Page 70 of Born Free

Where my mother killed me after cursing me to never die.

Ingrid brushes my hair back from my face, though it feels like little more than a feather. “No, my love. It is only your perception.”

My eyes draw back to hers, and emotions fill me to the brim. “I… I never thought…”

“I know,” she says as she wraps her arms around me, guiding my face to the crook of her neck. I would curse the fact that she is so incorporeal, but all I can feel is gratitude. I’ve never gotten the chance to even see her face in person. Malcolm gave me the most amazing gift by showing me her past, but that was still not her actual face. And now I’m here, with her arms wrapped around me.

“There’s so much I want to say, to tell you about, but I don’t even know where to start,” I say with a shake of my head.

“I already know it, my Juliet,” she says softly. “I promise you, I have seen it all. Your trials. Your pain. But also your triumphs. Which have been so, so many. I could not be prouder of the woman you’ve become.”

I squeeze my eyes closed, sending a cascade of tears down my cheeks. I don’t know if they’re real. I don’t know if I’m real or if my mother is real.

But it doesn’t matter.

“What I do not know is why you are here,” my mother says as she steps back from me so she can look me in the eyes. “You should not be able to be here. You have broken the rules.”

“Where is this rule book?” I ask, starting to feel a little frantic again. “I’d really like the chance to read it over.” I shake my head. Now isn’t the time to fall back into my default sarcasm. “I just have to know. Can I die for someone more than once?”

The look in her eyes shifts. There’s hesitance there. Regret. Dread.

“No,” the word escapes onto my lips. My eyes burn. That chokehold around my throat returns. “No, Mom, I have to bring him back. He can’t—”

“I know what Roman means to you,” she says, instantly proving that shehasseen it all. “But how much can you give to one person? There must be limits, Juliet.”

I don’t know what that means. Or perhaps I don’t want to know what that means.

But it begins to make sense in my heart.

How much can you give to one person? There must be limits.

I nod. “I’ll give it. There is no limit for me. It’s my fault. I was the one who brought this on him. Please, Mom. I have to bring him back.”

She looks at me hesitantly. But I see it in her eyes, she knows just how much I mean the words.

Ingrid looks to the side, staring into the cornfield. And I stay rooted as she walks away, disappearing among the stalks. I don’t hear her rustling around. I don’t hear her feet crushing husks fallen to the ground. There is nothing but silence as she disappears out of sight.

I wait.

And I wait.

And the weight in my chest begins to feel heavier and heavier.

Who is she bargaining with? Where is she looking? What power does she have to override these rules I’ve broken?

I don’t understand anything about this place.

But, finally, movement draws my eyes. And Ingrid steps out of the field, and tears rush down my face when a familiar form follows after her.

Roman isn’t solid. He’s little more than a black shadow. But I feel him there. His presence seeps into my soul. And I take a step forward.

“Are you sure?” my mother asks hesitantly.

I stop on my path to Roman. And my eyes slide back over to her.

“I wish we’d had what we deserved,” I say, feeling the ache deep in my chest. For the life me and my mother should have gotten. For all the memories we never got to create together. “I appreciate everything you did to give me my own life, though. And this will forever mean everything to me, this chance I got to meet you, no matter what happens next.”

Ingrid’s eyes shine with her own emotion. She steps forward, cupping her hand to the back of my head as she presses a kiss to my forehead. “I love you, my Juliet. I always have, and I will forever more.”

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