Page 93 of Incoronate
“Responsibility,” I finished for her, my voice barely above a whisper. “Just like Ares is now. I know you’ll protect him the way you’ve always protected me. Fiercely and stubbornly. Because that’s who you are, Tess.”
Her jaw trembled as she fought to hold herself together.
Dominic caught Trace’s eye and gave a subtle nod toward the door. Trace hesitated for just a moment, his gaze lingering on me before he turned and headed outside with Tessa’s bags. The front door eased open and shut behind him, leaving the three of us in a silence that felt almost too full to breathe through.
“Gabriel is waiting out front,” said Dominic, his voice low. “You have fifteen minutes to get to the barrier to meet with Caleb. Once there, he’ll drop his section to allow you both through and then raise it again before anyone’s the wiser.”
Tessa nodded mechanically, her gaze drifting back to Ares. “And after that?”
“You’ll be taken care of,” he said cautiously.
Tessa’s eyes cut to him. “That’s not the answer I was looking for.”
“It’s the only answer you’re getting,” he replied evenly. “Everything’s already been arranged. You’ll have everything you need.”
“Gabriel will explain everything before you get there,” I quickly cut in, adjusting Ares slightly in my arms. “It’s just…it’s better if I don’t know anything.”
Her jaw worked as understanding dawned. “You’re worried you’ll tell them.”
“I’m worried they’ll find a way tomakeme tell them.” The thought alone made my legs feel weak and my chest uneasy, and suddenly, the small bundle in my arms felt like the heaviest thing in the world to be holding. “If something goes wrong, if they get their hands on me, I need to make sure I can’t give you up, no matter what they do to me.”
The pain in her eyes nearly broke me right there on the spot. “Promise me you’ll survive this. Promise that you’ll make it out of here alive no matter what. I can’t…I can’t raise these babies on my own.”
These babies.Plural. It was the first time she’d said it out loud. The first time she’d acknowledged that she was going to keep the baby growing inside of her and raise it.
A small smile tugged at my lips despite everything. “I’ll fight like hell to come back to you, Tess. I promise.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do if something happens to you,” she said, her voice fraying at the edges. “I can’t lose you too. Not after Dad. Not after everything. If something happens to you too, I swear I’ll—”
“You’ll survive anyway,” I said firmly, not allowing her to spiral down that road. “You’ll raise Ares and your baby and you’ll tell them all about me when they’re old enough. And about Dad. About all of this. You make sure they know why it mattered. That I fought for them too. That we all did.”
“It’s time to go, Tess,” said Trace from the doorway. “Caleb’s waiting.”
Tessa nodded, swiping at her face with the back of her hand. She straightened her shoulders, pulling herself together with visible effort as she started toward the door. But I couldn’t move yet. Couldn’t let Ares go without saying goodbye.
I looked down at him, still sleeping peacefully in my arms. He stirred a little at my movement, his tiny face scrunching up before relaxing back into sleep.
“Hey, little warrior,” I whispered, my voice catching. “I need you to listen to me, okay? You stay strong for your aunty Tessa. Be brave for her, even when she can’t be brave for you. And you remember that I love you. I’ll fight my way back to you. I promise.” My throat constricted as I dropped a soft kiss to his forehead, breathing him in one last time. “Be good, Ares.Always. No matter what they try to tell you that you are, no matter what darkness they say lives in you, you choose to be better. You choose the light, okay? Can you do that for me?”
He made a small sound in his sleep, and I had to believe, for my own peace of mind, that he heard me. Even if I knew he couldn’t understand a word of it.
I lifted my head and found Trace watching me, his expression devastated. Holding his gaze, I crossed to him and carefully placed Ares in his arms. He pressed a quick kiss to my temple before turning and heading out the front door with Ares cradled against his chest.
The door had barely finished closing behind him when Jaqueline appeared in the hallway, her gaze finding Dominic’s across the room. Whatever passed between them was brief and wordless, but it was enough. He dipped his chin once and slipped out after Trace, leaving the three of us alone.
Jaqueline’s eyes stayed fixed on the door long after it had clicked shut, as though she were bracing herself. As though the next minute was going to cost her everything she had.
Then she turned to Tessa.
“Be better than I was,” she said, the words coming out softer and more honest than I’d ever heard from her. “You have a chance to be the mother I never managed to be. Don’t waste it the way I did.”
Tessa’s lips parted, the vulnerability in Jaqueline’s words clearly catching her off guard.
“I believe in you. Inbothof you,” continued Jaqueline, her gaze moving between us and gentling in a way that didn’t suit her face. “More than I’ve believed in anything in a very long time.”
Tessa moved before I’d even registered it. She closed the distance and wrapped her arms around our mother in a bone-tight, frantic hug that had her shoulders trembling visibly. Jaqueline’s arms came around her after a brief hesitation, holding on as though she didn’t quite know how, but was trying.
When they pulled apart, Jaqueline’s eyes glistened with what I refused to call tears, even when I saw her blink them back behind her lashes.
