miss that a lot—the way she looks at me with so much passion. What I’ll miss the most, though, is simply holding her and missing out on holding my daughter.
“I had something to take care of before we head to the lake.” My hands long to touch her like they did last night, but I know I can’t yet, not until it’s time to say my final goodbye.
She chews on her lips, debating whether to stay angry or not.
“You’re okay, though, right?” she asks, calming down a bit.
“More than okay.” I quickly graze my knuckles across her cheek, wishing the touch could last longer.
Aislin flops down on the sofa, and her head bobs back dramatically. “This is the most depressing day ever.”
Gemma stares at Aislin then at me. “So you’re okay with this now?” she questions with suspicion. “With both of us going to the lake and sacrificing our lives?”
I give a firm nod. “If it means saving the world . . . then, yeah, I guess I have to be.” I hate lying to her, but it has to be done.
She nods, her beautiful, violet eyes flooding with tears. “Okay, then,” she says more to herself then turns to Aislin. “I need you to do something.”
Aislin taps her foot against the floor, looking restless. If she keeps it up, she’s going to blow everything.
“I found out how you get the shield spell to work and how you get the mark off Stephan,” Gemma says, touching the Foreseer mark on the back of her neck.
“You went into another vision?” I shake my head. “Gemma, I thought we—”
“There’s no point in arguing about this,” she cuts me off, placing her hand over my mouth, and her touch sends my body flaming with desire.
God, I want her so, so much. It nearly kills me thinking I’m never going to have her again.
“Now let me tell Aislin what she needs to do.”
She only lowers her hand after I nod. Then she hastily explains to Aislin the vision she saw and how things are going to work.
I barely listen, my thoughts stuck elsewhere. I’ve spent so much time not really experiencing the good things in life. I’ve carried my father’s negative energy, and here I am finally shedding it, but only when my life’s nearing an end. It’s scary to think about, yet then I think of Gemma and my daughter, and it calms me.
“So we go to the castle?” Aislin asks, her eyes wide as she hugs the bag we stole from my bedroom. “And everything just works out?”
Gemma nods as I sit down on the armrest behind her, the static scorching, warning. But I don’t give a shit at the moment. The end is coming, and I just want to be near her.
“I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” Gemma tells Aislin.
Aislin leans to the side and reaches for her herb box. “Well, let’s get going.” She picks up the box and sets it on her lap. “God, I can’t wait for this to be over.”
“Don’t you still need more power for the spell?” Laylen asks, tracing the spot on his arm where the Mark of Immortality used to be.
Aislin hands him the bag. “Look inside.”
Laylen warily unties the bag and peers inside.
“Where did you get this?” he asks, staring at her in shock.
“Alex had it,” she tells him, sorting through her herbs. “He used to steal all kinds of stuff from Stephan when he was a kid.”
“When we were kids.” I comb my fingers through Gemma’s hair.
She angles her head back and looks at me perplexedly. “We did?”
I nod. “It’s almost like we knew we needed all the stuff farther down the road.” My fingers pause in her hair as I faintly smile. “Of course, we liked to piss my dad off, too.”
“Maybe, deep down, we knew what he would turn into,” she says quietly.
“Maybe.”
God, I want to kiss her so badly.
Pull it together, Alex. You just need to make it through a few more hours, and then you can kiss her until you die.
Sliding onto the floor, Aislin opens her spell book and flips through the pages. “Everybody ready for this?” she asks. The room’s so quiet you can hear everyone breathing. “Okay, then.” She stretches out her hands and flexes her fingers before she dumps out the contents of the bag we collected.
Gemma gasps at the strange items piled on the table. “Wow, they’re all so . . . sparkly.”
“Pretty amazing, huh?” Aislin smiles, but her happiness instantly vanishes