Page 56 of Another Damned Storm
“We need to talk to them, I get that. I’m just a little worried is all.” Not to mention dead ass tired. Nothing pulling up my big girl panties wouldn’t fix.
Hook pulled in a deep breath and shook his head. “It can wait. I suspect rest would be more beneficial for all involved at this point.” He turned to Lily. “You wouldn’t happen to have a spare room where we could get some rest, would you?”
She smiled and nodded. “Absolutely. Let me show you the way.”
The next day, after a night of quiet lovemaking and more sleep than I’d realized I needed, and a morning loaded with learning more about Lily and her pack, I was itching to get things moving. Hook had reached out to the Brethren earlier in the day, and we’d been given instructions on when and where to meet them.
“Can you flash?” Lily asked, looking between us.
“I was starting to get the hang of it in the Nassa,” I said, like that counted for anything. “Here? I need more practice.”
Hook reached out and took my hand. “I can flash us anywhere we need to go.”
“I know, but I need to figure this out. What if I try to follow you?”
His brow lifted. “Do you think you can track my magic?”
“Not exactly.” Not at all, actually. “But I want to try something.” My gut was telling me the connection between us was strong enough to guide me to him without knowing where he was. It was a hunch, but it couldn’t hurt to at least try.
He squeezed my hand before letting go with a reluctant smile. “We’ll try it your way, but I insist you keep our connection open in case anything goes awry.”
“That goes for you, too.” I pulled the copper bracelet out of my back pocket. “What about this?”
“It won’t interfere with my ability to find you, so just put it on just before we leave.” He turned to Lily. “Do you want to join us?”
She lifted her brow, then gave him a quick nod. “Yeah. I wouldn’t mind seeing the big guy again.”
I’d almost forgotten that Emerson and Theloneus were both there with Lily and Matt when we made the trip back to the Nassa. “Which one is the big one again?” I remembered them both being mountains of men.
Lily swiveled her chair to look at me dead on, the light from monitors giving her a blueish halo. “Theloneus, obviously. Emerson had a certain appeal, but last time I saw him he was still hung up on that dead ex of his.”
A twinge of sadness skipped through the link, pulling my attention to Hook. Emerson had fallen in love with a human woman who had died a few short years later. That was all I knew of the story, except for the part where he didn’t have any godly powers that he could use to drag her back from wherever her soul ended up.
I tried to imagine what it would be like to lose Hook now,after everything we’d been through, and then be expected to go on living. For eternity. Alone.
Forget the Alius. Losing the people I loved with no way of joining them in the afterlife?Thatwas my definition of hell.
I had to assume there was some kind of afterlife for regular mortals who weren’t tainted with demon blood. I mean, come on, there were gods and demons and pixies and shifters. A plane of existence beyond this one wasn’t that much of a stretch, was it?
Except, now that I wasn’t technically human anymore, that meant I would lose Matt and Lily, eventually. And Hook, when I went back to the Alius to set things right in this realm.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I could spend eternity with my broody pirate, but if that meant the rest of the world would suffer, it wasn’t an option my conscience would let me live with.
I would belong to that man forever. It just sucked that forever would be spent in misery and heart ache, separated by realms and lifetimes.
And it wasn’t like my brother would be going wherever normal people went when they died. No matter what he did with his life, his blood would send him straight to the Alius. The only comfort in that thought was that he and I would be reunited, eventually.
I could only imagine what his daughter would do if she ever found out where he was headed.
Or where she was headed.Disgust bled through me. That was one of the thoughts that haunted me since I’d met her the day before.
What kind of fucked up system would damn such a sweet, feisty girl to that hellscape for something she had no control over?
The only real solution was to take them all back to the Nassa. Now that Matt was a full-fledged adult, and Petra wastrapped in an endless spin-cycle at the bottom of the eddy, she wouldn’t pose a threat. I would have to convince Hook and Leo to protect them for a few years, or decades. But I could be persuasive. And it would only be until the magic of the realm soaked into their bones, or whatever the hell it did.
“Earth to Never,” Lily said, waving a hand in front of my face.
I blinked and leaned back in my chair. “What? I was listening,” I lied.
