Page 87 of The Forsaken

Silence answered.

Thunk.

Shaking and numb, Andromena stared down blankly at the gun at her feet.

She flew across the kitchen and dropped to her knees.

The column of her throat moved. Stretching a trembling palm up, she caressed his beloved cheek. She traced the white specks left by embers, hating that she could not have taken his pain then—and knowing now that she would gladly take any pain meant for him.

Glassy-eyed and dazed from the smoke.

Andromena was between hell and heaven; the paradise where Edgar was beside her, and the hell of losing him. For he was here, but dead at her hands.

Andromena cried out; her anguish and sorrow tore from every corner of her body. “No. No. No. No. Nooooooooo!”

Her teeth chattered. She ripped at her hair. She would not survive this.

“Never tell me this ‘no’ is about me being here.”

Her head whipped up. Eyes stinging and blurry from tears, she blinked wildly. “Edgar?”

Through the smoke, he lay before her—breathing, alive, and staring back. It was too much. Then, he flashed a crooked grin. “Expecting another?”

She had. The tacit threat loomed between them, with only Andromena aware, but alone with Edgar, she stole even more. She basked only in his presence.

Crying out, she wrapped her arms about him and wept. Satan hadn’t sent a demon; the Lord had sent a gift. Edgar was here and alive and real, and he’d come after her, and she should be furious, but she was selfish to the core.

He crushed his lips against her temple. “Shh.” He uttered other nonsensical soothing sounds and words, but his response to her pain just deepened her sobs.

“Oh, darling.” His words came as a harsh rasp against her cheek as he stroked the back of her head. “Please, don’t cry. You know your tears break me.”

Andromena wept harder; her chest and side ached. “I-I thought. I-I…” She could not get those terrible, awful words out. Edgar then did something he had never done: he let her cry. He stopped begging. He did not scold. He just held her. He anchored her in his arms and absorbed all the fear, relief, and now joy, taking it in and joining them together in it, until her sobs eventually slowed to a shuddering halt against the steady beat of his heart. Andromena had been so determined to protect him. In failing to confide in him and in running away, she had put him at the greatest risk. By not trusting him to care for himself and face the threat together, she had nearly killed him with her own hand.

“I wanted it to be you, Edgar,” she uttered softly.

There was a tender smile in his voice when he spoke: “I know.”

A quiet solemnity rested between them. He took her wrist and drew her open hand toward him, the heat of his breath a caress upon her skin. He brought the pad of her thumb to his lips and kissed it, his tongue lightly sliding over the sensitive pad. As she folded into him, her eyes shuttered. She traced the beloved lines of a face she had thought never to see again.

Edgar dusted the tears from her cheeks, as he pulled them both to their feet. “You made me proud, coming armed this time.”

“I knew you would be.”

“I am not finished,” he said, with playful sternness. “Si jamais tu t’en vas encore sans moi, je te donnerai une fessée sur ton magnifique cul et je t’enchaînerai à mes côtés.” If you ever go off without me again, I’ll spank your beautiful arse and chain you to my side.

She knew he wanted to chase away her sadness and fear.

But how close she had come to losing him still lingered in the diminishing sting of gunpowder.

“It wasn’t supposed to b-be you…” A shudder moved through her. She closed her eyes tightly. There was no escaping. The image kept coming, a different outcome. Edgar with a ball through the chest; the lifeblood seeping from his vital frame and into wood planks she once played upon. His eyes forever closed.

“Stop,” he said hoarsely, because he knew her, and knew what was coming. Because they knew each other. She needed to explain how they had come to this moment. He deserved the truth. He had for a long time.

“I need you to know, all I ever wanted was to keep you safe and now—”

“Stop.”

“Listen to me, Edgar. I almost killed y-you.” Her voice caught. Oh, God. It was too much. Her stomach turning, she pushed herself off him.