Page 88 of Fated In Forever
One of these days, I might follow, just to see where they all went, but my task of taking them across took precedence over morbid curiosity. Freezing water dripped from the chain, and I wore the shadows of the Underworld like a cloak, darkness becoming part of me, or I part of it.
I had no idea of how long I’d been here.
I should have etched out a record of my days, a log ofsome kind, but somehow, keeping track felt pointless, even cruel, against the span of eternity, stretching before me.
My hands were well calloused, my back strong, and I was at peace.
Once the souls streamed away into the dark, I turned the seat and picked up the chain, hauled the boat back into the choppy current. This was the calming pattern of my days. Ten trips, back and forth, twenty passings, ten boats, full of souls, and still, the numbers on the other shore continued to grow.
I leaned forward, pulling the chain hand over hand, letting the rhythm of my labor sink into me. Every trip, right about now, when I reached the halfway point, I thought about Evie. Every memory brought me joy and peace and a calm stillness. Every memory reinforced the truth—I had made the right decision, letting her go.
Protecting her, the only way I knew how. Insulating her from the pain of our over-stretched bond, ensuring that, in time, she would forget about me.
Her safety, her happiness, her health was all that mattered.
She existed in the spaces between my memories, in the aching quiet of every return voyage, in the shape of my hands as I repaired one of the castle towers, wondering if she might like it. Evangeline would always be mine, and I would always be hers, even on the day she forgot me, because I would remember for the both of us. I would treasure her happiness and respect her freedom, even if I would never witness it.
Knowing she was out there, alive, was all I needed to be at peace.
I pulled on the chain, let the rhythmicclink clink clinksoothe me. There were still billions of souls waiting. A tidewithout end. And so, I kept pulling, the current lapping greedily at the keel.
Not because I thought I could finish.
But because this endless service was what I was meant for.
I’d tried to buy redemption with lies and promises. Even sworn an oath to earn it. I’d lost pieces of my own soul in pursuit of absolution, but it wasn’t until Evangeline had gazed up at me and insisted that even I—a ruined, selfish egotist—deserved forgiveness, I’d never believed I was worthy.
But now… now I built something with every journey across the raging river. I surrendered to the idea that Vicious was right. I guided the boat onto the misty shore, waited while the souls loaded aboard, then lifted the chain and began again.
I had no idea how long this task would take.
Forever.
And for the first time, I didn’t fear that word.
I had purpose. I had peace.
And I hoped, if Evie ever saw me again, she’d be proud.
41
EVANGELINE
The darkness was softer than velvet.
Not the kind you wore or draped over gothic windows—but the kind that wrapped around you from the inside, thick and endless and smothering, like the lining inside of a coffin.
At first, there were voices.
First, Blake, screaming and screaming, like the sound was being torn out of him. Then Riordan, his deep commanding voice shaking with a tight, grinding rage I’d never heard before.
Then other voices. Whispers. Instructions and orders and quiet female sobbing. They floated in and out of the silence like moth wings fluttering in the dark. Never loud enough to hold onto, but soft enough to haunt.
I reached for them, but my limbs didn’t work the way they used to. Everything was too slow. Too heavy. My thoughts slid sideways, slippery, elusive things I couldn’t grasp onto.
I didn’t remember arriving at Laith Castle, but I was back.
I smelled the ancient wood and stone, the layers upon layers of strange vampire scents, overlaid by mine and Riordan’s and Blake’s. I recognized the weight of the magic here—safe, familiar,old. But none of that made sense, becausenothingfelt safe anymore.
