“There is something I think you need to know, Emma.” Laynie eased down beside her on the over-stuffed couch, hugging a bright red throw pillow to her chest. “Torin told me everything. And I was going to help him convince you to go with him.”
Emma slid the untouched coffee onto the table beside the couch and wilted back into the cushions. “I guess it really doesn’t matter now, does it? It doesn’t look like I’ll have to make that choice.”
“You can’t just sit there and tell me you’re going to give up.” Laynie repositioned herself on the couch, curling one leg underneath her. “Torin wouldn’t give up on you. Why are you giving up on him? There has to be away to find him. What about all that hocus-pocus crap he showed you? Surely, there is something there you can use.”
“Torin is gone, and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Emma closed her eyes as she rested her head on the back of the couch. She didn’t know how to make Laynie understand. The site of Torin clenched between Arach’s jaws scarred the darkness of her mind and ruined her memories forever. How could she tell Laynie about the horror in his face? The finality. The sorrow shining in his eyes as he had disappeared into the exploding debris. Torin had known she would never see him again. She had seen the truth of it in his eyes. She couldn’t remember hurtinglike this since she had spotted her parent’s lifeless bodies dangling from the snag in the stream.
“Snap out of it, Emma!” Laynie smacked the couch. “You’re going to figure out a way to find him and then you’re going to go get him.”
Emma forced her eyes open. Poor Laynie. Such a dreamer. When had she grown up into such a stubborn young woman? Emma hitched in a jerking breath. Baby sister had no idea about the forces at work. Emma closed her eyes and released a shuddering sigh, sinking even deeper into the blanket-covered cushions. It was useless but apparently, the only way she was going to get any peace was if she humored Laynie. “I’ll make you a deal, Laynie. You tell me how to find Torin and when I do, I will never leave his side again.”
“Swear?”
Emma forced a trembling smile to her lips, raised her hand, and extended her little finger toward her sister. “I’ll even pinky swear. Help me find Torin and I’ll build a life with him in any reality he chooses.” What could it hurt to say the words aloud? She would never have to pay up because Torin was gone forever.
Chapter
Fifty-Seven
He stared at the rubble piled around the threshold, ignoring the bite of the bitter cold sleet stinging his wounded flesh. Adjusting the strips of bloody cloth wrapped around his torso, Torin winced as he knotted the ragged plaid a bit tighter.
As his fingers brushed against the empty scabbard hanging at his side, Torin kicked loose stones from his path.Damnaigh.He hated that he’d lost his sword. It was like losing one of his arms. He patted the blood-soaked leather laced tight against the inside of his bruised calf. Good. At least he still had his dagger.
A high-pitched howl ripped through the darkness, rising above the sound of the wind rattling through the leafless trees. Torin ignored the warning cry of the hidden beast, lifted his head, and sniffed the icy air. The freezing rain burned in his nostrils. His senses told him he needed to head north into the mountains, directly into the heart of the storm. Perhaps there he would find shelter from the aching cold and be able to build a fire to chase the dampness from his bones.
He cast one last glance back at the annihilated portal and Arach’s ash-covered corpse. His heart wrenched as hisgaze settled on the glistening black pile of ice-covered ruins. His precious Emma had done well. Destroyed the portal and permanently closed the passage to Arach’s world.
Torin ground his teeth as the wind whipped icy strands of soaked hair into his eyes. He wished he’d had more time with her. Time to teach her all her strengths. He swallowed hard, choking back his pain. He wished he had told her how to find him.
Closing his eyes, he threw back his head and bellowed her name with the fury of his pain. “Emma!” The sound echoed through the dimensions, only increasing the hopeless loneliness pounding through him with relentless pain.
Chapter
Fifty-Eight
Emma fumbled for the key in the bottom of her purse. Why had Laynie locked the door? It wasn’t as if anyone could even find the small croft isolated on the beach. “Laynie! It’s me. Open up.”Dammit.Where the hell was she? Better yet—where the hell were those damn keys?
Freezing rain pelted against her, ran down the back of her neck, and soaked through the wool of her coat. Clenching her teeth to keep them from chattering, Emma kicked the bottom of the door. She hated this place and its god-forsaken weather. She wished she had never come here. “Laynie! Open the damn door. I can’t find my key, and I’m freezing to death out here.”
Emma drew back to jab another good kick in the center of the solid oak door just as the rain-soaked portal opened inward. “It’s about time you opened the freaking door. Why in the hell did you have it locked?”
“Your sister didna wish for us to be disturbed, and she thought to spare your feelings.” Alex stood with one hand resting on the brass door latch and the other gripping an over-sized bath towel wrapped around his waist.
Alex’s attire of nothing but a towel wasn’t a sight she had expected to see. Emma stared at a droplet making its way downthe center of his chest into the dark nest of water-slicked hair surrounding his belly button. How ironic. Alex’s wet hair seemed to point downward toward the bulge hidden by the towel. Her irritation fanned into disbelief. This could not be happening. Not Laynie and Alex. “Please tell me the shower is broken at your place and you decided to borrow mine.”
“Emma.” Laynie padded into the room, her wet hair slicked back, tucking the end of the towel wrapped around her body into the vee just above her breasts. “Emma, I was going to talk to you about Alex, but I wanted to wait for the right time. I didn’t want to spring it on you while you were still in such bad shape.”
Ignoring Laynie, Emma locked on Alex’s watchful gaze as she dropped her bags to the floor. “You know I’m going to kill you for touching my sister. This is pretty low. Even for you, Alex.”
“I love her, Emma. It’s not as wicked as ye would like to believe. We didna want to tell ye until ye had recovered a bit from your loss. Or at least figured out what you’re meant to do. Your sister cares for ye verra much and I intend to do my best to make her happy.” Alex crossed the room and pulled Laynie against his side, then planted a kiss on the top of her wet head.
Make Laynie happy? Emma didn’t miss Alex’s unspoken finish to the sentence. He intended to make Laynie happy even if it meant putting up with Emma. “You two just met! Do you honestly think I’m that stupid? You haven’t had time to fall in love. You’ve just fallen into lust.” Emma wanted to shove her way between them but she clamped her hands to her sides instead. How could they do this? Have some kind of forbidden sex fling and right under her nose.
“Emma, please.” Laynie unwound from Alex’s embrace and padded across the room with her arms outspread. “You know damn good and well there is no time clock on falling in love. Either it’s meant to be or it’s not. Alex and I felt it the first time we met. We clicked, Emma. Alex and I belong together.”
“I can’t believe you would do this to me, Laynie. At least, not right now.” Tears stung the backs of her eyelids, burning just below the surface. Emma wanted to scream against the betrayal pounding through her. “Why, Laynie? Why would you do this? Especially now.”
“I love him, Emma. Just like you love Torin.” Laynie’s mouth tightened into a determined line. “And when you find the way back to Torin, at least I’ll have Alex, and I won’t be left alone.”
