can trust one another, for starters,” he said. “And given these circumstances, we need a bit more optimism. Whatever the Darklings are up to, whatever Death is keeping from us… we’ll figure it out, as long as we stick together and watch our step.”
“Your confidence is inspiring, I must admit.” I chuckled softly, leaning into him.
He wrapped his arms around me, covering my face with butterfly kisses.
“We’ve got the Darklings running, Sofia. That, to me, is extremely encouraging. There are six of us left here on Visio, and there is so much the six of us can accomplish, if we stick to the plan and have faith in one another.”
I believed him.
Looking back over everything we’d been through, each challenge scarier than the one before… I believed Derek. We were strong and resourceful. We were persistent and dedicated to the truth. That had always been the driving force behind GASP, behind each and every one of us.
So, yes. Visio seemed like quite a handful, and death magic was involved. But so were we, and that counted for something.
Esme
Kalon and I had decided to stick around the lake house for a little while longer before heading back into the city. Last night’s kiss might’ve had something to do with it, but we’d also waited to hear from Tristan and Valaine first, with regard to the Darklings’ movements.
I settled on the back porch, which overlooked the sprawling lake, trying to process everything that Tristan had told me about Astoria and what they’d found there. The thought that Darklings had death magic still made my insides squirm, and their ability to use ghouls and to elude Corbin’s troops just piled up on top of that preexisting anxiety.
We still had a lot of work to do, but…
Something had fundamentally changed between Kalon and me. I had feelings for him. Feelings he’d amplified with a single kiss to the point where I was overcome with both joy and fear—the joy of discovery, of falling in love, of being so in sync with a creature so different and yet so much like me; the fear that he might end up breaking my heart, somehow. The latter, however, lingered more in the background, smothered by the former.
The memory of his lips on mine persisted. Kalon had been incredibly polite and reserved in the morning, when we’d woken up. He’d hunted a deer for fresh blood. He’d covered me with a blanket when I’d fallen asleep again while awaiting his return. Every single thing about him spoke of something good, of something promising and sweet. But my partial amnesia involving his rescue of me persisted, etching traces of doubt in my soul.
I was missing a piece from that night in the basement. My instincts kept warning me, ringing alarm bells whenever I found myself alone.
Kalon walked onto the porch, all dressed up and ready to go. Smiling, he knelt before me, his hands gripping the armrests of my wicker chair. “We should move soon,” he said. “I think we know enough to head back into the imperial city now.”
The Darklings were definitely out of there and headed as far away from the city as possible, judging by Tristan and Valaine’s trail up the eastern coast. It meant we could take Ansel back to safety.
“This place is really beautiful,” I replied. The sky’s reflection twinkled across the lake surface. The trees, silent giants dressed in dark green, swayed gently in the wind. Birds sang in the distance. What was there not to love? “I’d come back here, the first chance I got.”
“We could come again,” he said, his eyes searching my face. “Without any Darklings.”
I chuckled briefly. “That sounds like a good plan.”
Silence took over as we looked at each other. I wanted to kiss him again. I wanted to make sure that what had happened last night was real. That it wasn’t going to stop there, just past midnight, never to leave the wooden walls of this cabin. I wondered what was going through his mind.
He must’ve picked up on something just by looking at me, because his gaze darkened, lingering on my lips. “Esme… We don’t know what awaits us out there.”
“Just murderous Darklings.”
“And a little bit of Black Fever,” he replied, playing along. “But I want you to know, I meant everything. Everything I did. Everything I said.”
My heart jumped, the blood rushing through me with sheer exhilaration. I’d waited to hear something like this, I’d hoped for it, more than anything else. And yet, to