“He’s a part of the Order,” I growled again.
Emma tucked a flyaway piece of hair behind her ear and again I noticed the freshly burned imprint of her pendant under her left collarbone. “He’s redeemed himself just fine. Sure, he was a big ole douche-nozzle who joined an Order that wanted to sacrifice me King Kong style.” She shot a dirty look at the back of Travis’s head.
“I heard that,” Travis yelled from inside the truck cab.
“But,” she added with distinction. “After you melted that demon down like a hunk of tar, releasing a bunch of scary screaming ghosts into the night--”
“Nightmares for the rest of my life,” Travis mumbled.
“You collapsed. The order of Veritas high-tailed it but your mother and father rushed back.” She looked down. “They were coming for me.”
“But, but you died,” I said, still not sure I wasn’t dead. The details of her story were too much when I still hadn’t yet processed the fact she’d survived.
She shook her head and cupped the side of my face. The feel of her thumb caressing my cheek, made my eyes flutter close and I wanted her to never stop.
“That evil sonofabitch was draining me. Sipping me like a damned fine cognac. When you knocked me out of its path it took me a while to recover. My soul, or whatever it was drinking from me, returned since the demon didn’t finished the job. I’m sure if it had fed on me for any longer, I’d be stuck inside its creepy distended stomach.”
I opened my eyes to catch a shudder ripple through Emma. “When I woke up, you were glowing, like an archangel.” She smiled softly.
I wanted to kiss the corners of her soft pink lips. The way she looked at me, with such reverence, I had always shied away from it feeling undeserving. But now, I knew I deserved her love. I could allow it to enter me, accept it with all my heart.
“It was you then,” I said in wonder. “I thought it was the ghost of you speaking to me, but it was really you.”
Her smile broke into a full grin. “Yeah baby, that was me.”
“Baby? Yech,” said Travis.
“Shut up, Trav, I’m trying it out, okay?” Emma snapped. There was no real annoyance in her words, but she blushed.
Emma continued to explain my parents had returned to end me in my weakened state before grabbing her and running. Before they could get to me, Travis emerged from his hiding place – he hid once the demon had arrived, not a shock - torch still in his hand. He set fire to the robe he’d been wearing and threw it at Regina. In the time it took Phillip and Regina to get the burning cloth that engulfed her off, Emma and Travis had dragged me to the truck he’d brought around, then we tore off like banshees from hell. My animosity toward Travis drained in lieu of his readiness to keep Emma and myself safe.
When Emma finished telling me everything, I felt I had enough strength to sit up. Once repositioned, I pulled her onto my body. Emma instantly molded herself against me and I sighed, trying to process everything.
“So, the Luxis’s interpretation of the prophecy was wrong,” I said at last. Wanting it validated outside of my own head. It would finish all this for me. I could walk away from my life with the Orders without looking back.
Emma tilted her head up at me, worry filled her eyes and her mouth was set in a serious line. “I don’t think so anymore.”
Before I could ask how she could say such a thing, her hands squeezed me as if needing an anchor. “It was so close,” she said quietly, her words almost lost to the rushing wind sweeping by the truck. “When the demon was feeding off me, I felt it weaken. As if something in me was like a delicious poison it couldn’t stop drinking.”
I remembered how the demon lord had stumbled after I pushed Emma away. Perhaps she was right. My head started to hurt.
“But you destroyed it, Calan,” she rushed to say. “So I don’t think they were wrong, but they weren’t right either.”
Travis yelled back to us. “Except with Calan’s way, the portal to hell is still open.”
Emma’s lids lowered. “Yeah, there is that.” She licked her lips, again, something she did when she was anxious. I wanted to kiss her but I had more questions.
“The tear in the planes is still open?” I asked, alarm trying to flood me with adrenaline, but I was all tapped out.
Emma slowly nodded. “We saw it still open as we left. Your parents still believe I am the key and they want me to go through that crazy ritual thing.”
I grabbed her tight against me and lowered my head capturing Emma’s lips for the first time in what felt like an eternity. She was the most delicious, sensual, lovely thing I had ever tasted. Pain ebbed away from my body as she healed me with her touch. Though I was out of adrenaline, she still managed to excite me with a kiss, her fingers skimming down my chest while the other grasped at my waist. She eagerly met my kisses, and I fell into them whole heartedly.
Abruptly, I pulled away. “We have to stop it, you know. Who knows what is escaping the Stygian and entering our world every moment it is open?”
“I know,” she said, sounding as grim as I felt.
“I don’t know how,” I confessed.
