I scoffed. “Now that the guys are gods again, you don’t need anything else from me.”
She squeezed my arm, and I stared at her. “That’s not true. More than once you proved you are part of this family. We need you. We truly do.” Tears brimmed in my eyes. This family? Had she really said that? She offered me a sweet smile. “And Mitrus would go cuckoo if you left.”
Would he? I hadn’t really spoken to him since we came back. We had exchanged a few words. How are you? Are you hungry? Do you need help? But we hadn’t been alone and talked—really talked.
“Speaking of him,” she whispered, standing up.
As if on cue, the front door opened and Micah appeared behind it. “Hey,” he said, with a half smile.
“I’m gonna make more coffee.” She winked at me, and I shook my head, fighting a smile. How had we gotten here? Why wasn’t I wanting to jump at her throat anymore?
She left and Micah leaned on the porch’s railing, a couple of feet in front of me.
“How are you?”
I groaned. “If one more person asks me that, I’m gonna punch him.”
Bending over, he smiled. “Promise?” I punched his shoulder. “Ouch. Darling, I was teasing.”
“I wasn’t.”
He stared intently into my eyes. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
I nodded, turning my eyes to my coffee. “And you? How’s life as a god?”
“The same shit it always was.”
I lifted my eyes to his. “Why is that?”
“It’s lonely,” he said, surprising me. “Right now it’s different because we need to help each other, but once we win this war, it’ll be lonely again. Levi, Ceris, Izaera, and the others are my family. We fight a lot, but each of us has his or her own life. Some, like Levi and Ceris, Sol and Lua, and sometimes Omi and Imha, have a life together, which probably makes eternity more bearable.”
“Wait … are you telling me you don’t like being a god?”
One corner of his lips turned up. “I never said that, darling. I love the power, the rush, the adrenaline, but when things are calm, which is most of the time, it can be lonely and boring, which is Imha’s explanation for her sick actions.”
I sipped from my mug, unsure where he was going with this topic or what I should say.
I whirled my finger around a strand of my hair. Micah smiled. “What?”
He pointed to my hand. “You haven’t done that in so long.”
Ugh, I hadn’t noticed. But he had. “Have you always been this observant?”
“I notice everything about you, darling. For instance, I know you haven’t sung in a long time, which is a shame.”
Wow, he was right. With everything going on, I hadn’t noticed that. But he had. I wondered if he knew more about me these days than I did. Now that he had mentioned it, my heart squeezed. I missed singing. But what good would it do? Singing wasn’t a weapon I could use in the war.
“So.” Clearing his throat, he pushed away from the railing and extended his hand to me. “Come with me. There’s something I want to show you.”
I watched his hand for a moment, unsure. Then I watched him. His expression. His eyes. The way they conveyed how he was really hoping for me to accept it.
I took his hand, expecting him to guide me inside the cottage, or out to the beach.
Instead he took us somewhere else.
We stood in the middle of a desert. There was sand and sand and more sand, an occasional cactus or two, a few rocks, a couple of dried trees, and more sand. Oh, yes, more sand.
“What the hell?” I asked, letting go of his hand.
“Through here,” he said, approaching the short, dead-looking trees. He stood in front of two of them, and then he beckoned me to follow him. “Come on, darling. You want this, I promise.”
Letting out a frustrated sigh, I strutted to him.
With one of his smug smiles, Micah touched the center of the trunk of each tree and a black veil formed among them.
“A portal?” I asked and he nodded. “To where?”
“You’ll see.”
He offered to take my hand again, and this time I didn’t hesitate. Curiosity was a hard thing to push back.
Together we stepped into the portal and into—I gasped—the underworld.
My mouth hung open as I glanced around. It was dark all right, but even so, there were spots of lights here and there, and it looked like a huge cave. We stood on a high ledge on a wall made of rocks, looking down at what seemed to be a park, with dark green grass, some trails and paths, even flowers and bushes, but what caught my attention was the lake. It was large and deep black, and several people—dead people—surrounded it.
“What is this place?” I asked, looking over the ledge.
“The Lake of Life.”
“B-but I saw it before, in a vision with Ceris. It was in a cave.”
“There are many caves around the lake.” He pointed to a stone wall on the far left. A small opening swallowed the water. “The dead come to the lake every once in a while to check on the loved ones they left behind.”
I whirled around to face him and almost tripped. “Wh-what are you saying?”
With a hand on my back, he steered me back to the edge and pointed to where a couple, three kids, and a baby walked down a path, going to the lake.
My knees buckled, and I crouched down. Tears blurred my vision, but I quickly wiped them away because I wanted to see them. I needed to see them.
My father, my mother, Nicole, Tommy, Teddie, and Troy sauntered down the path. They had smiles on their faces. The kids played with each other, pushing and teasing. And Troy—oh, God—baby Troy was with them, looking healthy.
Micah knelt beside me. “Happy twentieth birthday.”
I whipped my head so fast to look at him, my neck hurt. “What? How did you know?”
He shrugged. “I just know. Do you like my gift?”
I didn’t deserve any gifts, but at this moment, he was giving me more than I could ever ask.
Tears brimmed in my eyes. “I love it.”
“From what I’ve learned, they come here once a week to check on you.”
“They can see me?”
“Yes, through the reflection in the lake.”
“And now? Will they look at the lake and see I am here?”
He sighed. “Humans aren’t supposed to have contact with the dead. It disrupts their peace. I was hoping you would agree to leave before they reach the lake.”
“But …” I tried estimating the time it would take them to get there. “That’s only five, maybe six minutes.”
He rested his hand on my back again. “I know, darling, but think about it this way: at least you got to see them. You know they are all right. You know they are together. Isn’t that enough for now?”
Tommy poked Teddie and then raced around Mom and Dad. Nicole seemed annoyed, but when Teddie poked her too, she smiled and chased after them. All the while, my father grinned at them, and my mother made baby faces at Troy.
A small smile took over my lips. “Yes. For now.”
Micah sat down beside me, and I rested my head on his shoulder. Being here, watching my family with him, it was like paradise.
We observed my family for a minute more before he broke the silence.
“Nadine. About what Omi said, about me betraying everyone, I—”