Page 120 of Scrooged for the Holidays
I mull over Remi’s words, the flickers of hope reigniting and traveling through the pain I feel in my chest and the voiceof doubt that nags at me. “But if she does forget and never returns?”
“Then we have each other. We will always have each other.”
I lean in and kiss Remi, feeling his love for me not only through his kiss but our bond as well. He pulls away and tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear.
“We should head back, allow Greer to have her time with her family. Sam shouldn’t be alone.”
“I’m not alone.”
The back of my neck prickles, and I turn with Remi as Sam emerges from the shadows. His black aura throbs faintly around him, a living darkness as he stalks toward us across the stark white snow, nearly silent. With his sharp cheekbones and shadowed features, he looks like death and rebirth come to life. My heart flutters faster at the sight.
“Sam,” Remi greets. “How long have you been here?”
For the first time ever, I swear Sam’s harsh features turn sheepish. It’s odd, to say the least, but also endearing.
“I’ve been following Kai since he left.”
Well, fuck. Apparently, I was distracted. I should have felt his energy near me. “You have?”
“I knew you would follow her. I tried to stay away, but I felt the pull to follow her, too.”
The three of us stand in a semicircle as we look in on Greer now speaking with her mom in hushed tones before they hug, the image warming my soul.
“Did you hear us speaking just now?” I ask Sam.
“I did, and I agree with everything Remi said.”
“You do?” Remi asks, blinking.
“Yes, I do.”
My mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water before I can gather my words. “What changed?”
His gaze shifts to Greer, and we follow it.
“I don’t know if anything changed,” he says. “Like the both of you, I knew from the beginning that Greer was different, andthat’s why it bothered me so much. After hundreds of years of the same, why were we drawn to her like we’ve never been drawn to a human before?
“I tried to deny that I was, that we all were. I did so out of fear of the future and my lingering hurts from the past. But Greer accepted us, all of us, the dark and the light. I’m sick of denying that I could be wrong, that she’s ours. That she was meant to find us.”
More hope lights inside me like dry brush in a wildfire. “Does that mean you’ve seen her new future, that she’ll continue to remember and return to us?”
Sam turns to me, and I know the answer from the darkness of his eyes before he says it. “I haven’t seen it.”
My brow furrows, and sadness creeps into my aura.
“Kai.” Sam touches my chin softly. “Weren’t you the one who told me to stop living in the future and be more like the two of you?”
A smile plays at the corners of my lips despite myself. “What can I say? I’m a smart Nephilim.”
“You are.” He rubs his thumb over my beard. “You asked me to let you have hope, but I need to thank you both for giving hope to me. I haven’t felt that in a long time.”
I take Sam’s hand so the three of us are connected. The air around us pulls tight with an energy I’ve never felt before, like we’re on the precipice of something big. Bigger than us, even.
We look at Greer, who’s now alone and standing in front of the Christmas tree. She lifts her hand, and in it is an ornament, but not just any ornament—it’s the one from her past. She rubs her finger over the picture of her and Cooper in the plastic bulb. I use my grace to see the now past moment I missed between her and her mom that must have been the reason for their hug.
Her mom had gone back to their home to get the ornament she’d kept in a box. When she returned with it, Greer was surprised to see it, but it was confirmation that her mom hadnever thrown it away. She’d kept it all these years, a gift from her daughter that she cherished.
My mind clears of the past, and I watch Present Greer place the ornament on Avery’s tree next to a similar one Avery made all those years ago, a picture of the two of them in their snowsuits inside.
