Leif - Existence Trilogy #2.5 - Abbi Glines Page 0,7
the last thing I heard before I left her there in Death’s arms.
“Listen here, Leif Montgomery, I don’t care who you are. All I care about is the fact my best friend is lying in that hospital room lucky to be alive because YOU upset her. I don’t know what you did but this is your fault. She. Liked. You.” Miranda stood like a tiny warrior pointing her finger at me with a snarl on her face. Everything she said was correct. I wasn’t going to argue or even defend myself. I deserved more. I wished Wyatt would take a swing at me. I needed to feel something. Everything inside me was numb from fear.
“You aren’t worthy of her. Do you hear me? NOT WORTHY. So stay the hell away from her. I love her. She is like my sister. If something had happened to her,” Miranda stopped and sobbed loudly. Wyatt was instantly at her side pulling her into his arms. He wasn’t happy with me either. The worried frown on his face as he held Miranda in his arms told me he would have words with me when Miranda wasn’t around.
“I know I don’t deserve her,” I replied in a low whisper. I’d protected her from the time I’d saved her soul from Death. But now, when she needed me most, I’d sent her away right back into Death’s embrace. Why he hadn’t taken her soul, I couldn’t figure out. It didn’t make sense.
“Why Kendra? She is so, so, Ugh,” Miranda hissed.
I couldn’t argue with that. “It wasn’t anything like you think. I’m in love with Pagan. Kendra is an annoying pest that can’t accept I’ve moved on.”
Miranda straightened up and turned her full attention on me. “You love Pagan?” she asked with awe in her voice.
I’d said that aloud. Well, it was time I admitted it. “Yes, but please don’t tell her I said that. Right now, she isn’t ready to hear it.”
Miranda nodded and a small smile touched her lips, “I agree. She doesn’t need to hear that right now. But you’re going to need a lot of luck to get back in her good graces. Considering you almost,” Miranda stopped and her eyes filled up with tears again. I didn’t need to ask her to know what she was thinking.
“I know. I intend to do everything I can to win her forgiveness.”
Death was singing to her? What in the hell was that about? I came by everyday. I brought her the foods she requested. I spent time with her just the way I’d always wanted. We laughed. It was perfect…but at night he was coming to her. He was singing to her as she slept. The lyrics he sang weren’t words the lord of Death should be directing at anyone. Clinching my fist to keep from walking into her room and demanding he leave, I listened to the words.
“The life I walk binds my hands, it makes me take things that I don’t understand.
I walk this dark world unknowing of what they hold true, forgetting the me I once knew—until you.
The life I walk eternally was all I knew, nothing more held me here to this earth— until you.
I feel the pain of every heart I take, I feel the desire to replace all that I have grown to hate.
Darkness holds me close but the light still draws my empty soul, the emptiness where I used pain to fill the hole no longer controls me, no longer calls me—because of you.”
Dread ran through me as the meaning of those words sank in. Dankmar was attached to Pagan. He’d kept her alive because he felt something for her. She was mine. I’d been there. I’d saved her and molded her. Death was NOT going to take her away from me. I couldn’t tell Father. He’d demand that I just take her. She wasn’t ready that yet. Not now. She was so close to feeling for me something deeper than friendship. I needed her love. I had to win her love. When I took her from this life, I wanted her to go willingly. Dankmar would not stand in my way. She didn’t know who he was. She couldn’t. If she did, she’d be terrified. Pagan would not fall in love with Death. I knew her well enough to know that she’d never accept who he really was.
4. A taste of heaven
“If you aren’t ready to start on my speech, I’m not in a hurry,” I whispered