Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 130761 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 654(@200wpm)___ 523(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130761 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 654(@200wpm)___ 523(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
I didn’t like the fact that he’d be going to Slash or Vike. “You like it in this house?” I asked.
Ash looked up; I saw it in my peripheral vision. “I love it,” he said quietly. “I like being with you and Madds.”
“Stay here tonight.” I got up from the couch. I couldn’t take all this talking shit anymore.
“Really?”
I nodded. “Madds never changed the back room. It’s yours.”
“Thanks, Flame,” Ash said. I was almost at the bedroom door when I looked back. Ash was on the couch. I glanced at the back room where he would be staying tonight. I thought about him being there every day. And I . . . liked it.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and said, “You wanna live here?”
Ash never said shit in response. I opened my eyes, about to just leave him the fuck alone. Ash was on his feet, looking at me from the other side of the couch. “You mean it?” he asked. “You want me to move in?”
“You got a room. You should use it.”
“Yeah.” He smiled. My jaw clenched.
“Don’t tell AK yet. Wait ’til all this shit with Phebe is done. He might take you leaving bad.”
“Okay,” Ash said.
I nodded and turned the knob on my bedroom door. I needed to get away now. My head was too full.
“Flame?” Ash called, making me stop. I didn’t look back. “Thank you.” He was speaking real fucking quiet. “For everything. I . . .” I heard him take a deep breath. “I think I’m gonna like living here.”
I nodded again. I had no words.
I pushed through the door and slammed it shut. Maddie stood by the bed, waiting. She was fucking crying too. “What?” I jumped forward. “Why are you crying?”
“I love you, Flame,” she said, taking my hands.
I frowned. “I don’t understand. Why are you crying?”
“I heard you speak to him.” She smiled. “And I heard you ask him to live with us.”
“You told me before that I should think about it. I have. I asked him to move in. He said yes.”
Maddie threw her arms around my waist. “I am so proud of you, Flame,” she whispered, and I felt my chest get tight again. “Just when I believe I could not love you even more, you go and prove me wrong.”
“I love you too,” I said and kissed her head. Then I froze. Every fucking part of me went still. My eyes were on the bed. Maddie had been drawing. Releasing her, I went to the bed and picked up the sketchpad. Ice filled me, and I looked up at Maddie for answers.
She shrugged. “It is not true yet. And I know that it may be a while before we are ready.” She came toward me, and I stared at the picture again. I didn’t know what the fuck was happening in my heart and my stomach, but I felt hot and cold. Fucking confused. “It is just something I wonder if we could have one day.” Maddie laid her head on my bicep. Her hand ran down the picture. I was there. She was too, and in her arms was a baby.
“I did not know if we could ever do it. But hearing you with Ash just now made me believe that, perhaps, one day, when we are stronger still, that we . . . could.”
“Maddie.” I looked down at her head on my arm. I swallowed and tried to imagine her like Mae was now, stomach growing. And I didn’t feel the flames heat up. In fact, they calmed.
Maddie lifted her head. She smiled. I kissed her mouth and said, “Maybe . . . one day.”
Then I kissed her again.
Still holding the picture in my hand.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Phebe
My eyes fluttered open at the feel of someone’s hand on my forehead. “Phebe?” a familiar voice said.
“Mm?” I murmured, not wanting to leave the woods. Yet the hand pulled me away. My soul yearned for that touch, for the heart of the person that soul belonged to. A magnet’s pull.
“Phebe,” he said again, and I opened my eyes. As the room came into view, I smiled. “AK,” I said and felt my heart fill with light.
“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “I need you to wake. You’ve been asleep for a couple of days now.” As his words sank into my bliss, I felt a darkness begin to puncture the light. My mind raced, showing me things I did not want to face . . . Meister dying under my hands, Grace screaming . . . and then . . . then Sapphira’s body in my arms, her hand growing limp in my own.
“Sapphira,” I cried, the impact of her loss instantly too much to endure. I wrapped my arm around my stomach and tried to find some release as the sadness gripped me. I felt arms cradle me and pull me to a hard chest. AK. I knew his scent. “I cannot take this,” I whispered and let the tears fall.