Page 95 of Possession

“Aris.”

“I can’t give you that.”

“Perhaps not… now.” There is a pause, and I feel his eyes on me, even with my own shut. I squint until I see stars, but I still feel his gaze. “I watch you now, and I understand how you could be entertaining. So primitive and lost. He will return for you. The Dark does not let things go—at least, not intact.”

The idea of Aris returning doesn’t frighten or annoy me, for once. It’s odd; Aris is the one who possessed, controlled, and exploited me, but I’m more scared of Jaegen.

“His plans don’t concern me. He told me that himself,” I say quietly, hugging myself around the middle.

“He visited you in your dreams,” he says.

I don’t lose a beat; I knew that I felt him in my head. “He told me—he’s going away for some time,” I say while quietly crying. “I don’t know where he went, or—or what he’s doing.”

“You must hear me.”

“I do. I do.”

“He will return, and when he does…” Jaegen pauses, considering. “Why don’t you tell him I said hello?”

Power suddenly ripples like heat from a fire, and my eyes have either shot open or my eyelids burned off. Either way, Jaegen is revealed before me, glorious and vast. He sheds his human form and rises into the sky as whatever he, it, really is—a force that has created nature and can change the fabric of it to its liking.

My vision swims, tunnels, and the world gets dimmer the further he flies away. Simple things that I should know, like if I’m sitting or standing or breathing or not, evade me now.

Please, I try to say. I don’t know what I am begging for. Just please.

My face feels wet. I don’t know if I’m crying or bleeding, and I don’t care. I want it all to end.

I think that I collapse.

Chapter twenty-one

“No, no, no, no, no.”

“No, Mary. No…”

“Mary!”

“Come back!”

It’s Henry. I hear his voice. I hear him calling my name and know that he is next to me, but…

With all of my strength, all I accomplish is a flutter of my eyelids, but that tiny motion is enough—Henry’s desperate shouting ceases with a strangled sound, as if struck. There is dead silence as I struggle to do more, to reassure Henry that I am here, that I hear him, but I barely move.

A hand suddenly clasps mine, cold and thin and desperate in its grip, and I feel the faintest of tremors.

“Have you... come back to me?"

I finally manage to slit my eyes, flinching against the too-bright light of the sun. A shadow quickly covers it while I wait for my vision to adjust, the world dizzy and blurry. As shapes slowly take form, exhaustion strikes me dumb.

Did I fall? The back of my head hurts. Everything is foggy.

And then I see him above me, the sun a halo on his head. Though I feel like death, my lips still curl into a smile. “Henry,” I say softly.

He frowns, like he expected me to say something else, but his lips quickly smooth into a weary smile, shoulders sagging with relief. “Mary.”

“Hey,” I say and try to sit up, only to promptly collapse back in his arms. My forehead wrinkles. I’m in his arms? He’s holding me? Suddenly, the pain isn’t so bad.

Our faces are inches apart as he pulls me close, clutching me like I am precious. His blue eyes mist, as though he’s close to tears, and they roam over every inch of me. I stay completely still, terrified to ruin the gentle moment—I haven’t felt so cared for, so protected in… well, ever.

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