Page 108 of Godsbane
Raw, immortal power shoots from the center of my chest. My eyes lock onto the emerald mirror of my true father’s gaze one final time. The corner of Death’s lip lifts in a half-smile as I levitate above the floor. Everything around me fades into nothingness, first the domed ceiling, then the bone walls and the stone floors.
Just before the Dark God fully disappears, his whispered voice fills my head.
“We’ll meet again, my dark bloom. And next time, I’ll bring your mother.”
CHAPTER 40
CAL
Iam losing my mind.
That’s the only explanation I can come up with. No sane man would be staring so intently at a woman’s left pinky finger. But I swear to the gods, Ivy’s twitched twenty-seven minutes ago.
Twenty-seven minutes and ten seconds, to be exact.
No part of her has moved in the past eighteen days. Not an eyelid flutter, not a toe wiggle, and definitely not a pinky twitch. But it happened today. I know it did.
“Captain…”
A kind voice floats in from the bedroom doorway, but I don’t break my stare. If I take my eyes off her finger for even a fraction of a second, I won’t know if it moves again.
“Are you okay?” Quinn lays her hand on my shoulder to get my attention.
“Her finger moved.”
“I think it’s time for you to get outside again. Theo is waiting at the?—”
“No,” I interrupt aggressively, my eyes honed on the delicate fingers that lay in my palm. “She moved. I know she did.”
“Captain, I know how desperate you are, how desperate we all are but …”
“There!” I shout as Ivy’s ring finger and pinky twitch in tandem this time. “Did you see that? It’s real, Quinn! It’s fucking real this time!”
This time.Unlike the other five times I’ve claimed to see it. Self-deprivation of sleep, food, and sunlight will do that to a person. I don’t blame Quinn for not believing me.
Fifteen minutes later, her middle finger joins the others. Three fingers moving in the span of a quarter of an hour.
I lay my hands on her chest and push my magic into her as best as I can. More than two weeks practicing and I still don’t fully know how Ivy was able to tap into the core of her magic, the locked away power that we shouldn’t have in this realm. She did it though. My incredible, brave woman did the fucking impossible.
Tension hovers thickly in the air as we wait on bated breath for her next movement. Each minute takes twice as long as the one before it. Each second feels like a thousand years.
Ten excruciating minutes later, Ivy’s entire left hand spasms in mine. I can’t hold back the tears anymore. This is it. Everything I’ve been praying for. Ivy is coming back to me.
I push again with my magic, harder and faster than I ever dared to before. Her right hand twitches in answer, her left foot following less than five minutes later. I collapse onto the floor at the sight of it, burying my head into her side as I try to muffle my cries with the mattress.
So close. She’s so fucking close and still so far away.
“Cal.” A weak, barely audible voice squeaks out my name. Nothing has ever sounded sweeter to me than the way my name sounds as it crosses Ivy’s lips at this moment. My arms are around her in an instant, my face moving to the crook of her neck.
“Ivy. Ivy. Ivy.” Her name comes out broken in sobs, my entire body trembling in shock and relief.
This is real,I repeat to myself.She is real. She is awake.
“Water,” she whispers.
Quinn holds out a cup, offering it to me instead of her best friend. There’s a knowing smile on her face as she nods for me to take it. It’s a testament to how much of her trust and respect I’ve earned over the past eighteen days. There’s no doubt in her mind about the unending nature of my love for Ivy. She wants me to have this moment as much as I do.
Ivy drinks the cool, clear liquid in deep gulps. I have to pull the cup away from her face before she drinks too fast and aspirates. “Easy, easy.”
