AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“After you left, Future and I were standing over my grave. I closed my eyes, waiting for the memories to be gone. The last thing I saw was your face before she laughed. Which is the creepiest sound you’ll ever hear in your life, by the way. And while she prattled on about the intention of magic and whatever other nonsense, I circled her, listening as I trapped her within a salt circle. Apparently, that’s frowned upon.”
I bit my lip, holding back my smile as I tried to imagine it. “Yes, I can see why.”
He set the salt on the small table by the chair and came back to sit on the edge of the bed. “She screamed pretty loud and cursed me seven ways to Sunday. When that didn’t work… I can be stubborn, you know. She called her sisters or whoever they are.”
“Oh, shit.”
“It gets better, I promise. So, the other two appeared directly beside her. Thus, trapping themselves in the salt circle as well. Apparently, Spirits will do anything for freedom, including making demands of a goddess. Which sounds like a ghosty if you ask me, but—”
His words were cut short as a floating drop of light fell from the ceiling and burst through the room, filling every nook and cranny and suspending time. An ethereal being, bright and pure, appeared, though I could not see her face through the luminescence of her form. I covered my eyes, listening as her echoed voice, as the purest sound I’d ever heard, rang free.
“My dearest girl,” the goddess said, pushing so close to the edge of the bed, I wondered if Atlas would burn to pieces if she touched him. “The magic placed upon you was always meant to be a blessing not a burden. But some souls, the most empathetic of us, internalize and struggle far more than others.”
She paused, and I considered dropping my hand from my eyes.
“You may look,” she said as if reading my mind.
The edges of her figure wavered like a pool of water, though she was made of light and not liquid. I still could not see the perfect form of her face, but something within me knew the beauty without the fine details.
“The moment your brother was lost to you, your heart was marked. The burden of guilt you carried forced you away from those that you loved the most.”
“Then why was I never a target for the Spirits?”
“You were, of course. Your journey was different, but your twin flame has found you. In healing his own mark, and in the sacrifice that he ultimately made, he has freed you both.”
I sat straighter in the bed. “My twin flame?”
“Yes, Marley Stormborn. His soul has found you in every lifetime apart from this one, when yours found his. It wasn’t his mark that drew you to him, it was your heart. And per my agreement with him, I bless you, and I set you free.”
Searing pain seeped across my face as the light of her palm caressed me. Not enough to make me flinch, but enough to feel the burn of her blessing.
“Goodbye, Marley.”
“Good—”
I couldn’t finish before the light was gone.
Atlas leaped from the bed and spun in a circle, immediately scanning the room for danger. “What happened?”
With my palm still pressed to my cheek, I answered. “It was her. The goddess blessed me.”
“Oh yeah. She likes to touch people. Apparently, it’s—”
“Atlas?”
I rose from the bed to stand before him. “What did you sacrifice? She said your sacrifice saved me.”
“It doesn’t matter. I would have given everything.” Moving so close there was no longer space between us, except a breath between lips, he continued. “There wasn’t a thing she could have demanded that I wasn’t willing to bargain for your freedom.”
He grabbed my face, closing the space until his lips were on mine and we were moving backward, his hand burning a permanent mark on my body as he held me steady until we collided with the wall.
Hours later, we lay in the borrowed room in the castle, wrapped in silky sheets, naked, satiated, and falling more and more with each second that passed.
“Can I keep you forever?” he whispered, though I’d thought he’d fallen asleep.
“That sounds an awful lot like a commitment, Atlas,” I answered, running a finger over his bare chest.
“Oh, good. I must have said it exactly right.”
