Page 152 of The Midnight Order
“Speak plainly.”
“How can I be the key to everything for four vampires when I don’t know who I am?”
“Maybe that’s the magic in it. Maybe we’re meant to find one another, to fix one another. Maybe we’re your key, the same way you’re ours.”
“That’s a beautiful notion, isn’t it?”
“Want to see the inside?” I ask, changing the subject when the atmosphere around us grows tense.
“Sure. Is it safe?”
I toss an arm around her shoulder, leading her closer to the chapel. “You’re always safe with one of us beside you.”
Another shiver worms through her, and I grin that I caused it.
Inside, the building reeks of disuse, but it remains beautiful—the colored panes depict scenes from the Bible, including the birth of Jesus, the Last Supper, and the Resurrection. Each of which bathes you in magical light when the sun is just right in the sky.
Overhead, the barest hint of sun shines through a window over the tabernacle.
The pews are stone and cold to the touch as we pass, and I dust my fingers over them.
“It’s beautiful.” Her voice is whimsical and shaky as she scans the room.
“You’re beautiful.” My eyes can’t leave her, not to look over every lost detail of the chapel I haven’t stepped foot in for years, not even to clear my mind of racing thoughts.
She’s in her dressing gown and an overcoat, and her messy hair only adds to her beauty. A small smile lights her face when she turns and captures me in her stare.
“It would be a shame if all this went to waste.”
I knit my brows. “The chapel? I think it’s been laid to waste for a decade or so. You’re too late to save it.”
“No, not the chapel,” she muses. “Although I think I could save it. I meant all of this between us. I know you feel what I do; I don’t know how I know, but I know. If it turns out that I’m not the key, all this that we feel will be for naught, it’ll…”
I cut her off, tugging her closer by gripping her wrist.
Her chest presses to mine, and I’m hyperaware of how fast she’s breathing. “Don’t think like that. Fate is at the wheel now, and all we have to do is let it steer.”
“You’re so confident when the rest of us are so questioning. How?”
I shrug. “Maybe it’s ignorance.”
“I think it’s your strength.”
Her hand cups the unmasked portion of my face, and I close my eyes. I’m unable to help myself in her presence. It’s like she’s the piece of me that has been missing all along.
“I think you’re becoming our strength, Sweet Silver. You’ve revived an order of vampires that was slowly petrifying. You’ve breathed life back into the halls of Thorngray Manor.”
Now, let’s hope she doesn’t take that life with her for any fucking reason. I know deep in my soul that we wouldn’t survive it.
Her kiss has my mind clearing and my soul aching, and I hug her close to me as hunger grows in my stomach, clawing its way up my throat in a burning passion.
“We should get back,” I manage, pulling away from her tempestuous lips.
“Just a little longer,” she whispers against my lips.
Just a little longer.
Chapter 40
