Page 35 of Bound By the Moon

“Don’t leave them in the dark any longer, Jess. Ican tell you first-hand how horrible the wait was. Your mom mayhave lost Jameson, but right now, she thinks she lost the both ofyou. I can’t even imagine that kind of pain.” Sierra smiled at methen, and for the first time since we reappeared from the dead, shefinally sounded like her old, normal, level-headed self. “Go, giveyour mom a little hope that not all is lost.” She gave me a littlepush towards the door, and that’s all it took.

“Sierra, Jack…” I started, but I couldn’t finishwhat I was about to say. Hell, I didn’t even know what I was trulyabout to say. My mind was a jumbled mess now too.

“We’re with you.” Jack told me as he put his hand onmy shoulder. “Come on, Jessie, go let them know you’re alive andwell.”

With that last bit of encouragement, I slowly mademy way up the rest of the steps, and to the front door. It wasunlocked, so I just turned the knob, and pushed it open. Once Istepped inside, and smelled the sweet mix of lavender and vanillathere, I lost a little of my footing, but managed to stand thereuntil it registered for everyone inside who I was.

“Oh my God! Jess?” Ashley had been walking back intothe living room from the kitchen, so she was the first one tonotice who opened the door, but I didn’t fail to see Mikael jump upwith unprecedented speed. He dislodged himself from my mother’sside, and was beside me in a literal heartbeat. I had never seenhim move so fast before in all our time together.

“Jess?” He all but yelled out in his excitement.Mikael scooped me up in his arms just as one of his legs started togive out, but he caught himself before we tumbled over. “Wethought…” He was shaking as he sat me back down on my feet, and Irealized the shaking sensation was because he was openly sobbingall over me.

“I realize I have death hair, but if you could keepthe snot out of it, that’d be great.” I tried for a joke, thinkingthat it worked for Jack, Sierra, and I. I thought wrong.

He held me out at arms-length then. “Seriously?You’re going to crack jokes right now? We all thought you weredead, and the first thing you do, is make a joke. It’s not funny,Jess. You don’t know what we just went through or who waslost.”

“I do know who was lost.” I moved out of Mikael’sarms then, and walked around him to my mother. “He told me to tellyou that he loves you, and that he’ll be waiting there until you’reready.”

“You saw him?” My mom’s question was more of awhisper than anything. Her hand trembled as she placed it againsther own mouth. It seemed almost as though she was trying to holdback a scream. My heart broke, and with it the damn that held mytears back. They ran freely down my face now, slapping against thefabric of my clothing, the floor, and then my mother’s legs as Ileaned in to hug her. My tears were like raindrops coating everysurface that I hovered over for too long.

“Yes, I saw him. He tried to come back with me,momma. He couldn’t do it though. They wouldn’t let him. I’m sosorry. We really did try to bring him back.”

Just then, a loud squeal, maybe more of a scream,ripped through the house. I turned in time to see Ashley flingingherself at her brother. Just as Sierra had, Ashley’s first coherentwords were, “how is this possible?”

Jack hugged his sister tightly, before pushing heraway gently. “I think we should all sit down, so we can discusseverything that happened on both sides of the portal.” Jackoffered, startling everyone who hadn’t yet seen him.

“Wait,” I called out, “first, someone tell me wheremy daughter is, because I really just want to hold her right now.”Mikael walked, with a noticeable limp in his left leg, over to thebasinet that was tucked away in the corner by the sofa, and pickedup our beautiful little girl. He brought her to me, and placed herin my arms, then he made his way across the room to sit oppositeme. At first I was taken aback, and not in a good way, at howcallous Mikael was being by sitting across from me instead of withme. Then I realized he just needed a little space to process, andmaybe to stare at me while I held our daughter.

My mom patted the spot on the couch next to her, andI sat down there with Willow tucked gently up against me. I hadmissed her so much. Her weight was so much less than the older,baby Jack. The fresh baby powder clean scent still clung to her aswell. For a moment, I felt ashamed for tainting her with my dirty,death garb, but I didn’t want to go all the way home to take ashower first, and my little baby girl seemed content just to hearmy heartbeat against her tiny little ear.

Like a coward, I avoided looking across from myselfto where Mikael had perched on the arm of a chair that wascurrently occupied by Asriel. Okay, so maybe I peaked a little, andthen looked away really fast. I figured Mikael was mad at me too.Maybe that was the real reason he’d picked the other side of theroom to sit down in. Really, if our roles had been reversed I knewhe would have done exactly the same thing. I would have been mad,but I would have sat there, just staring at him in awe, andthankful that he was returned to me in one peace. So, I let himhave that moment to figure things out in his own head.

“Jess, I think you should start first. I have afeeling that whatever happened with you was a result of what wenton here.” My mom wasn’t placing blame, she just knew that thetimeline started somewhere, and most likely that meant it startedwith me. I explained to them the plan that Layla and I hadconcocted. I also told them all about the secondary plan I came upwith, involving Gabriel’s help to get Layla back out. Gabriel hadthe good sense to look guilty when Layla eyed him suspiciously fromacross the room.

“Wait, what are you guys still doing here, anyway? Iwould have thought you would have left by now.”

“We were trying to come up with a plan to save youfrom yourself, my dear.” Serena spoke from over by the stairs thatled up to where my room used to be. “Had I known my sister wasplanning on letting you sacrifice yourself like that, I wouldn’thave let you go.”

“We had a better plan, it just didn’t work. So longas Louis could see me standing there on the dais, he wasn’t goingto budge from his spot. To walk back through would have beeninstant death, at his hands, for both baby Jack and I.”

“So, instead you chose instant death by walking babyJack and yourself into the world of the dead?” Mikael’s accusationwasn’t a friendly one.

“It was my only option, and I had hope that itwouldn’t be permanent.”

“Mikael!” My mother warned hastily. “We need to hearthe rest. You can be angry with her later.” I was sure my mom waspulling some of her werewolf mood-mojo on him, because he quieteddown, and appeared to be relaxed after a few minutes, instead ofthe way he looked moments ago like he was sitting on the edge of alive wire.

“Yeah, let’s get to the part where my brother isalive now.” Ashley called out.

“I’m not really the important part,” Jack offerednonchalantly.

“Of course you are, dummy. You’re here, and you’realive now.” Ashley countered.

“Jess, do you want to take this one?”

I sighed, but then I explained about the sacrificesthat had to be made in order to send me back to the land of theliving. Serena was none too happy about her link to her white wolflineage being broken, and my mom became a heap of raw emotion againfor a few minutes when I mentioned my dad offering to come back andwhy he could not. I was already exhausted from living it, and thenretelling what happened drained me that much more. I realized Ihadn’t actually been to sleep in over 48 hours, and it was allstarting to catch up to me. Once I finished my side of the story, Isat there, waiting to hear someone tell the other side. No oneoffered up even a tidbit of what happened. To their credit, theyall seemed to be lost in the details I’d just provided. I was aboutto ask what had happened when the front door opened again, and astranger stepped through.

Immediately, when the man entered my parents’ home,Jack grabbed Sierra and her baby, and tossed them behind him,towards me. He was in front of us so quickly I couldn’t even trackthe movements.

“A Wraith Guardian! It’s been ages since I’veencountered the likes of it.” The strange man intoned. He held hisground, and didn’t attempt to move any closer to us though.“Serena, can you call it off?”

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