Midnight Truth (Shifter Island #4) - Leia Stone Page 0,36

where I heard Reyna and Sariah chatting.

“Where is he?” I asked, my voice hoarse with emotion as I burst into a conference where the two women sat at a table, chatting.

Reyna rose from her seat. Her wan expression shifted to pity as she took in my distraught appearance. She sighed before offering me a small, sad smile. Stepping into the hallway, she pointed to a room, the door slightly ajar. I beelined for it and knocked once.

“Come in.” Gramps’ voice sounded frail, and it made the lump in my throat grow even larger.

Stepping into the room, I took in his frail appearance. He lay in a king-sized sleigh bed, propped up and reading a book with a cowboy on the cover. Windows lined the entire wall to his left, and the curtains were opened halfway, letting in shafts of light.

Had he lost weight in just a day? Was that possible?

“Hi, dear girl,” he said, brightening as he set his book down. But his smile melted away as he studied me, turning somber with his brow furrowed.

I stumbled into the room and fell to my knees at the side of his bed. “Why? Why did you give me your soul stone? The Keeper … he swallowed it. He … he owns your soul now, doesn’t he? You’ll be trapped there. You’ll—”

He reached out and stroked the top of my head as I burst into tears and buried my face into my hands.

I’d barely known him then, and he’d just so easily sacrificed his eternity … for me. I felt 110.9% undeserving. My chest pinched with pain. This weight and guilt of knowing I’d taken something precious from him. “It’s not … I could’ve…”

“Nai,” he said, his voice soft, yet somehow it pierced through my muffled sobs. Reaching out, he tipped my chin up to meet his eyes. “My lovely granddaughter.” He took a deep breath and offered me a smile filled with patience and love. “Surlama tricked you. You never would’ve gotten out without a soul stone. Every realm has rules, even that of the dead. The Keeper has to maintain order.” Grandpa pursed his lips and then added, “We were lucky the Keeper allowed you and Rage to leave.”

I chewed on my bottom lip as tears dripped down my cheeks. “It’s because we promised to kill Surlama. The Keeper actually tricked us. He swallowed your soul stone in exchange for permission to take Honor’s soul when we called for it—”

“Oh, I see.” Gramps nodded. “I’d wondered why it was so easy to bring him back.”

“But, when you first came to the Realm of the Dead, you said…” My brow furrowed as I tried to remember exactly what my grandfather had said when he first appeared there to me and Rage, beyond the fact that Rage’s body would’ve decomposed if we didn’t get out ASAP. “Didn’t you say something about being able to bring back Honor’s soul?”

Taking a deep breath, Gramps closed his eyes. After his exhale, he opened his eyes and met my gaze. Even before he spoke, I could tell it wasn’t good.

“Not without a soul stone,” he said, his voice shaky. “That or some other agreement with the Keeper is the only way to get a soul out. Remember—without order, there is only chaos.”

What the what?

So if I hadn’t made that bargain … would we’ve ever gotten Honor out? I didn’t even want to ask, and … did it matter now?

Nope. Not one bit.

Considering my grandfather’s sacrifice, I leaned forward and shoved my face into the bedspread as tears threatened once more. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

Jerking my chin up, my grandfather just smiled at me serenely.

“Things have a way of working out just the way they ought to.”

“Yeah,” I snorted. “I don’t quite believe that.” Like, not even 25.6%.

He chuckled. “You’ve given me a gift. Now I’ll get to spend all of eternity with Elia, who never graduated to spirit master. I can think of no better existence than to spend forever with one of my favorite people. And you can visit any time.”

But … he wouldn’t be able to see Sariah or Donovan until they died—and that was my fault. Guilt pressed in on me once more, augmented by stress, and suddenly, I couldn’t stop crying. The mess of my life finally came to a head. I’d given away my grandfather’s soul stone; my mate lived in a different realm, and I couldn’t be with him; I missed my Dad … and Kaja. My life kinda sucked,