Endless (Shadowlands 3)

“Don’t,” he said in my ear, his teeth clenched. “Don’t you leave me. We’re going to be together forever. Please, Rory. Don’t do this. Don’t.”

I tilted my head up, and tears flowed freely down my face. “I’m so sorry, Tristan. I’m so sorry. I love you. I’ll never stop loving you, I swear.”

He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine firmly, desperately, longingly, and I kissed him back as hard as I could, trying to impress the memory of me into him, as if some piece of me could really linger there forever.

“I love you, too,” he said.

“I know.”

Somehow, I released him. I turned and looked at Joaquin. His chest was heaving, his eyes brimming with unshed tears. I stepped up to him, stood on my toes, touched his cheek, and kissed it.

“Good-bye.”

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. I knew how he felt. I knew what I was doing to both of them. But I also knew that I was doing the right thing. I stepped past Krista, who was smiling beneath Joaquin’s boot, and stood in front of Nell.

“Don’t,” Tristan pleaded, tears streaming down his face. “Don’t, don’t, don’t.”

I lifted my chin, not letting myself consider what was to be.

“Yes,” I said to Steven Nell, to my worst nightmare come to life. “I’ll come with you.”

“No!” Tristan screamed.

Steven Nell smiled. My ears, my head, my heart, my lungs filled with the awful sucking sound that meant it was over. That meant I was being swallowed whole. Devoured. Never to see my family, my home, my love again.

“Rory, no! Please, no!”

Tristan reached for me, his arm and hand and fingers stretching out in pure despair, and then he was gone.

“Rory. Rooreee! Time to wake up, sweetie. It’s a whole new day.”

I took a deep breath, clinging to sleep, knowing that if I opened my eyes, my mother’s voice would cease to exist, just like she’d ceased to exist. She was singing my name, and I didn’t want it to end.

“And I thought I was a heavy sleeper,” Darcy said sarcastically.

“Give her a break.” That was Dad. “She’s been through a lot.”

“Come on, sweetie.” My mom gently shook my shoulder. “I want to look into your eyes.”

I blinked myself awake. I was on a soft cotton pad on the floor of a vast white room, and I was staring at my mother’s face. She looked nothing like she had on the day she died, with those sunken cheeks and milky eyes. She looked healthy. Perfect. Like she’d never been touched by cancer.

“Hey there. It’s my baby,” she said, her voice full.

I sat up and she enveloped me in a lilac-scented hug. Her blond hair brushed my face. I’d forgotten her hair, how long and soft it was.

“Mom? Where are we?” I looked up and saw my dad and Darcy standing behind her, wearing the same clothes they’d worn the nights they’d disappeared. Darcy in a tight blue T-shirt and jeans. Dad in his polo shirt and khakis. “I’m dreaming, right? This is a dream.”

My mother reached out and tucked my hair behind my ears. “It’s not a dream,” she said, a proud smile lighting her face. “We’re here because of you. We’re together because of you.”

“Me?”

“You committed a purely selfless act,” my mother said, her hand coming to rest atop mine. It was so tan and perfect, her wedding ring shining on her ring finger. “You willingly gave yourself up to the Shadowlands to save those souls, and because of that, you were sent to the Light.”

My heart leaped, and I looked at my father. “This is the Light? What about the others?”

“They’re here,” Darcy said with a smile. “Aaron is beside himself.”

I laughed and tears overflowed, bathing my face. “And Nadia? Cori?”