Aern sighed. “Let me guess,” he said, not certain what I planned to do, but understanding by my expression that he wasn’t going to like it, “It’s the only way.”
I laughed despite myself, and my fingers trembled as the power moved through my palms. It took the last of my strength, but I could see that it would be enough. That he could turn them.
“Tell them,” I whispered, “show them it doesn’t matter.”
Emily caught me, her arms wrapping around me as I gave everything that was left, and I focused on the scent of her strawberry shampoo, not the blood that caked her shirt, not the wound from a bullet that had grazed my shoulder. The fire was gone. We had done it. Strong arms came around me, and I was lifted, carried away beneath the flickering light of half-seen visions and surgical lights.
When it was finally over, I woke, arm tender beneath a patch of tape and gauze, swathed in a clean white blanket in my bed.
Logan’s arms were around me. “Hi,” I croaked, shifting to see him better, and he inched away, careful of my injury.
His hand moved gingerly to my waist, rested there as the corner of his mouth came up in greeting. “Hi.”
“Are you all right?” I asked, seeing that he was fully dressed, new jeans over the thigh that had taken a hit, and he nodded, moving closer to prop his head on an elbow. The room was dim, soft light from the washroom throwing shadows across the canopy overhead. The halls were silent, empty. It felt slightly hollow, as if something were missing, but that something should never have been there.
That something had accompanied me my whole life. It was the sense of impending disaster, the looming feeling of dread.
Logan leaned forward, nose brushing my cheek as he whispered, “You did it.”
He drew back to look at me, and I exhaled, knowing it was finally over; Morgan was no longer a threat. Emily was not going to be taken, the urgency of saving her gone. I’d found the key, released our powers.
And then I smiled, remembering. The cold fire hissing through my palms, the feel of the power, the air as it moved around me. The satisfaction of seeing Morgan’s face. “It was pretty impressive, wasn’t it?”
He stared at me, stock-still. Logan was suddenly straight-faced, tone solemn, when he said, “That was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.”
I laughed, kissing him earnest, and asked, “Does this mean we finally get those three days?”
“Take as long as you want,” Logan offered. And then he pursed his lips, considering the men and women of the Seven Lines that were expecting their prophet, their savior, to make an appearance. “But I’m pretty sure they’ll be downstairs waiting for you the entire time.”
I groaned as I buried my face into his arm. But when I drew back, the spark in Logan’s eyes freed me from every other concern. That otherworldly glow was there; he wasn’t just a man now. He was more, so much more.
“Let them wait,” I said as I moved to him.
I pressed a kiss to his pulse, and he lowered his head, gripping my waist tighter as he brought his mouth over mine. It was the closest I’d ever been to security. To home. Sure, there was other stuff, but it was vague, far away. This was now. Emily and I were safe. We would live.
And I had every intention of doing so.