I shouldn’t care.
But I did.
Still hadn’t forgiven myself for my part in it all. This might finally be the retribution my soul needed to put all this in the past.
Agony splintered through me. My guilt and remorse. Everything I should have done differently. All the things I’d go back and change.
I couldn’t, but at least I could help bring justice.
For Bailey.
For Faith.
And fuck . . . maybe for Joseph, too.
“This shit is real, Jace. Dangerous. We have no idea what we’re going to come up against in there.”
“Not up for discussion, Mack. I’m sorry, but I have to do this. You know I do. I think that’s why you called me in the first place.”
I heard muttering on the other end of the line, Mack talking to someone else before he came back on.
“All right, Jace. Felix volunteered to go out and keep a lookout at the plantation while we do this. But you stay in the car. Do you understand me?”
“I will. I promise”
“Be here by eleven. You can ride with me. Felix will head over by then.”
Silence filled the space between us before he finally said, “It’s time.”
“It’s time,” I returned.
That was the hardest part.
The fact that it was time.
The fact that I couldn’t keep it from Faith any longer.
She stepped out the door, hair soaking wet and body wrapped in a towel, that energy surging when she looked at me from across the room.
Beauty.
Grace and light and everything I’d ever wanted.
I just prayed after everything, she would still want me.
Forty
Faith
I stepped out of the shower and started to towel off. A muted voice echoed through my bathroom door.
One I would recognize forever.
The one my spirit had quietly called to for all these years.
There was something about the tone of it, though, that sent dread skating across my dampened skin and had me quietly edging toward the door and pressing my ear to the thin wood.
Maybe it was wrong, eavesdropping this way. The way my heart fumbled around in my chest as if it were struggling against the chains of fear that wanted to wrap it up.
But the man was in my room, and there was nothing I could do but listen.
Nerves trembling through me, I angled my head and bit down on my lip as I listened to one side of the conversation.
“I won’t even get out of my car. I just need to be there to watch you haul the monster out in cuffs who tried to hurt Faith and Bailey.”
“Not up for discussion, Mack. I’m sorry . . . but I have to do this. You know I do. I think that’s why you called me in the first place.”
“It’s time.”
Something rustled, and I heard Jace curse under his breath, as if he were upset over whatever Mack had told him, while a torrent of fear billowed through me, taking to my veins.
Because I could feel it.
Coming closer.
Gaining speed.
Everything I didn’t want to know.
Everything I wanted to pretend wasn’t real.
And maybe that made me the biggest fool in the world.
Pretending something wasn’t real didn’t keep it from happening.
But I didn’t think I could take any more. Couldn’t take any more before my spirit cracked.
The fragile seams Jace had made as he’d stitched me back together felt as if they were being pulled and stretched. So close to rending under the pressure.
With my heart beating somewhere in my throat, I quietly turned the old knob on the door and stepped into the shadowy darkness of my bedroom.
Night pressed at the window, the fade of the moon slicing through the leaves that billowed and waved at the glass.
It sent the room into a slow dance of shadows.
Hypnotizing.
Jace stood at the end of the bed.
His own shadowy figure. Dark and somehow the brightest thing I’d ever seen.
That fierce, protective fury coming off him in waves.
My beast.
And there I was, making a thousand wishes.
That all of this would actually be okay, just like he’d promised.
That he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to us.
That he would love us and protect us.
As if he felt every single one of my questions, he took a step my direction.
His presence thrashed.
A life force that cracked.
A boom against the walls.
I could almost feel it shake the foundation of the old house. The impact of him looking at me that way.
He slowly edged forward, so much power in each step that I found myself taking one back with each that he took. No longer sure that I could stand under the magnitude of it.
Mystery written in his face and questions written on my heart.
I wanted him to erase them. Write over them in his own words.
Love me. Love me.
The only cover I had was the towel that was wrapped around me, and I clutched it tighter. Throat dry and stomach heavy.
Trembling with fear, that feeling at odds with the desire I felt for this man.