Page 94 of Incoronate
“Call us as soon as you arrive,” she said, quickly recovering her composure as though she hadn’t just been in tears a second ago. Her gaze touched mine last, holding it for a heartbeat that felt like an apology she couldn’t quite say out loud before she turned and slipped out of the hallway the way she’d come.
Leaving only me and Tessa.
My sister turned to face me fully as the gravity of having to say goodbye crashed down between us all at once.
I took one look at her broken self and knew I was going to have to be the strong one for once.
“Remember who raised us,” I said, my voice holding even as tears blurred my vision. “Dad taught us how to survive. How to fight. How to protect the people we love no matter the cost.” I reached out and gripped her hand. “Blackburns don’t break, Tess. We bend and we bleed. But we don’t break. You got that?”
She nodded, despite the tears streaming down her face.
“This isn’t goodbye,” I said sternly, needing her to believe it. “This is just—”
“See you later,” she finished, squeezing my hand.
“Exactly.”
We stood there for a moment longer, both of us crying openly now before Tessa pulled me into a crushing hug, holding on as though she could keep me safe through sheer force of will alone.
“I love you, little sis,” she whispered against my shoulder.
“I love you too, Tess.”
And then she was pulling away, turning toward the door before she could change her mind, and everything after that moved in a blur, like the whole night was sliding past me through a window I couldn’t open. I watched her walk out into the night and climb into the SUV with Gabriel behind the wheel and Ares secured in his car seat in the back. And I watched as the engine started and the headlights spilled onto the driveway.
But I couldn’t watch them drive away. I didn’t have it in me to stand there and watch them slowly disappear down the road without knowing if I’d ever see them again.
So I closed the door.
The house felt impossibly empty without them. My arms felt empty and my heart even emptier, and for a long, painful moment, I just stood there in the silence, letting myself feel the loss of them.
And then I locked the door on them. Locked away the grief and the fear and the desperate hope that I’d see them again. I locked it all behind walls I’d built and rebuilt a thousand times before and I left it there where it would be safe.
Because there was work to do.
And I couldn’t afford to be weak anymore.
30. TOGETHER OR NOT AT ALL
I waited in the den, standing by the fireplace with my arms crossed over my chest and my heart in my throat. The house felt different without Tessa, Gabriel, and Ares in it. There was an emptiness where they should have been. An absence I could feel in every corner of the house. As much as it hurt, I couldn’t afford to dwell on the fear in my heart or the ache in my chest or the way my arms felt too light without Ares in them.
I had locked that door and sealed it shut. For my sake and theirs.
Because this was when the hard work started.
Trace and Dominic came through the front door a short while later, both of them appearing in the doorway and pausing at the threshold to survey me, as though trying to gauge what sort of state I was in.
I looked between the two of them, my face composed. “It’s done?”
“Yeah, they’re through,” said Trace, dragging a hand through his hair. “Caleb got them across without any issues. We ported back as soon as they were clear of the barrier.”
I nodded.Good. That was one less thing to worry about.
Dominic moved to the bar cart in the corner and poured amber liquid into two crystal tumblers. He crossed the room and pressed one into my hand before lowering himself onto the leather chair in front of me by the fireplace, his own drink in hand.
Trace dropped onto the couch, his elbows resting on his knees as he leaned forward, watching me. “So what now?” he asked, his blue eyes looking darker in the dim lighting, thoughit could have been my own tired eyes playing tricks on me again.
“Now we plan,” I said as I paced a few steps along the mantel. “We need to protect as many innocent people as possible in the event that this turns into a human bloodbath.”
