Night Rises: The Awakened Magic Saga (Soul Forge Book 2) by Leslie Claire Walker

Author:Leslie Claire Walker [Walker, Leslie Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Secret Fire Press
Published: 2017-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

“THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE,” I said.

Red held my gaze. His eyes filled with hurt that he masked so quickly, I’d have missed it if I hadn’t been looking right at him. He tightened his grip on the edge of the kitchen counter until his knuckles bleached.

The mess of emptied pizza pans and spilled condiments seemed to fade. I could hear the crackling of flames in the living room fireplace, along with an explosion and the squeal of tires from the movie the kids were watching out there, but that faded away as well.

Red was all I could see, his grass green and earth. His breath on my face was all I felt. The thump of my own heartbeat and the rush of my blood in my veins were all I heard.

“It’s impossible because of the situation, what we’re facing. All I wanted was time, which clearly we’re not gonna get. I only wanted to figure things out slowly, to understand what I’m feeling.”

“Is it about Sunday?” he asked. “The thing you have to sort out?”

I blinked at him.

He knew Sunday and I had been together before. He knew she’d cleaned up my mess the night I’d chosen not to kill Faith, after I’d taken Faith and run. She’d taken out the follow-up team the Order had sent. She’d made sure we were safe.

She’d left the Order and followed me to Portland. She’d done all of it because she loved me.

“No,” I said. “Not the way you think. Just listen. Can you do that?”

He didn’t answer, but he didn’t look away either.

“Sunday is the only person I was ever with before. I loved her the way someone with nothing to lose loves—completely and utterly. She loved me the same way. Somewhere along the line, it wasn’t enough. Sunday and I are friends now. We still love each other. Would still do anything for each other.”

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “This isn’t helping.”

“She stayed here to fight with us even though there’s no chance of rekindling what we had. She did that for love, and if she ever needed me for any reason, no matter how far around the world she was, I’d go. Understand?”

He let out a breath he’d been holding.

My voice trembled. “The reason I’ve been avoiding talking about us isn’t because I don’t care enough,” I said. “It’s because I care too much. I’m no longer the person I used to be—someone with nothing to lose. Now, I have everything to lose, and it scares me to death.”

The fire inside of me still burned. I could hardly believe it hadn’t scorched me. Surely it would. Any second now.

Red peeled his fingers from the counter’s edge and reached up to cup my face in his hands. “You want to run from this?”

“I don’t think I can,” I said. “It would follow me wherever I’d go.”

The wonder I’d seen in his eyes early this morning bloomed again. “Sunday told me she’s taking first watch.”

I nodded.

“There’s an empty bedroom in the back,” he said.

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