Page 78 of Curse of Darkness
“It’s not working.” After everything we’ve been through…. “He’s not breathing.”
“This one last gift I give you,” the Mother says, kneeling and placing her palm over mine on his chest. Golden heat flows around her hand, and then it pulses through me, through him. “Breathe. Return to life, o dark one.”
The shudder of her power echoes through the cavern, and dust and gravel rain down from above. Where I can play the Hallows, she’s a maestro. She makes the magic sing, makes that inferno of golden heat dance to her tune.
All of it centered on Thiago.
The water of the lake remains deathly still, as if even the luminescent creatures who lurk beneath its surface don’t dare draw attention right now.
But it’s the incandescent gleam of her hands that I can’t look away from.
“Breathe,” she tells him, and another shudder of power kicks through his chest.
Please. Please don’t leave me here alone.
Thiago’s spine arches.
And then he starts screaming.
“Go,” the Mother of Night says, collapsing back onto her hands. She looks desperately tired. “Take him from this world and go.”
“Thank you.” I sob, cradling him close and tearing us from her prison world.
* * *
The Hallow pulses,and we slam back into being, landing flat on the floor of the tower. Thiago fights me, but I throw my arms around him and try to rein him in.
“Thiago! T! It’s me!”
Harsh sobs rack through him.
I rock against him, barely daring to breathe, to hope. He’s back. He’s back.
Cold hands capture my wrists. His breath shudders through him. But the harsh sobbing finally slows down. It’s as though he finally knows where he is.
“Vi?” My name. On his tongue. A whisper of pain and hope and longing.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper, curling my arms around him.
I’m never letting go again.
17
He’s so cold. Like ice.
Thiago lowers his shaking hands, and slowly lifts his head, my cloak draped around his nudity. The shock of his eyes—no longer the heated green of a jungle cat’s but black as midnight—takes me by surprise. “I saw you,” he rasps. “I saw you.There. You came for me.”
I go to my knees beside him, “Always.”
“What did you do?” he rasps.
I run my fingers through his hair, breathless with the sensation of it. There’s so much to talk about. So much to see to.
And I don’t give a damn about any of it.
I just want him. I need him.This. The taste of his mouth, the sensation of his hands on my skin. And maybe he feels it too. This need binding us together. Because his eyes darken, and his hands capture my forearms, the cloak sliding from his naked shoulder.
“You’re back,” I whisper, leaning toward him. “You’re home. You’re safe.”
