Page 29 of The Phoenix Inheritance

I should know, because I found nothing but dust when I finally headed home to bury my mother and father.

“My parents were fishermen,” I repeat emptily. “The barn is where they dried and salted fish to preserve it. When the Gargoyle lunged at me, it made all their sacks of salt fall.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Salt causes an adverse reaction. I guess it’s a little known fact because you need more than a salt shaker to make a Gargoyle so much as sneeze.” My mind goes back to the cascades of white descending from the shelves, a gift from the heavens – or my parents, I like to think. “But there was a lot of salt. Mountains of it.”

“And it killed the Gargoyle?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so. I saw it crystallize before my very eyes, and it was just enough time for me to escape.”

“That’s incredible,” Dane breathes. “Isobel, you’re incredible.”

I shrug. “All I did was run. I was covered in salt myself, so it took me a few hours to realize the Gargoyle had left its mark, because the iodine was slowing down its spread.”

Dane’s fingers tremblingly search my scar under my clothes. “But how did you stop it altogether?”, he asks, awe lacing his gravelly timbre.

I gulp. I don’t want to tell him that the gash continues to grow every day. That five years ago the stone-like cut barely ran above my belly button, whereas today it nearly reaches my breast. I’ll tell him another day, if Dane is still in my life by then.

“After seeing what happened to the Gargoyle I had a rough understanding of the effects of iodine, and I’d heard many tales of the barren lands up North.” I watch the understanding mix with admiration in his flint gaze. “Barren, because the lake is too full of salt for most creatures to live.”

Dane’s jaw drops. “And that’s why you live here. That’s why that first time I came looking for you, you were bathing in the Solenz.”

I nod, and I can’t stop myself from mirroring the victorious smile spreading across his lips. Even if I know there’s one last twist to my story. Even if the end can never quite be a Happily Ever After.

“The waters of the Solenz are what saved me,” I explain quietly, “and that’s why I can never leave this place, because the wound spreads if I go too long without salt. I need a lot of salt.”

“And you found a whole lake of it,” Dane finishes with a beam much too radiant for such a surly man. He kisses my forehead, my nose, my lips. “You’re so smart, so strong. Nobody would’ve made it, I wouldn’t have made it, but you… all by yourself, you…”

I cut his raving praise short before my cheeks catch on fire. “I don’t always want to be by myself though,” I confess. “Having you in my life made me realize I was so lonely before.” I swallow with difficulty, cursing myself for burdening him. “When you were gone, and I wasn’t sure you’d ever come back…”

A groan rumbles and I’m pulled back into his solid embrace.

“I’ll always come back,” he pledges with such raw vigor that I can’t possibly doubt him. “I promise that no matter what, I’ll always return the minute I can.”

I melt against his chest as the last shreds of doubt wither away. I never would’ve dared hope for so much, yet with his words he just gave me a gift like no other – a shoulder to lean on, and I don’t even have to fret about when it may disappear.

All of a sudden Dane tenses, and a look of guilt passes over his face.

“Actually Isobel, there’s a reason I came.”

Toying with the buckles of his vest, I try not to fall back into the insecurity I vanquished seconds ago.

“Yes?”

“I won’t be able to visit for a few days. Maybe a week,” he grunts with an anguished air. “I probably shouldn’t even be here right now, but I needed you to know.”

I grin, that fuzzy sensation warming me more thoroughly than the flickering fireplace. I think I love him, I realize giddily. But now isn’t the moment to tell him. I don’t want to weigh Dane down when he’s already so torn between his life beyond the steppes of Sowilo and me.

“It’s fine as long as I know I’ll see you again,” I assure him. “Thanks for warning me.”

Dane’s charcoal eyes twinkle as he brushes the loose strands of my braids behind my ears, and I can only wonder if there isn’t more than the reflection of the flames in that deep, tender gaze.

“And I really needed to see you, too,” he confesses huskily.

I sigh, savoring his touch and wishing I could feel it for many more hours, days, years to come.

“Do you have to go already?”

Dane’s fingers curl around my shoulder, tugging me closer so I fit perfectly against him. I’m trapped between the heat of his body and the blazing furnace. Not too bad a spot.

“Just a bit longer.”

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