Kalder staggered as his vision cleared and he returned to this reality. His breathing ragged, he blinked rapidly, looking from Thorn to Michael and finally Gabriel. “Can you always see like that?”
They nodded in turn.
“Not fun, is it?” Thorn said bitterly. “To know what lies behind the human veil and not be able to interfere. It’s its own form of hell.”
Kalder wiped at the tears as he struggled to even out his breathing. “Is that why you came for us?”
Thorn passed a sullen glare to the other two. “Aye. Unlike some, I can’t abide injustice.”
Michael turned on him with a vicious hiss, exposing a set of fangs that Kalder hadn’t noticed before. “Never speak to me of injustice, demon! You’ve no right! You know nothing of me or mine.”
Thorn held his hands up. “Point being, I believe in second chances.”
Michael curled his lip. “Most demons do, as the second strike usually cuts even deeper than the first.”
Now it was Thorn’s turn to go for Michael, but Gabriel caught him and forced him back.
“Enough! Both of you! We’re not here to fight each other.” He jerked his chin toward Paden and Cameron. “Every second you bicker, we risk losing them forever.”
“If we haven’t already,” Michael said under his breath.
Kalder winced as he pressed his hand against the cold rock that kept him from Cameron’s warmth. How strange that he barely knew her and yet she’d sparked something inside him that he’d never known he possessed.
A heart.
He hadn’t even kissed her and yet here he was willing to die to save her. It made no sense whatsoever. But then life seldom did.
Perhaps it was that innocent optimism she held in spite of all the shite life had heaped upon her that had restarted the dead organ in his chest. Or the loving light in those hazel eyes that sparked whenever she spoke of her brother. The way she kept faith even when it seemed there was no hope whatsoever.
No one had ever held such regard for him.
He’d never wanted them to.
Until now. By all that was holy and not, he wanted her to look at him like that. To see her eyes light up and twinkle for him in the same manner as they did for Paden.
Nay, that was a lie and he knew it. He wanted much more from her than that. He wanted to have one woman, just once, see him the way she saw her brother.
As a noble hero.
As her noble hero and champion.
One she was willing to sacrifice her life for.
He wanted someone to love him like that. Completely and without question. With total loyalty and devotion. To love him the way his mother had loved his brother. To have someone mourn his passing and regret that he was no longer part of her life. No one had even shown up for his burial after his mother had gutted him.
Not even a priest. The watchmen had taken him out and dumped his body in a common grave like garbage. No pomp. No last rites. Nothing. Not a single kind word.
After all the years he’d lived, he’d meant nothing to anyone.
Only Cameron had ever teased him like a friend and made him feel noble or welcome. Damn him for craving it. Because now that he knew the taste of it, he couldn’t go back to his ignorance. It was a raw, fetid hunger that wouldn’t leave him in peace. He couldn’t return to the way he’d been. Numb and oblivious.
She’d opened his eyes and awakened him.
And if he had to die to bring her back, so be it. Unlike him, she was a vibrant soul who brought happiness to the world, and to those around her. As did her brother. He had a woman waiting for him, and a child who needed a father to claim it. They were rare lights that shone brightly in this dim, awful world.
No one will ever miss you, Kal.
“Let’s do this,” he said to the Sarim. “I don’t want her to suffer another moment.”
