AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I kiss his fingertips, then his lips. “I will. And I’ll always love you. And I’ll never forget you.”
“I’ll never forget you, either. Close your eyes now.”
My breath hitches and my eyes sting. “Now?”
“Now,” Gabe whispers against my lips as he eases me down into the pillows. “Sleep tight, baby girl. I love you forever.”
I kiss him to avoid saying goodbye and drift off to the gentle cling of his lips against mine.
Chapter7
Achieving The Dream
Iroll over and face-plant into a warm, firm chest.
I’ve got so many warm, firm chests in my life that it takes me a second to recognize this one. Then I catch the woodsy pine of his aftershave.
“Charlie.” I sigh in relief and snuggle into him.
He grunts sleepily. Then a tremor runs through him. An iron-hard arm bands around my shoulders and crushes me into that warm, firm chest. “Teddy. Bloody hell, bean, you’re back.”
“I am.” Those two words hold a shite-ton of relief. I was confident once my magic came back I’d return to my own Time, but I have no control over this Time-Walking thing, and I seriously didn’t want reality to disprove my theory.
Charlie shifts back enough to look into my eyes. He cups my face with his big hand and strokes my cheek with his thumb. “I was so fucking afraid I’d never see you again. I tried to keep the faith ... I never gave up ... but, fuck, eleven days. I’ve been going spare.”
I wriggle in against him, wallowing in his infinitely comforting embrace. “Me, too. There was never a moment I wasn’t trying to get back to you lads, Chaz. It’s all I’ve thought about. I’ve barely slept, barely et. All I’ve done is try to get back to you.”
He rolls so I’m on top of him and he can wrap both arms around me. “Fuck,” he sighs.
I cling to him and let his solidity ground me. Tentatively, I reach out with my magic.
His bonfire heat surges through me.
The familiar warmth, more than his physicality, convinces me this isn’t a dream. I’m back. I’m home.
“I missed you so much, Charlie,” I whisper, burying my face in his neck.
“Missed you more,” he grunts.
“Competitive bastard.”
He chuckles.
“Where were you?” he asks.
“The future. I Time-Walked. I dunnow what went wrong—”
“We were pushin’ too much magic through you. Darwin said he saw your eyes go white. We burned you out. I felt your magic collapse. It was like a landslide. Then I couldn’t feel you at all anymore. Nothing. You were gone.” He squeezes me so hard my ribs creak, but I don’t mind in the slightest. I burrow in, wanting to be even closer to him. “I’ve never been so afraid, bean. I thought that vision I had when you got the Evanda Hale invite was bad, but that was nothing compared to you disappearing. Don’t do that to me again.”
I want to promise him that I won’t. But how can I? I don’t have control over my chronomancy.
“Wherever I go, Chaz, I’ll always come back to you. Always.”
There’s a silent boom inside me.
Pledges are binding between two magi. They can persist even beyond death. And I’ve just given Charlie a Deathless Pledge.
Nothing about that scares me.
