Page 247 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
His mother shook her head. “I can’t…I can’t leave him.”
He helped her stand, and she clung to him. “I know.”
“He’s gone. I know he’s not here, and that I…hatedthe person he became after all these years, but I knew the Harlan I loved was always tucked away, reaching. I just didn’t search for him…I didn’t reach back.”
Jove didn’t know what to say to that. He’d had a very complicated relationship with the man who’d fathered him; his grief felt infinitely more complex, so interwoven with anger and confusion he couldn’t find a way to comfort her. Instead, he squeezed his mother tighter. “We’ll figure this out.”
His mother brushed away more tears.
Lady Fely edged forward, sword hanging by her side. “I will stay with her.”
Saldr threw some dust over Harlan’s body, murmuring a few words. A glow surrounded his father, and when it died down, his skin glistened, the hole in his chest covered by newly woven cloth.
Les jumped, but Jove held her tightly. “I swear I’ll come back for you.”
“When this is over, it would be my honor to burn him with the holy flames,” Saldr said quietly. “A great honor to be bestowed on someone who is not of our race, but deserving of the man who sacrificed himself for another.”
Jove’s eyes stung. If Harlan hadn’t knocked Kase out of the way, it would’ve been his brother lying before him, skin pale and chest unmoving. Jove had been frozen, unable to do anythingbut watch as his father shoved Kase to the ground, taking the blow for him.
His father did indeed have a heart hidden underneath the layers of ice, and the moment he’d revealed it, he’d died.
Neither Kase nor Jove would get to see the man Harlan Shackley could have been…the man he might have once been.
Once, when Jove was small, Harlan had played toy soldiers with him and Zeke. Once, his father had laughed at something his mother had said and drawn her close, kissing her softly to a chorus of groans from his children.
But those few memories had been buried beneath grief, pain, and abuse as if they never were. It was only now that Jove remembered, and it was too late. They would never return to a time such as that.
Jove refused to live like that. He’d allowed the alcohol to numb his pain, but it would no longer control him. He would do whatever it took to make sure Samuel could be proud of the man his father was. To make sure Samuel would know the man he’d become.
“Go,” Les said, patting his cheek and waking him from his thoughts. “Do what you were born to do.”
Jove’s chin wobbled, but he swallowed his emotion. He could grieve later. With one last squeeze of her hand, he strode away from his father’s body.
Chapter 49
I WILL BE
Kase
THE LAST HOUR’S WHIRLWIND OF emotions had picked up Kase’s heart and tugged it every which way, but the moment he crushed Hallie in his arms, it settled into a steady rhythm again. She was okay—she was safe. He was safe.
“Kase,” she mumbled. “Need to breathe.”
He reluctantly set her down. He still didn’t understand where they were, but that hardly mattered. He could be at the edge of the world or in some other dimension, but Hallie was with him. He’d found her.
“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” he whispered in her ear. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when Eravin…when he…”
Shocks, he couldn’t even finish his sentence. Not when his mind whirred with shadowy power and his father’s final breath and Eravin’s cruel, mocking grin as he taunted him with Hallie’s demise through bloodless lips.
Hallie blinked, eyes widening like she’d just remembered something; but instead of speaking, she stood on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss. Too quick. He needed it to last longer, but they had quite a large audience.
“That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?” She grabbed both his hands and threaded her fingers through his. Her tone was light and happy, and he wished he could share part of her optimism. She squeezed his hands. “But I’ll allow it until we figure out if the world is going to end or not.”
Kase furrowed his brow. “Eravin fell through the Gate…he’s Jagamot.”
Hallie blinked up at him. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Came through a few minutes before we did.” Kase scanned the crowd milling about, looking for a man with voidless eyes and black veins. People wove in and out of each other like bees in a hive. Even so, Eravin would’ve stood out in such a crowd. The heads bobbed like sea waves, the soft murmur of fear running through them.
