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Oh, Lord, I was so not going through that again. Telling Max and the other members of Kipp’s team of my abilities had been a mortifying experience I didn’t want to repeat.
I interjected before Amelia decided to go down that road, “Trust me, I’ve been through it. The only reason my guys finally believed me was because they knew Kipp and could ask personal questions. Alexander is right—no cop will ever believe this story without that deep connection.”
Amelia’s head lowered, shoulders slumped, and once again, she cried.
Alexander looked at me and I witnessed his agony through Caley’s eyes. He mourned leaving his daughter like this. Now I believed if we forced him to cross over, it’d be with a heavy heart.
I wasn’t sure if that mattered or not, since I’d never come across it before. The ghosts I’d dealt with all crossed in peace because I helped them to ensure of it. I’d never forced a ghost to cross over without first finding that peace from whatever held them back, as in Alexander’s murder. For whatever reason, it felt wrong for him to cross knowing she remained in pain.
Maybe I had formed a soft spot for Alexander.
After a quick glance at my friends still sleeping on the cold cement floor, I turned to Amelia and chose my words carefully. “It doesn’t matter if Wayde is punished for your father’s death. It only matters that Alexander has no further issues when he crosses over. Wayde will go to jail for the rest of his life for the murder of Sammy. He will be punished. You only need to remember that your father personally found his justice. We all know what happened to him. Now he can cross over to other side in peace.”
She sniffed, staring at her father, but said to me, “You’ve seen ghosts cross before?”
“Many times,” I replied.
Amelia continued to watch her father, but then she finally looked to me. The light from the flashlight illuminated the side of her face and her bottom lip trembled. “He’ll be all right?”
“I’ll be fine,” Alexander interjected. “It was my time, Amelia. You know this…how fate works.”
I snorted softly to myself, since I hated fate, and thought her a total bitch because of all I’d went through. Especially when I finally thought I had saved Kipp, and now, I had no idea if it actually worked. But I didn’t feel it necessary to inform either of them of my bad opinion, considering the explanation seemed to ease Amelia.
Her tears lessened, her trembling settled, and her body appeared a little straighter than it had minutes ago. Oddly enough, after a moment of searching and considering what she’d put us all through, I couldn’t find any anger toward her. And I wasn’t sure why that was.
Did her misery rip me apart, and make me feel too bad for her in this tender moment between her and her father? For a second, I wondered if she magically altered me, because shouldn’t I be pissed at what she’d done?
I nearly asked that exact question aloud, but Amelia beat me to it and whispered, “I love you.”
“I love you, too, my darling.” He took her into a hug and she shut her eyes, sobbing against his shoulder.
I couldn’t help but wonder if she shut her eyes not to see Caley and only feel her father. But how she held him, as if she were a little five year old girl clinging to her daddy, made me realize she never saw Caley at all.
Seeing this, and remembering the memory with my family, brought tears to my eyes. Perhaps this explained why I couldn’t hate her. I’d experienced this pain before. The wretched despair of losing close family. I knew all too well the heartbreak she dealt with now. No one in the world loved like parents did, but I also believed sometimes you could be loved differently.
Dane loved her, too.
I glanced over at him, as he remained sound asleep. I believed, in the end, she’d be all right, just as I’d been with my new family of Kipp, Caley, and Kipp’s fellow cops.
Dane could never be a replacement, but it was almost like a second chance. And sometimes, losing family made you appreciate the people even more in your life. I sure appreciated everyone in mine in a way I probably wouldn’t have before the accident.
I stayed silent and allowed Amelia and Alexander the time to embrace each other—for what felt like a lifetime—but I wouldn’t steal this moment from them. Once Amelia woke everyone up, there would be questions and she wouldn’t have this time alone with her father ever again.
Because of that, I kept my mouth shut.
A long while passed and when Amelia’s sobs quieted, Alexander backed away and brushed the fallen tears off her face. “Now then, my sweet, you need to remove the spells you have on her.”
Two sets of eyes zeroed in on me, and it took me a few seconds to realize Alexander had meant the spells on me. I glared at Amelia and said through clenched teeth, “You better hope to hell you still don’t have spells on me, or it’s not Caley’s fist you should’ve been worried about.”
Chapter Thirteen
While I spent the next seconds devising a plan to get my fist close enough to break Amelia’s nose, Alexander had stepped in between us, clearly anticipating my desire to knock her out. I had actually felt bad for her, and now I regretted it, only too glad I hadn’t said anything.
I hadn’t once thought she still wronged me.
“What I mean by that is,” Alexander said, cool and collected, “the spell that’s keeping everyone asleep. But more importantly, the one that’s causing your headaches.”
I tightened my fists. “You’ve been causing my headaches?” I thought it was fear, frustration, stress, and panic, and had also worried about it being a side effect from the Netherworld, when really, it was a damn spell.
