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Time that dragged on and on without a single change in Never. Her lids didn’t flutter. Her chest didn’t rise.
Guilt and dread already had their hooks in me, and with every moment that passed, they were swallowing me whole. I leaned in close, pressed my lips to hers, and whispered, “Come back.” It wasn’t a demand or an order. It was a plea from the most vulnerable depths of my soul.
Sitting on the deck beside her, I took her hand in mine and waited. And waited. Until her skin cooled and my hope withered. All the while, the reality of what I’d done gnawed at my insides.
After what felt like an eternity past, an icy breeze rolled across the deck, prickling my skin. I lifted my head to see Leo standing at the railing staring out across the water. When another wave of that chilly air—far too chilly for our enchanted tropical climate—swept across the deck, he turned.
“Something’s happening.” He sounded about as weary as I felt, because ‘something’ could mean anything.
The muffled sound of bone scraping across bone made my teeth ache and my heart leap to attention. Something moved inside Never’s chest. I set her hand down and eased back. I rolled to my feet, remaining in a crouch so I could keep a close watch on what was happening with her.
To her?
I’d been swimming in an ocean of worry and guilt—not to mention the selfish desire to keep Never by my side—trying to figure out what my next steps might be if my last gamble failed. What I hadn’t stopped to consider was the things that could go wrong if it succeeded.
Upon her death, her soul should have been shuttled to the Alius.
What if it was?
What if time there was like time here, where it didn’t move with the steady flow of the human realm?
What if she’d been trapped there for years in the few minutes (or had it been hours?) since I’d dragged her to her death?
What if she came back different?
Another shock of cold raised the hairs on the back of my neck, and I braced my hands on the wooden planks.
What if it wasn’t her at all? What if the power I’d used to bring her back to me had drawn something else from the Alius instead?
Fool.
I’d acted rashly, thinking with my heart rather than my head.
Just when I was losing faith, I felt it, the connection I’d forged with Never coming back to life. It was barely there. A whisper drowning in leagues of noise, but it sent excitement racing along my skin like electricity.
I eased a little closer, watching her face, her neck, everything, for even the slightest twitch.
“Do you see anything?” Leo asked from behind me. “Or sense anything?”
I threw a glance over my shoulder to tell him I didn’t know, but a feminine sigh set my nerve endings on fire before I could utter a word.
I whipped around. Never’s chest was once again rising and falling, rising and falling, in a smooth, steady rhythm. Her eyes moved lazily beneath her lids, and when they finally opened, my heart stopped. I wrenched myself to standing so quickly I nearly lost my balance.
It can’t be.
She blinked up at me in confusion. The energy now pulsing through our connection was all her, stronger than I’d ever felt her before. But her eyes…
Her hands flew to her head. She pressed her palms to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. Panic gripped my already tripping heart and tightened the vice a full, gut-wrenching turn.
“Never?” I asked, rolling my shoulders in preparation for… what? A fight?
What if part of the shadow still lingered? What if a different demon had taken its place?
On the heels of those questions, relief bled through me, and it was coming from her. When she blinked her eyes open again, they were that deep blue that had been seared into my memory so many months earlier.
Had I imagined it?
Perhaps the stress of the moment had gotten the better of me. That must be it.
