“I love you more.”
“Doubtful. I love you to infinity,” she boasts.
I chuckle. “I love you to infinity plus one.”
She closes her eyes and smiles, and that’s when I remember. “Your parents! They just went down the hall. I need to tell them. And the nurses!” I turn my head toward the door and shout, “She’s awake!”
When no one comes, I rise, my legs still weak. I kiss her hand again. “Stay right where you are. Don’t move.” I release her to take one step away and then turn back around. “You promise not to go anywhere, right?”
She lifts the arm with the IV stuck inside her. “Trust me, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Just being sure. I love you, Blair Thornrose.”
She grins. “I love you, too, Devlin Ross.”
I open the door and take one last look at her. “Be right back.”
Then I race down the hall, shouting, “She’s awake! Get the doctor!”
A nurse starts to rush past me to check on Blair, and I grab her by the shoulders. “Did you see which direction her parents went?”
She points down the hall. “That way.”
Everyone I see, I tell them that Blair’s awake. They don’t know me. They don’t know Blair, but I don’t care. My world is restored. Blair is alive! She didn’t die and she’s awake!
I’m just about to round a corner when her parents whip around it. “She’s awake,” I exclaim, throwing my arms up.
Clara presses her palms to her cheeks. “Thank the gods!”
Phillip hugs her. “It’s a miracle!”
I stop, out of breath, and place both hands on my hips. Panting, I reply, “Yes, it is.”
I’m about to turn and go back to Blair’s room, but I can’t move. My energy’s vanished. All of it. I used too much magic. I used every single ounce that was within me, and with it went my life force.
My legs aren’t responding. They’re not listening to me, and before I’m able to stop, my knees buckle. I reach for the wall as I fall to floor.
My last thought as darkness falls on me is,At least I saw her one last time before I died.
39
Devlin gave too much. He gave all of himself and so much more. And now he’s paying for it.
I was lost, so lost in my own head that I almost didn’t feel him nudging me. It was so subtle, so quiet that I nearly missed it.
It was a dim light shining like a beacon, and when I saw it, I reached for it, but it was just beyond my grasp. It took all my focus to grab it, and when I did, it pulled me in, wrapped around me and nudged me awake. It influenced me back to life, like a breath of air from God had been blown into my lungs.
And the darkness swept past and the sounds got louder, and that pinkie finger that I’d been trying to move finally twitched and my eyes were open and there sat Devlin!
And everything was perfect. I was back. He was there.
Then he collapsed.
He gave too much of himself. He gave it all, not leaving anything for himself to draw from.
We’ve switched places. How ironic is this? By saving me, he put himself in mortal danger.
And now Devlin is at my parent’s house, in my bed, sleeping. There was no point in keeping him at a human hospital. There was nothing that they could do anyway.
