Jaci went as still as a statue on the outside, but inside, her heart jackhammered in her chest, her stomach tying itself into knots as she waited for even aglimmerof recognition in those blue eyes…
Her father shook his head. Closed his eyes. Let out a long, slow breath that seemed to go on forever, as if he’d been holding it for the entire seven years they’d been apart.
“It’s okay,” Gabriel whispered beside her. “Give him a moment. Just a moment.”
She nodded, knowing he was right, trusting it, but her whole body felt like a war zone. Like if he didn’t look at her again, say something,dosomething, she might explode.
Please, Dad,she thought.Please.
As if he’d heard her thoughts, her father opened his eyes. Met her gaze. Tears glazed his eyes, and behind them, she saw the dawn of memory rising once more and she knew—sheknew—her father had finally come back to her.
“It’s me, Dad,” she whispered, her tears blurring the sight of him. “Jacinda. I’ve come to take you home.”
He smiled and reached for her face, cradling it gently, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe it. He opened his mouth, closed it again. Took a deep breath.
But still, he couldn’t seem to find the words.
“It’s okay,” she said, touching her forehead to his. “It’s over, Dad. It’s okay.”
Then, glancing up at Gabriel, she said softly, “Anything from Aiden?”
“Not yet. I think we should send your father back through the portal first, then come back for Aiden.”
Jaci nodded. It could take hours to find another soul; she didn’t want to keep her father here a moment longer.
Gabriel leaned in close, whispered into her hair. “Right behind you, little moonflower. Every step.”
Wrapping an arm around her father’s shoulders, borrowing a bit more courage from her vampire prince, she led him back down the corridor, out the red door, and through the canopy of trees so green they made her heart ache.
Tucked between two ponderosa pines, the portal they’d arrived through still glowed bright, as if it’d been waiting for them. Jaci smiled, picturing Dorian and Isabelle on the other side, Colin, her father, all of them.
This was really happening. After twenty-five years in hell, Zachary Colburn was going home.
He still hadn’t spoken, but he seemed to understand instinctively what was happening. He stood before the portal, hands relaxed at his sides, calm and ready.
“I need to do a spell to send you back through,” she explained. “You’ve got friends waiting for you on the other side to help guide you into your body. We’ll be right behind you.”
He nodded. Took a deep breath. Nodded again.
“Close your eyes, Dad.” Jaci removed a bit of the Ravenswood dirt from her pocket and sprinkled it over his head.
Then, closing her eyes too, she conjured the image of the Eight of Knives, a Tarot card she’d drawn for Gabriel the very first time he’d sat across from her at the table in her apartment and demanded she break his curse. It was a card of imprisonment, featuring a demonic beast chained to a wooden post in a poisonous swamp, ravens scavenging the bones of those that’d died before him.
Now, she imagined its reversal, visualizing the card being shredded into bits, breaking the dark magic that had trapped her father here for nearly half of his life. She pictured the ravens taking flight, just as her father’s soul would take flight, and the chains disintegrating in the poisonous waters, forever broken.
Then, her hands placed gently on his back, Ravenswood firmly in her mind, she uttered the spell that would end her father’s eternal torment.
The spell that would send him home.
Eight of Knives, chained and broken
What was lost has now been found
By these words that I have spoken
Free the soul that darkness bound
By the time she finished her third recitation, Zachary Colburn was gone.
