Page 62 of Heart of Dawn
“James?” I pressed, hating hesitation.
“London is nine hours away.”
Shit.
“If you were to successfully cross into Faery,” Basil joined in, “you would have to add in around eleven or twelve hours’ worth of flying time to the Forest of the Lost.”
Double shit.
“I’m sorry, Miko.” James dipped his head, his defeat painful to watch.
And there was the crux of it. In four hours, I could end this, stop Dawn before it became unstoppable.
Back here again, was I? Back to giving up on happiness to save the world.
Damn.
“I don’t know what to do,” I said again. “I really don’t know what to do.”
What sort of alpha said that? The proper answer was to head north for Dunstable. Any real leader would do that.
“We understand,” Cate responded. “If this was on my shoulders, I couldn’t…” She paused, making sad eyes at her husband. “I couldn’t leave you, even for the greater good.”
James cupped the side of her face. “Agreed, my darling heart.”
Basil huffed, parking his arse on a plastic chair. He crossed his legs, every inch of him tense. “This is ridiculous.”
Here we go. “Just say what you have to say.”
“You searched for answers all this time, got them, and now you want to throw them away?” He tutted, shaking his head.
Would I get away with breaking his nose? “Be careful.”
He paid no attention to my warning. “I’m being honest. You know what your destiny entails.”
Cate stepped in. “And you just heard about the honey. We don’t have to lose Miko.”
Basil sighed, rubbing his left cheek, a dusting of blond stubble there. “Look, I’m not dismissing your love for Orion. I may not be the biggest fan of your bonding, but I respect it. This isn’t me trying to move in and win Orion back. Our time is done thanks to my stupidity. I only want to be his friend.”
I cooled off a bit. I knew my bonding to Orion hurt him, but it was good to hear he wanted to move on.
“I might be a lot of things,” he continued, “but I know when to give up on something that wasn’t meant to be.” His starewas so direct it turned my blood cold. “Maybe the same applies here.”
Ah, fuck. Damn him. “Just stop.”
“I’m simply being pragmatic.”
Yeah, he was. And I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want brutal reality. I wanted hope and sunshine. But Orionwastoo far away, and the sun was beginning to set on everything. By the time we reunited, things?—
“You talk a lot of sense, Basil,” Andrew said. “Love, however, is illogical.”
We weren’t doing this. We weren’t having this conversation, waxing lyrical about complications of the heart. I really wasn’t in the fucking mood, my reason about to shatter.
I wanted Ori.
I wanted him alive and in my arms. Right. Now.
Still, I had a choice to make.
