“Just…” Mia blew out a breath. “Just take a minute outside, King. Please.”
He shook his head from side to side, a look of sheer madness in his eyes. It broke my heart to see him in so much pain for something I’d done, but it broke my heart more to see the lifeless body stretched out in front of me.
“Mack, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’m begging; please don’t leave.” Yes, I was speaking to his spirit. No, I knew nothing about how it all worked, but I hoped that he would choose not to go wherever souls went after they were freed from obscenely unjust and torturous three-thousand-year-old curses.
I felt Mia’s warm hand on my shoulder as she kneeled down next to me.
“It all just happened so fast,” I said, sobbing quietly. “I was trying to save him. I really was.”
“I know, sweetie.”
She took Mack’s hand and held it between hers, closing her eyes as if praying. After a few moments, she reopened her big blues. “I can’t feel any connection to him.” She sounded very worried.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
She looked down at his beautiful, lifeless face. “That the chances of getting him back are not good. Once the soul’s moved on, it’s like trying to capture water with a sieve.”
“Oh God, no.”
“That’s why King has been looking for that Incan chalice—it can resurrect anyone, even if the soul has moved on.”
I looked at her through my blurry teary eyes. “You were looking for it.” Mack had mentioned that he’d stolen something from them and that was the reason “they” were trying to find him.
“King was looking for it and Mack was helping him. I lost my brother last year and hoped to get him back, but now I wonder if it just wasn’t meant to be. He had issues. But Mack…” She sighed and ran her hand down the side of his cheek, staring lovingly at his pale face. “Mack saved my life. He helped King find himself again, and as much as I love my brother, Mack risked a lot to help us. I just don’t know what we’ll do without him.”
It was all too fresh in my mind and heart. Hell, the body was still warm.
“Aren’t you a Seer?” I asked. “Don’t you have powers or something? You can bring him back!”
She shook her head. “I gave up my gifts to be with King—a long story, but everything in our world requires a sacrifice. A counterbalance or a trade-off. I traded my abilities for the thing I loved most.” She looked at me with pity. “Our only chance is finding that chalice.”
“How the hell do we do that?” I asked.
She glanced toward the open door leading outside. “I married the man who can find anything.”
“If it’s that easy to find the chalice, then why hasn’t he?”
She gave me a look. “Who said anything about easy? It took the man over three thousand years to find the rock I used to bind his curse.” Someday I’d have to ask her how she happened to be alive. From what I deduced, she knew King and Mack three thousand years ago. But that just didn’t matter right now.
I can’t accept this. I can’t, I thought, looking at Mack’s beautiful face.
“We’ll do everything we can to find the chalice. I promise,” Mia said.
“What about your brother?”
She looked down at the lifeless hand cupped between hers. “Mack once gave me the choice between bringing back King or my brother. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made because I knew how losing Justin destroyed my parents, but I made my choice that day. I chose King. I will always choose him until my last breath. I choose him now. And that man doesn’t know how to live or breathe without his twin—the connection they have is too deep.” She sighed. “Saving Mack is saving the man I love.”
“I love you, Mia,” said a deep, gravelly voice from behind us.
We both swiveled our heads toward King, who stood in the doorway, his fit arms stretching the black fabric of his finely tailored suit. And I had to admit, it wasn’t easy looking at the spitting image of the man I’d just made love to less than a handful of minutes ago. My heart ached for him in a way I’d never be able to articulate.
Mia stood and walked over to King, pushing herself onto her tiptoes to reach his lips. I felt so envious of the two. Come what may, they had each other.
Me?
I had a past I couldn’t remember and my heart lying bled out on the floor in front of me. I didn’t know the man, yet he was everything to me.
“How much?” I said.
I didn’t hear a reply, so I glanced at King and Mia. They looked confused.
I repeated, “How much? How fucking much to bring him back?”
King frowned at me, clearly insulted. “You think I’d accept money for something like that?”
I shrugged. “All I know about you is that you’ve murdered me without mercy. And according to your wife here, you’re the guy who can find anything.”
He shook his head. “I wouldn’t even wipe my ass for you.”
“King,” Mia scolded.