in earnest—a tiny bubble that expands and expands and expands inside me until it explodes, sending tiny bursts of warmth and laughter and wonder into every shadow, every cell, until there is no room for terror. No room for hatred. No room for shame. No room for rage.
Only love.
“You arenotgoing to fucking die out here, Ansel McCauley,” she demands, her voice clearer than I’ve ever heard it. “We haven’t even finished working our way through the eighties karaoke songs, let along the nineties. We havedecadesto perfect. And you are not fucking leaving that to me. Got it?”
I got it!I want to shout, but I can’t seem to draw breath. Can’t open my eyes.
“Okay then,” she says, her tone resigned. “Big guns. You’ve left me no choice.”
Stevie clears her throat.
Takes a deep breath.
Then, with my blood-soaked body in her arms and the sun blazing down on us both, my girl breaks into an ear-splitting, glass-shattering rendition of Whitney Houston’sI Will Always Love You.
And oh, Goddess, she’sterrible.
But somehow, that’s all it takes.
My breath returns. My heartbeat returns. My life and my soul and my magick… all of it returns.
And I suck in a deep breath and open my eyes, gazing up into the face of an angel.
“Ani! Holy shit, you’re alive!”
“Stevie,” I gasp, reaching for her face with a trembling hand. My throat is dry and cracked, my breathing labored. “I just have one… one request.”
“Oh, Goddess, Ani.” She can barely speak through her tears. “Anything. Name it. I can’t believe you’re here. Holy shitballs, you’re here. Just name it.”
Magick and energy zip through my limbs. I want to jump up and run. Dance. Shout.
But I keep my face somber, my eyes partially-lidded.
“Don’t… don’t ever…” I cough, clutching at my chest for effect. And then my face splits into a grin. “Don’t sing that song again. No, seriously.”
“I… what?”
“When you tried for the high note on that last ‘love you-oo?’ I wasthisclose to bailing on this whole resurrection thing.” I sit up on my own. “You should’ve opened this fight with that one, girl. You could’ve wiped out the whole Dark army without even lifting a finger.”
“You littlefucker!” She laughs until she’s sobbing, then laughing again. She hugs me close, then shoves me away again, tears leaking from her eyes unbidden, her smile huge. “You are such adick! A glorious, amazing, miraculous, beautiful dick!”
She launches herself at me again, tackling me down into the dusty dirt, rolling us over twice until she ends up on top of me, grinning down at me.
“You impaled me with a Sword, andI’mthe dick?” I fist her wild hair in both hands, desperate to feel it again. To touch her. To see her face. To breathe her in. “Goddess, you’re a sight, Stevie Boo Boo.”
She touches her nose to mine. “You’re not so bad yourself, Gingersnap.”
