Page 87 of Torn Ivy
But I’d do it again in a heartbeat. We all would.
“Don’t,” Tate says firmly, reaching for her hand. “Don’t blame yourself for our choices.”
She pulls away from him, wrapping her arms around herself. “But you’re all suffering because of me. Tate, you died. Bram lost his magick. Torin is bleeding out. How is this not my fault?”
“Because we chose this,” I say, finding my voice at last. “We knew the risks. We did it anyway.”
Bram nods grimly. “And we’d do it again.”
Ivy shakes her head, tears freezing on her cheeks in the biting wind. “It doesn’t change the fact that this is all my fault. I—” She cuts off and scowls hard. “I remember. I did this trying to kill those beings that The Syndicate sent after Cathy.”
“Correction. ThatLifesent after Cathy,” I point out. “We can’t trust her.”
“No, we can’t, but she is right in that we need to go back. We can’t stay here,” Tate says.
“Agreed. What else do you remember?” I ask cautiously after a beat.
Her eyes meet mine, and she shakes her head sadly. “It’s like you have all been wiped from my mind. I’m sorry.”
“It’s a test,” Cathy states, resuming her search, bag and hook at the ready.
“A test?” I ask curiously. “By whom and what is the purpose of it.”
“To see if you make your way back to each other. This whole thing is one giant test, and I’m pretty sure this Life creature is behind it.”
“Whoa,” I say, holding my hands up. “Hang on a damn minute. You can’t just say that casually and carry on looking for that snake like this isn’t the biggest thing we’ve heard all day.”
She looks up and gives me a look that pretty much confirms she thinks I’m thick as pig shit and a total dickhead. “You mean to say, this has never crossed your mind?”
Glowering at her, I’m forced to admit that it didn’t, even for one second, cross my mind. “This whole fucked up situation is some kind of cosmic relationship test?”
“Seems that way,” Cathy says with a shrug, returning to her search for the snake. “But not just relationship. Bonds, people. Ever heard of those?”
Fuming, I take a step forward but then remember she is Ivy’s aunt and provider of the blood that’s stopping me from bleeding all over the show. Perhaps a modicum of restraint is in order.
Ivy wraps her arms tighter around herself, looking small and lost. “But why? What’s the point?”
“To see if your bond is strong enough,” Tate says quietly. “To see if you’d find your way back to us even without memories.”
I feel a chill that has nothing to do with the snow. “And if she fails?”
No one answers. We don’t need to say it out loud. If Ivy fails this test, we could lose everything. Each other, our proper reality, maybe even our very existence.
“Wewon’t fail,” Bram says firmly. “We just need to find that damn snake and figure out how to use it to get back.”
“Show her your chest,” I snap at Tate, who is staring at Ivy like a lost puppy in the snow.
“Huh?” he mutters.
“Your marking. Show it to her.”
He blinks and looks down. He opens his shirt and stares at it like it’s the first time he’s seen it. Ivy’s gaze goes straight to it.
“You did that to him. He marked you, too. On your lower back. You two are fated, destined, whatever the fuck you want to call it.”
“And us?” she asks, gaze shifting to mine and searching my soul for the answers.
“I believe we are meant to be together,” I state boldly. “We may not have the same soul-deep connection that you and Tate have, but that is inconsequential when I feel the way I do about you. I’m obsessed with you. I have been since I first laid eyes on you as Poison.”
