“He’d better not be dead,” I said, nodding at Freddie, the possibility tearing through me like a wildfire.
“Nah. No body count is preferable, or so HQ instructed.”
“That’s a comfort.”
“Isn’t it? But I’m a rule-breaker, so hand him over.” She nodded at Ranth and kicked a pair of handcuffs across the lot. “Put those on him.”
I was up for being distracting. “How’d ya get out of the graveyard?” I asked as Ranth and I stepped over the gray salt line that almost matched the asphalt. Juke had lit the dome with the starscape. Somehow, Ranth would have to make it work.
Fabra’s lips curled as if she was proud of the moment. “Mad skillz. Told ya. It hurt a bit, but I had a bunch of help.” She tugged down her shirt where the tattoo used to be. Now it was a blackened burned splotch.
“Ouch. That looks nasty. Bet that pissed you off.” I smirked. Like the goddesses they were, Ori and Rose had set up the salt triangle with the items Ranth had requested inside. He had everything he needed.
“You have no idea. Once I get cutie-pie all shackled up, us girls will have some fun.”
Ranth sat with the book in his lap as I crouched down to do up his handcuffs.
Our eyes met.
This was it.
This was the last time I’d touch him.
My fingers lingered on his wrists, not wanting to let go. He had to go, and I had to stay. I had to save my friends. The cold metal of the handcuffs clipped around his wrists and his fingers locked with mine.
“Kiss me as if there was no last time,” he rasped.
I crashed against him, my lips desperate as if I could absorb all the essence of him in that remaining second. His handcuffed hands cupped my cheeks, his breath ragged as the seconds fractured into the inevitable end.
Fabra screeched. “Let go of him! Kissing wasn’t part of the deal, lovebirds.”
Ranth pushed me back but held my hands. My emotions swirled in a haze of conflicts. Ranth would take with him the chance at understanding magic at a deeper level. His leaving would close the door where I might have found my mother. But shattered or soul-marked by earth, the shard of my heart that was his forever would disappear with him.
“Now, and I’m not asking,” Fabra barked.
He raised my hand to his lips. The brush flared the tattoo to life—part of him would always be here with me.
My fingers trailed out of his as I stepped back to be clear of the salt line. The air heavy with everything I still wanted to say as I licked him off my lips.
Finding a strength I didn’t know I had, I turned and faced Fabra. “There, are you satisfied? Now, let my friends go,” I said.
Fabra walked over to Ranth, dragging Ori with her as he opened the book. Dancing flames blasted out of it, and Fabrastumbled back. “What the hell are you doing? That wasn’t part of our deal.”
“Did you forget to roll for initiative?” I cocked my head sideways.
Ranth was chanting and picking up the ingredients, which Ori had set inside the triangle. The flames burned green and silver, then red. In a huge burst of swirling smoke displaying the best rainbow you’ll ever see up close, Ranth disappeared.
My thoughts scattered. I had to stay focused.
“Where the hell did he go… You are in so much trouble,” Fabra screamed, wildly looking around. She threw Ori sideways, and I cringed as Ori went down on her knees. Fabra zoomed past the salt line and batted at the smoke.
Rose hit her with something that looked like a crystal wand, and Fabra crumpled.
Ranth was gone. Gone. I dropped to my knees, gasping, as the tattoo lifted from my skin in a vortex of cinders. Glowy bits engulfed me. In that second, Harold appeared and grabbed my shoulders, then in a blinding flash of rainbow glitter, I was sucked into the fluidity of a portal.
When my vision cleared, I threw up on a manicured lawn. I rolled sideways and looked up at a cerulean blue sky that had no clouds. There was no sun. The air was sweet from the dozens of flowers and herbs in beds cut into the verdant sod.
Beyond the plantings was a forest with thousands of trees in varying shapes and sizes. Some I didn’t recognize at all, as if they were from some other place than Earth. In the middle of the manicured part of the Garden were three of the biggest trees I’d ever seen. Their trunks were wider than even the most ancient redwoods, and they reached into the sky so high I couldn’t see the tops.
