Lost in Time (Blue Bloods 6)

Mimi could not remember ever feeling so happy. The happiness was deep and sustaining, and she realized now that after innumerable years on earth, she had never felt this way.

That no one had ever loved her this way, so completely and so thoroughly. She had never shared a moment like this with anyone, and the love she felt for Kingsley was a precious gift—a delicate, wonderful bubble that covered the two of them but grew to expand to the whole world and the entire universe, past the Kingdom of the Dead and the Garden of Eden, encompassing everything and everybody around it.

She loved and she was loved, and that was all that mattered. How simple, really. But wasn’t that the reason she had traveled to the underworld in the first place? Her soul was at peace. She was happy and satisfied with life. Everything would work out. She had gotten what she wanted. Ask and ye shall receive. She had received it in spades.

There was something else, something unexpected: that darkness in her soul, that corrosive hate and anger, bitterness and humiliation that she had been living with for the better part of a year—it was gone. It had disappeared.

Mimi had another thought: one so new and surprising that she could not believe she was thinking it. But it was there all the same.

She would let Jack live.

She loved Kingsley so much that she had enough love in her heart for her wayward twin as well. There was no need to spend her energy looking for Jack and plotting to kill him. She would release him from his bond. There would be no blood trial. There was no need.

“What are you thinking about, Force?” Kingsley asked.

“You look so serious.”

She turned to him and gave him another kiss—one of many they would share in an immortal lifetime. “I was thinking we should do that again.”

So they did.

THIRTY-NINE

Twilight in the Garden

LeavingtheCovenwasnosmallmatter,andevenifAllegra had no doubts that she was doing the right thing, there would be moments when she would catch herself wondering how Charles was doing. She hoped that somehow he would find a way to recover and find some peace. She’d thought being free of the bond would lighten her load, but instead her heart was heavy. While she would have her love, she had lost everything else that was precious to her, including a storied, celebrated history that was an indelible part of her identity.

Ben loved her and thought he knew her, but there was so much that he could never know, never understand, which was why she loved him in the first place. She loved him for seeing the part of her that no one ever noticed—the human part, the vulnerable girl behind the vampire shell.

One morning, not too long after her imprisonment, a telegram arrived at the vineyard. It was a summons. I am at the Fairmont. I will wait for you in the tea room at four o’clock.

“Who sends telegrams these days?” Ben asked, watching Allegra read the small typewritten note.

“My mother,” Allegra said, tearing the note in half and tossing it into the garbage. She had not spoken to her mother since leaving New York, and Cordelia had never attempted to contact her before now.

“When am I going to meet her?” Ben asked.

“Not anytime soon,” she said. “I’m sorry, it’s just… she’s not really the best person for you to meet right now.”

Ben nodded, but he looked hurt, and they did not talk about it for the rest of the day.

When Allegra arrived at the hotel’s grand lobby, her mother was seated on a divan, rigid, correct, and implacable as always. Allegra bent down to kiss Cordelia’s cheek, and found it papery and thin, smelling of talcum powder and Chanel No. 5.

But other than a few fine lines around her bird-blue eyes, Cordelia looked exactly the same. Allegra had a flash for a moment of Cordelia looking a little older and speaking to a girl who was just a few years younger than Allegra was. The girl regarded Cordelia in the same manner that Allegra had, with a little bit of fear and love. Who was that girl? Allegra wondered.

Was it the daughter she would bear to Ben? The baby she had seen in that vision? Why was the girl with Cordelia? But of course—Allegra remembered now—because she would not be able to raise the child herself, remembering the image of herself lying comatose on that hospital bed. Was there anything she could do to change it? To change the future? Ben had told her not to fear—but he had no idea what they were up against.

“Scone?” Cordelia asked, breaking Allegra’s reverie.

“No thanks.”

“Pity. They’re quite good.”

Allegra watched her mother eat with precise, small move-ments, and, as if in retaliation, took a big noisy gulp from her water glass. “I know why you’re here,” she said finally.

“Oh?” Cordelia put down her teacup. “I suppose I’m not surprised.”

Allegra nodded. “You’re not going to convince me to change my mind. Charles and I have… ended it. He let me go,”