Page 87 of Destined for Dreams
Chapter 23
Cori
Cori paced between the living room and kitchen, unable to stand still. The last week had been rough, worrying about whether Bartol was dead or worse, but somehow waiting for him to call her after finding out he was alive was harder. She needed to hear his voice to truly believe it.
“Will you please sit down?” her mother asked, calm and collected while she sat on the couch knitting a yellow blanket.
“I can’t.” Cori glanced at her cell phone. “He could call at any minute.”
“And you’ll be too out of breath to talk to him, assuming you don’t pass out.” She shook her head and sighed. “I wish you could see how pale you are right now.”
“I’m fine.”
Joy gave her a censorious look. “No, you’re not. You’ve hardly eaten a thing all week, and when you do, you usually throw it back up. It’s a miracle you’re standing.”
This wasn’t the first time they’d had this argument in the last few days. “I’m not exactly human anymore, Mom. I can handle it.”
“Sweetheart, I think you should consider…”
Cori’s cell phone rang. She held up a hand to her mother, silencing her, and answered. “Bartol?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
Her knees went weak at hearing his voice. Cori grabbed the nearest seat at the dining room table and sank down on it. “I’ve been worried.”
“I know, and I’m sorry for that.” His voice came out raw and tired. “Remiel insisted we shower and eat before we did anything else.”
“It’s okay. He told us you’d need time to recuperate, and if you need more it’s alright, I just needed to hear your voice.” She didn’t want to let him go this fast, but she could only imagine what he’d been through, and how he might need time to himself.
“No. I need to hear your voice as well.”
She closed her eyes, wishing she could be in the same room with him. “This mating bond is making me crazy.”
“You are not the only one.” She could almost ‘hear’ him smile. “Are you doing well?” he asked.
“I’m doing better now, but I’m still worried about you. Remiel said he found you and Caius deep inside a mountain in Norway, but he didn’t say what happened while you were there—and there’s no sign of Tormod.”
“The demon took the three of us minutes after we arrived in Prague,” Bartol explained. “We didn’t stand a chance of getting away from him before he hit us with some sort of dark spell. I have no idea what happened after that until waking earlier today. Well, with the exception of one thing.” Bartol went on to explain how they’d found the demon’s symbol carved onto their backs and how it affected them.
She shuddered. “That’s horrible. Are they gone now?”
“Yes, though we had to remove them before Remiel could locate us.”
“How…how did you do it?” Cori knew she probably shouldn’t ask, but she needed to understand everything Bartol had been through—even the worst parts.
A few seconds of silence passed. “It wasn’t pretty. We had to cut and peel the skin off each other’s backs with a jagged piece of rock.”
Her gut clenched as she envisioned what that must have looked and felt like. “I’m sorry.”
“I’ve had worse,” Bartol admitted. “Kerbasi prepared me for just about anything…with the exception of you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, pretending to be offended.
“If I’ve learned anything on this journey so far, it is that I want it to be over as quickly as possible so that I can return to you. I have no idea how I got caught up in your tangled web, but I miss being in it.”
“Ha, ha.” Cori almost smiled. “You have no idea how much I want to hop on a plane right now and fly to you. If not for my mother and the others talking me out of it, I’d probably be on my way already.”
“I’m glad they are keeping you there,” he said, voice turning stern. “It is too dangerous for you to leave Alaska until this demon is dead.”
