Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
The doctor did what she could to hide her expression.
And that was when Dev floated forward.
Keeping himself invisible to the lot of them, he settled himself at Lyric’s feet. Then he raised his arm. Calling up that cursed nature of his, he did what he had always refused to do.
He intervened in the matter of life and death, and used the very thing that he hated most about himself.
Extending his palm, he summoned his very essence, concentrating it into an aura of light that was both black and white, a combination of evil and goodness.
Then he prepared to will some of his own life-force into Lyric, to give her a measure of himself. It felt like the right thing to do, but he wasn’t sure, especially as he remembered her horror that she’d had sex with him. Perhaps the betrayal she felt went so deep, she would have refused the help? Too late, and there wasn’t a way to ask her.
Anyway, she already had his heart. She might as well have part of his soul—
As he sent the spark into her, there was a crack of energy, the smell of ozone, and a series of concentric rings that vibrated through the air, riffling through peoples’ clothing and hair, pushing their bodies around.
And then Lyric took a great, gasping breath, drawing in oxygen as her heart restarted.
I love you, Dev thought at her. With all that I am.
Meanwhile, as everybody recoiled in shock… her brother looked up and over his shoulder. At Dev.
As their eyes met, he thought that that was a neat trick of the male’s. Except maybe he just sensed something was amiss—or maybe, because of the amount of magic required to do what he did, Dev had briefly revealed his presence.
In any event, time to go.
Dev backed up. Then turned away.
He passed through the apartment door as if it didn’t exist, and then he threw up a screen in the hallway. They were going to have to get Lyric out somehow. The least he could do was make sure he covered them.
Then he would see about the rest of things.
He intended to make good on his offer to those two vampires in that closet: He was more than ready to bring his father’s enemy directly to Lash.
After all these years, he was in a mind to join the fight now.
On the right side of history.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Floating.
Lyric was floating through a white landscape, fog roiling up around her, her body weightless in a way that reminded her of being up in the Sanctuary. When she came upon a white door, she had a sudden shock.
The Fade? Was she really… here?
Vague memories of what had transpired down below played through her mind, but they were like echoes of something that had happened to someone else, even as she remembered jumping in front of that gun to protect L.W., even as she recalled—
Dev.
Pain lanced through her, and she felt tears come to her eyes. In an impossibly fast series of images, she watched their entire relationship, from the start to where it had ended, everything playing out with a painful clarity. And as she got to that last argument, she knew he was right. She had kept her secret as well, but the magnitude of what he had not shared was…
Oh, what did it matter. She was here now, and she knew what it meant.
She had died.
And though she was so very sad for everyone she was leaving behind, she found herself feeling rather done with life, like it was a problem she had tried to solve and the calculations had just gotten way out of her capabilities.
Confronting the door, she put her hand forward toward the knob, knowing that as soon as she turned it and opened—
Someone appeared in the closed panel, someone who made the tears in her eyes multiply until they were spilling down her cheeks.
“Granmahmen.”
The smile that came back at her was just what it used to be, joyous and strong, healthy and happy. Gone were the wasting and the pain, the sadness and the resignation that the bill had come due for a mortal’s purchase of life.
All the vitality was back, and so was that beautiful face.
“Lyric.”
Oh, yes, and that voice, that lovely voice, too.
“Do you really think it is your time?” Her namesake gestured toward whatever was behind herself. “It is beautiful there, nothing except peace and tranquility, but my dear girl, there’s so much to keep you where you are down below.”
“I miss you,” she croaked out.
“And I miss you.” Her granmahmen smiled again. “And I want you to know that I’m waiting for all of you here. I’m safe, and content to bide the time you are due upon the earth, each of you. Do not rush this decision just because of your heartbreak.”