Page 80 of Dead Wrong

My eyes were fixed on Bastien. He prodded the thin line where the wound had been with a finger, examining the works of the Cardinal.

“Go to him,” a voice came from behind me, and I turned to find Azrael alone now, the others heading back to the groups of Unseen refugees. “He’ll want to know you’re safe.”

I nodded, pausing for a moment before wrapping Azrael up in a hug.

He returned the embrace, strong arms pressing me to him and bringing a sense of comfort I had not yet felt in my second life.

“Thank you,” he muttered in my ear.

“For what?” I asked, pulling back to marvel at the way his eyes changed to lavender in the sunlight.

“For choosing me.”

He repeated the words from all those years ago, summoning a heat at the nape of my neck that spread like wildfire. He smiled, leaning forward to press his lips to my forehead in a quick motion before releasing his hold on me.

“Our transportation will be here shortly,” he said. “I need to go speak with the others.”

I nodded, my mouth suddenly too dry to speak. As Azrael left, I wondered just when the boy I’d grown up with became such a beautiful man.

Bastien was still at the base of the tree when I approached, his fingers nimbly fastening the buttons on his shirt. He looked up, his eyes lightening as he spotted me.

“Is there room for one more?” I asked, motioning to the space beside him on the grass.

He nodded, scooting over a bit to allow me to nestle myself against the smooth trunk.

“I’m so relieved you’re safe, Bastien.”

“I’m so sorry,” he says, a sniffling sound causing me to turn and look at him. Tears welled in his eyes as he stared ahead, his hands trembling until he curled them into fists atop his knees. “I tried to get to you at the camp. I shouldn’t have left you by yourself. I should have kept you safe, but I couldn’t get through?—”

His words cut off with a broken sob, and I couldn’t help but wrap an arm around him, pulling him into my side.

“You don’t have to apologize,” I told him, secretly relishing in the way his body fit against mine. “If anything, I should be the one. It was my mother’s militia who captured and tortured you, Bastien. They almost got me, too.”

Bastien rested his head on my shoulder, his breathing beginning to regulate. “They were awful to the Unseen that was with me. My treatment was child’s play compared to what they did to him.”

Crassus’ swollen face flashed in my mind, and I shivered.

“You’re safe now,” I said, my hand reaching up to brush the moisture from his cheek. He caught me by the wrist, pulling the hand away from him to investigate the blue gem embedded in my palm.

“What is that?”

Damn. I’d forgotten all about the Anima stone till now.

“Oh, uh, Cirian gave it to me. He wanted to make sure I could defend myself. You know, since I don’t have any magic of my own right now.”

Bastien’s body stiffened, his head lifting off my shoulder to get a better look at the gem. “Cirianmadethis?”

“He’s the one that saved me back at the camp. I tried to escape on my own, but I got caught up in the scuffle and ended up bleeding out in a field. He found me there. Healed me and brought me back to the Cradle till we could devise a plan to come after you.”

“Whydidyou come after me?” he asked, his grasp on me falling away. “Wait, let me guess, Cirian explained that I would be the only one who could perform the resurrection rite?”

“That was a part of it, sure. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t. But there’s more.”

Bastien turned to me, the warm honey of his eyes pooling in the shade of the leaves above.

“What more?” he asked, his voice almost pleading.

A gentle tug in the pit of my stomach stalled the words on my tongue. That string that I felt when I first awoke into this second life, the attachment I had to Bastien, went taut. Could he feel it, too? This invisible connection that drew me to him like a lifeline?

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