and Laylen are huddled over Gemma. Aislin is crying, her hands sparkling with a glimmering red glow as she tries to use her magic to bring Gemma back to life.
“No, please don’t . . .” I shove Aislin out of the way and hug Gemma’s lifeless body in my arms. “Wake up. Please wake up.”
“I tried to save her.” Aislin sobs against Laylen’s chest as he tries to console her. “But nothing works. And I thought . . . I thought the baby would have been here by now . . . If the spell worked, then she should have . . .” She sobs hysterically as she curls into Laylen’s lap.
I focus on Gemma, trying to ignore the gaping wound in her chest. “Please, you’re supposed to come back to me. I can’t live without you.” I lean in and brush my lips across her cold lips, but the kiss feels so foreign, so lifeless. “Please, please . . .” Tears pour from my eyes as I kiss her again. “I don’t want to be here without you.”
She remains lying still, her skin pale in the sunlight, and most of the blood from her body now stains the ground around her.
I lose it. Start crying. I want nothing more than to die right along with her.
I hug her tightly, refusing to ever let go.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I hear the baby’s heart beating, and I don’t know what that means, but it gives me hope. I lean down and kiss Gemma again. I kiss her with everything I have in me, begging her to come back to me. I feel the kiss all the way through my body, through my soul, and I swear I feel her move.
She gasps against my mouth as her eyelids open. “Alex.”
GEMMA
The first thing I see is Alex’s face, and the sight of it makes me feel better, despite that I’ve just risen from the dead.
“Am I okay?”
He glances down at my chest, and the tension in his expression alleviates. “You’re okay.”
I sit up and look down at my chest where I remember the knife entering, but there’s no blood, no wound.
“I can’t believe I’m here,” I say, resting back onto the grass with my arm on my stomach. I can hear the baby’s heart beating steadily, and knowing she’s okay causes my eyes to overflow with tears.
“It’s going to be okay,” he says, hugging me to his chest. “But what happened? I’m still so confused why I’m here. It was just supposed to be you who came back.”
“The first time I went to the Afterlife,” I say, breathing in his scent, “I told Helena I’d give her my soul when I died in exchange for your life.”
“I made the same promise with a Banshee.” He brushes my hair out of my eyes then leans down to kiss me, taking his time, savoring every second our lips remain touching without the electricity ruining the moment. “God, we really are bonded together,” he breathes as he pulls away. “We even made the same self-sacrificing choice.” His brows furrow. “But I don’t get why we’re both back here. And alive.”
I smile up at him and lift my hand, showing him the scar from the promise. “Because our souls are connected. If they take one, they take us both.”
He lines his hand with mine. “Then why not take us both?”
“Because, apparently, good does exist.”
He smiles down at me, his eyes swollen from tears, and he looks like he’s going to cry again.
“It’s going to be okay,” I assure him. “And you want to know why?”
He nods. “Did you see a vision about it?”
I shake my head. “No, I can feel that it’s going to be okay.”
“How can you feel it?”
“Because it’s gone.”
He catches on to what I’m saying, and a smile touches his lips as he leans down and kisses me again.
The kiss only lasts a few moments before Aislin practically jumps on top of us.
“I’m so glad you guys are alive,” she cries as she hugs both of us. “I thought when the knife cut me that things . . . that things . . .” She can barely speak through the tears, and honestly, I’m so overwhelmed right now I feel like crying with her.
I hug her for a while then move to Laylen, wrapping my arms around him.
“I’m so glad this didn’t turn out the way you saw it.” He chokes back a sob.
“Me, too,” I agree.
We take turns hugging each other before we calm down