Page 36 of Jacinth

“How the hell am I going to pull this off? I can’t lose her,” I whispered to Julian.

He handed the beverage over. He took a second to think it over and finally said, “Coffee fixes everything.”

“Thanks, man,” I said and meant it.

I wandered outside and found I had parked my car under a tree. Nothing bad had happened, but it was a measure of my distraction that I hadn’t even noticed my mistake.

I made it home in record time and left my baby out front as I raced back to the clearing.

I found Jacinth awake and dressed, white-faced and huddled between trees that looked like something had exploded into them. She looked terrified.

“Angel, what’s wrong? What happened?”

Slowly, she turned wide eyes toward me, as though only just recognizing my presence.

“It’s Gladys. She’s.... gone.”

CHAPTER 26

Skyler

I couldn’t getthe vision out of my head. Jacinth stretched out on the bed. Ice cream. Sex.

I never mentioned to Jace that I was a virgin.

The entire scene I described wouldn’t take place for another year or two.

When I first had the vision, I got the sense it was an anniversary of some sort. Then again, I had never pieced together that I would be sharing her with my brothers. For the longest time, I thought they may have been with her twin.

I knew by now that both Niko and Orion had been with her, and while I was jealous that I hadn’t yet had the pleasure, I wasn’t resentful of their relationship with her. It felt right. Natural.

“Are you with me?” Niko broke me out of my thoughts as he rounded the bench and began pouring two glasses of juice.

“I am. Just thinking, I guess.”

“About Jace?”

“Yeah.”

Niko nodded, downing the juice in one gulp. “We’ve got to find a way to bring her back.”

“If anyone can do it, it will be Orion. I don’t know if he’ll be allowed, though.”

Niko let out a snort that could have been agreement or disgust.

“Hey, he’s making it up to her.”

Niko sighed. “I know, it’s just... man. Everything is about these Fates, you know? All the shit I’ve put up with. All the pressure on him. Whatever has been going on with you. When is enough enough? We have a fated mate, but we can’t be with her? It’s bullshit.”

I nodded in complete agreement. It was hard to sit back and watch the Fates’ grand design play out. It felt almost like that television show where it turned out God was a bad novelist.

“So what do we do?” I asked.

“Maybe we talk to some witches.”

***

We visited the local coven that Niko had spoken to about Jace’s bracelet and had to wait to be seen. The jeopardy music was playing loudly in my head the entire time we waited. What kind of chance did we have finding an answer from witches when our own pet necromancer, who had a vested interest in the outcome, couldn’t help?

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