Page 86 of Perilous Healing

“Come around?” he spits out. “I’m not the one who needs to come around,Selena.You were born into this life, and you thought you could escape. Who’s the delusional one?”

“We can’t choose where we’re born,” I tell him. “But we can choose to stay in or leave. I wanted a different life.”

“You had a life! A job to do!” he screams.

Outside, people scream. Chaos reigns.

Silas moves in front of me. “You want to take out your anger on me? Fine. But you leave Bianca out of it.”

“Her name is Selena!” Yarrow snaps, ripping the grenade’s pin free.

“You’re making a mistake!” Silas bellows, frantic now. If Yarrow drops that grenade—we won’t make it out of the house in time.

“No. I’m making a choice. If I can’t have her, no one can.” He throws the grenade then turns and sprints from the room.

Silas looks to me for a split second, and in that moment, everything around us slows to a near stop. His eyes fill and he smiles. “Run,” he says, then throws himself onto the grenade.

“No!” I scream. I hesitate, too afraid to move and not wanting to live without him. A second passes, then two, as I wait for the moment when everything I love will be robbed from me.

But nothing happens.

Silas sits up, eyeing the grenade warily as he pushes off the floor and rushes toward me. He grabs my good hand and tugs me out of the room. We’re just stepping foot outside when the grenade goes off.

It collapses the house behind us, and we’re thrown forward—away from the blast.

Debris rains down on us. My ears are ringing, the pain in my shoulder spreading through the entire side of my body, but as I sit here, staring at the house we werejuststanding in, I’m hit with the overwhelming love of the God who kept us safe.

I turn toward Silas sitting beside me, his face covered in ash. He’s staring straight ahead, shocked, confused—but then he turns to me and grins. “He saved us,” he calls out, the words barely audible with the still fading ringing in my ears.

“Yes,” I call back. “He did.”

Silas cups the back of my head and yanks me toward him, slamming his mouth onto mine. He kisses me like the world is ending and we’re out of time. Everything I’ve ever wanted, ever craved, comes slamming into me in one moment, along with the understanding that he was made for me, and I for him.

Silas Williamson is the only man I’ve ever really loved.

And until the day I die, he’ll be my forever.

However long we have.

“Okay, you two. I know you nearly got blown up, but you can’t expect us to do all the work.” Michael drops to the ground beside Silas as we pull apart.

“All the work?” Silas replies. “You get Herman?”

“And Yarrow. It sounded like River was dead through the earpiece, but we haven’t been able to confirm it.”

“Consider it confirmed,” Silas replies, then gestures toward the house. “He was in there and was dead before it blew up.”

“Okay. I’ll let Bradyn know.”

“The people?” I ask. “Are they okay?”

Michael smiles and nods. “They’re fine. We found a man to translate and pulled them all out once the guards were subdued. Look.” He points to the right, so I turn my attention over there, and emotion turns me into a puddle of joy as I see the men, women, and children dancing down the street.

They smile.

Laugh.

All of them free from the shackles River had placed upon them.

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