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“Marina.”
I let out a deep groan, but don’t open my eyes. I don’t want to wake. Stretching my neck from side to side, I moan at the pull of my muscles.
“Marina!”
My eyes fly open at the sound of my name bouncing off the walls.Whatthe... I’m still in the library, laid out on the settee.
“Marina, where are you?”
Law. I’d know that voice anywhere. He’s close by, so I call out.
“I’m in here.”
Within seconds he’s pushing through the doors like a man on a mission. I’m fearful of what I’ll see when I meet Law’s eyes, but what I find is more curious than anything. He’s... grinning?
“You’ll need to stay seated for this,” he says, walking backward toward the door. “Last time you fainted and hit your head.” He rolls his eyes and I wrinkle my nose in confusion. His mood went from panicked to playful in seconds. It’s giving me whiplash.
He rips the door open and steps aside with a flourish that has me chuckling until I seeher.
I feel the color drain from my face as I take in the yellow dress that hangs to her knees. Her blond hair is swept back off of her shoulders and tied by a white ribbon. She looks healthy.Alive.
My breath hitches when moments later she’s still standing there... smiling in my direction.
“Marina,” she calls out, a smile in her voice.
“Maggie?” I ask, not knowing if I can believe my own eyes. No matter how many times I blink, she remains.I’m not dreaming.
“It’s me,” she assures me, stepping into the library and coming toward the settee slowly as if to not startle me. “It’s really me.”
She lowers herself next to me, taking me tentatively into her arms. As soon as I’m cocooned in her warm embrace, the dam opens, and sobs rack my body. Having her in my arms, alive and well, is even better than learning Shannon was alive. If she had died at the hands of vampires all because of me, I could never forgive myself.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I weep through happy tears. “I thought the worst.” She shushes me while holding me tight. We rock back and forth like a mom rocking her baby.
Maggie holds me for what feels like hours as I unleash a torrent of tears. It’s not just her being here, but a lifetime worth of sorrow that’s released. I have so many questions, but I can’t pull myself together to ask a single one.
I sob for all the times I didn’t tell her how much I love her.
I sob for our lost sister, wherever she may be.
I mourn our childhood and all the years wasted because we weren’t normal.
At some point, my agony turns to joyful tears. My sister is here. I might not understand the circumstances, or how it’s possible, but for these few minutes, she’s here and I’m going to enjoy every second.
I push back lightly out of her embrace to look her over. My hands roam her face, sliding down her thin, rosy cheeks. She looks the same as the last time I saw her, but there is a difference too.
The heaviness that once weighed on her appears to have lifted. The perpetual darkness of the bags that had always lined the bottom of her eyes is gone. She looks freer, happier. My lips pinch at the corners as I try to rationalize this turn of events.
“How?” I ask, thinking back on all the times I heard Maggie in my head. “I heard you speaking to me, Maggie. I truly believed you were dead.”
“That wasn’t me,” she says, shaking her head.
“What?” My voice pitches, confusion reigning supreme.
Her hands come up to stop me. “I know you have questions. And I promise I’ll tell you everything. But you have to rest right now,” she commands. “You look exhausted.”
I shake my head vigorously, not willing to let this go for one more minute. I need answers that she plainly has.
