It was quite late and Lukas offered for them to stay over, but they both declined. I walked them to the dock, the winter wind strong and like glass against my skin.
They bundled up, and one of Lukas’s staff took them to shore. I watched until the darkness swallowed them up. I truly loved my friends. They were my family, and I hated how I was going to miss their lives, miss all their important moments. My heart missed them already.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Lukas
Sam was exhaustedafter his friends left, so I vowed to talk with him the following day. I really didn’t know how this conversation would go. So as I held him in my arms as he slept, I hoped it wouldn’t be the last time.
He didn’t wake all night, and once the sun gently cast her glow on Sam’s face, his nose scrunched up adorably, and he blinked his eyes open.
“Were you staring at me while I slept?”
“Maybe.”
“How utterly creepy of you.” He chuckled and sat up. “I need the bathroom.”
“I’ll let Winston know we’re up for breakfast.”
He nodded and closed the door to the en suite. I pulled my sheets back and exited the bedroom. Winston was just bringing out a tray with coffee and some muffins when Sam walked in, shower fresh.
“Yum.” He sat beside me and fixed his coffee.
I watched his movements, and they weren’t even a little bit graceful. He missed the cup while scooping sugar in, milk dripped off the side, and while he stirred there was a lot of clanging.
“You’re staring again,” he said before taking a sip.
“I can’t help it; I enjoy watching you.”
He turned, one leg curling under him and the other dangling. “I have coffee, and I can see you want to talk, so go forth and spread the hope.”
He was being sarcastic, but I wasn’t insulted. I understood Sam and his family, and friends, and even his doctors, had been at this for years, so the idea of me coming up with something they hadn’t thought of was ridiculous to him.
“Sam, I know I can help you, and I’m going to explain everything. I ask only one thing from you.”
“Okay…”
“Hear me out, let me explain, and if you want to leave after I’m done, I won’t stop you…I just hope you don’t.”
His eyebrows dipped, and he put his coffee on the table. “You’re scaring me now, Lukas. You’re not going to, like, offer me your body parts to live are you?”
I snorted. “No, though if I believed it would help, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Sam reached out and took my hand in his. “I wouldn’t let you.”
I gripped his hands, desperate for his touch, knowing he could flee once I’d told him. “I’m going to tell you a story first.”
Sam’s expression was encouraging. “Okay.”
“The year was 1575 in a countryside in England. It was a beautiful day and the farmers were out harvesting. And it was bountiful, one of the best anyone had seen in a long time. A man, who had just turned thirty, was eager to finish so he could go out with his friends for some drinks and made a fatal mistake. In hisrush he wasn’t paying attention, got too close to a guy who was mowing the grass for hay with his scythe. Neither of them was aware, and in a swift movement the scythe came down against the eager man, puncturing right through him.”
Sam gasped. “This is a horrible story.”
“Let me finish.” I tried to offer comfort, but Sam was frowning. “Back then, science and medicine wasn’t what it is today. They rushed the man off to the infirmary, but nobody was fooling themselves; there was no way he was going to survive.”
Sam covered his mouth, sadness drowning his features.
“The man heard them say there was nothing more they could do, but they would try to keep the pain manageable until he passed. The man closed his eyes, ready to succumb to his injuries when he was jostled awake. A stranger dressed in the finest suit he’d ever seen smiled down at him. Told the man he could save him, told him he could freeze time and give him eternity. The man lay bleeding, dying, and while he had accepted his fate, he was enamored by the stranger and his promise, and so he agreed. Told the stranger he wanted that.”
