AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But it was an eerie scene with just Margetta, the toasted vampire still lying prone and moaning occasionally, and of course the hidden army. Very eerie.
Jude arrived flying in from the south. As he drew close he looked as magnificent as ever, his Guardsman coat flapping behind him, the silver medallions down each side of his thigh boots winking from the lamppost light all along the bridge.
“Ah, and here comes your lover.”
Margetta had said it exactly right.
Her lover. The man she loved. The one she belonged to.
Jude had tried to warn her to stick close when he held her in the air above the burning wreckage of her bar. But the sight of what she loved sinking to a massive pile of wet, unpleasant ashes had messed with her head, maybe just as Margetta knew it would.
She’d essentially lost her mind.
Now she was here.
While hovering in the air a few feet above the ground, Jude approached Margetta. When he was almost within touching distance, he said, “I’ll take her place. Just let her go. I know it’s me you want.”
But Margetta laughed at him, snapped her fingers, and several wraith-pairs descended on him, binding him with ropes. They dragged him onto the bridge and tied him to a lamppost.
Jude, what are we going to do?
Hannah, there’s something I need you to know.
She was too far away from him. She whipped toward Margetta. “Please let me say good-bye. Please.”
“How touching, and I’ll grant you this wish, because you’re going to die with your mastyr tonight.”
Another snap of her fingers and wraith-pairs flew low and grabbed Hannah beneath her arms. She felt the charred vampire reach for her foot but miss as she became airborne.
The next moment, she was next to Jude. She took his face in her hands and pressed herself up against him. I love you and I’m sorry. This is my fault.
He drew back slightly. Hey, no one’s to blame. This is war, and we can’t always predict what happens next. You’ve done beautifully in a horrendous situation. I’m so proud of you.
She nodded, but tears ran down her cheeks. She would have kissed him again, but the wraith-pair bound her as well, securing them together.
I love you, Hannah. I’ve loved you for years. I’ve just been lying to myself. All those times I came into your bar just to accompany my men for some R & R, but in reality I couldn’t wait for the moment I’d spend even a handful of minutes chatting with you. I watched you all the time.
You know I felt the same way.
Hannah, I’m so sorry for all of this. If I’d understood that my growing affection and desire for you would incite your blood-rose and fire-gifts, I would have stayed away from Port Townsend. I didn’t want this for you, and the Goddess knows the sight of your bar burning to the ground has made me question everything I’ve done, every decision I’ve made.
Hannah listened and her throat grew even tighter. Margetta had transformed into the wraith that she was, being both fae and wraith. She flew back-and-forth over the bridge in her red gauzy dress and began ranting at Jude, expounding on her great plans for the Nine Realms, how one day all would bow before her magnificence.
Hannah ignored her. Instead, she forced herself to face the truth about her feelings for Jude.
She loved him.
She loved him with all her heart.
And now her own willfulness had landed him here, bound to her, and soon to be executed.
With Margetta clearly enjoying the sound of her own voice, and appealing to her army of wraith-pairs at the same time, Hannah pathed, I love you, too, Jude. I think it’s been forever for me as well, much longer than just the past few months that followed the awakening in the supply closet.
He held her gaze. You could have been scrubbing the floor behind the bar when that happened, and I would still consider it one of the best moments of my life.
Jude. Her telepathic voice was little more than a whisper. I’ve been a fool through this process. I kept holding onto my freedom because of a difficult past experience. But you always kept my freedom at the top of your list. Now, I have no freedom at all.
She felt him reaching toward her with his hand and she struggled in the bindings to meet him halfway. When her fingers touched his, it was magic all over again.
