Page 122 of Scrooged for the Holidays
It might be a stupid idea, but everything inside me wants to go back to Elysian Pines. To Malachi’s playful grin and stupid nickname for me, to Remiel’s piercing green gaze and domineering Daddy vibes, to Samael’s broody yet grounding presence.
I tuck into my cold bed and prop the angel on my bedside table before turning off the lamp. The room is shrouded in darkness as I stare at the angel. Exhaustion tugs at me, and my eyes begin to shut, the last few days and lack of sleep catching up to me. Heat pools in my stomach when I imagine that the next time I fall asleep, I’ll have three Nephilim alongside me. At least, I hope.
Despite Remi’s words before I left and the fact that we didn’t talk about anything in our future, I can’t picture going on with my life without them. It would feel how I felt looking at my future self: soulless, like nothing.
That thought alone should scare me, but it doesn’t. There was a reason they came into my life, and I refuse to believe it was simply for the time we shared. I can only hope they feel the same way, too, that I wasn’t just a job to them and that the town welcomes me back.
As my eyes fully close and sleep pulls me under, I swear my room grows darker and a delicate kiss brushes my forehead…but I must’ve imagined it.
Chapter thirty-eight
Remiel
Theairtightensandhums then snaps like a deer stepping on a twig in the forest. I stand from the couch in the inn, the same one where Greer rode my thigh, nearly throwing the whiskey from the tumbler in my hands into the fire.
Before I can call for Kai and Sam, they both appear in front of me.
“You all felt it?” Kai asks, excitement clear in his tone.
“Someone crossed the border,” Sam says in a calm tone. Though I know he’s not calm—I can see it in the way his jaw flexes as he clenches it.
“It’s her; it has to be,” Kai adds.
I use my connection as the leader of our guardianship to tap into the town’s energy. Someone has crossed the border as Sam said, and by the way it hums and builds in my being—just like it did the first time it made us aware of her—I know Greer is back.
“What are we waiting for?” Kai doesn’t hesitate. He steps around me and heads toward the front of the inn at lightning speed. I’m surprised he didn’t snap his fingers to appear there faster.
“Remiel,” Sam says before I can follow.
I meet his intense gaze. His pupils are as dark as the deepest depths of the ocean. “What is it?”
“If she chooses to stay with us, I don’t know how it will work, if she’ll age the same as us or…like I said, I can’t see our future with her.”
I step forward and grip his chin, holding it firm. “We’ll take whatever time is given to us, no matter what happens. I’ll reiterate with you what I told Kai: We’ll always have each other, until we take our final breath. No fear, remember?”
He stares at me another moment before he dips his chin sharply. I drop my hand and take his, keeping it in mine as we meet Kai in the front room.
The sound of snow under tires drags our attention to the SUV driving into the parking lot. My heart thuds in my ears, and relief floods my system. I knew it was Greer, but the confirmation of seeing her vehicle is soothing. She may not have been gone long, but she didn’t forget us, and Elysian Pines let her find her way back like I think I always knew it would.
My lungs release the breath it trapped, and my shoulders lighten. I send a silent thank-you to the magic of the town, and to my surprise, a massive pulsing wave of energy floods through me in response. It feels like a thousand shock waves, awakening every nerve in my being.
“What was that?” Sam asks.
“I felt it, too,” Kai adds.
“The town, it bloody responded to me.”
“What?” Sam asks, eyes wide.
“I told it ‘thank you’ for bringing her back. That pulse was the response.”
The three of us stare at each other. This must mean that this is the future,ourfuture. This is what is supposed to happen, and Elysian Pines is playing its role. Things will work out; we just have to let them.
Greer spots us before she even reaches the door, and Kai jumps out of his trance to open it for her. The cold wind sweeps in, and she smiles at him as she passes by to meet Sam and I inthe middle of the foyer. I just saw that smile last night, but I was already missing it. I want to see it every moment of every day.
“Hi,” she says breathlessly, clutching a small brown gift bag in her hands. Kai rejoins us so we’re standing in a semicircle around her.
“Hello, love. You found your way back, I see?”
