Page 85 of Redemption in the Dark (The Righteous 5)
She looked down at the purple bag in her hand with the stars all over it and smiled wide as she tapped the bag. “I want to be called this.”
“You want to be called backpack?” Mercurio lifted an eyebrow at her and made her giggle.
“No, the color.”
“Oh.” He looked at her bag and then into her eyes. “That color is called Mauve.”
She gripped the bag tighter and hugged it to her chest. “Maeve, I love it.”
“No, I said Mauve.”
She put her nose up and rolled her eyes at him. “That’s what I said, Maeve.”
He chuckled quickly, and she liked the sound. She didn’t hear him laugh much. He always seemed sad. She reached out and took his hand, and Mercurio stopped smiling, his face turning into a small frown as his eyes looked around the bus.
“You should laugh more, it sounds pretty, and I want to call you Dean.”
His eyes went wide. “Dean, why that name?”
Moving her hand from his, she gripped the pack to her chest again and felt embarrassed. She lowered her voice to barely a whisper and looked down at her running shoes.
“Because he is cool and fights bad guys and evil things like demons.” She lifted a shoulder with a shrug. “He’s like a superhero but with no powers. I dunno, you can be Dean.”
“Who let you watch Supernatural? That show is too old for you.”
She giggled, heat going to her face as she remembered sneaking to the television while everyone was asleep. She loved watching the show.
“Besides, I’m no superhero,” he said softly but wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She cuddled closer to his side and yawned.
“You may be, this is make-believe remember? We can be whatever.” Her eyes were heavy, and she let them close. “Dean, where is our home?”
He was quiet for a long time, and she didn’t think he was going to answer.
“I’m not sure yet. When we get off the bus, we will choose our new kingdom, and you will reign as the new queen,’ he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze.
“Princess, I want to be a princess.”
He chuckled again, the sound deep and comforting against her ear. “Okay, Princess Maeve, it is.”
Maeve sat up,panting hard. She stared around the darkened room, the sheets so tightly balled in her hands that she could barely get them to let go. Her heart was pounding like a stampede of a million galloping horses was running in her chest. Duke was on the bed beside her. He lifted his head to look at her, but Wolf was not there. Fear had her leaping from the bed and yanking the closed door open to look for him. She ran into the kitchen area, and Wolf spun around from where he was standing at the sink.
“Are you okay,” he asked and took a step in her direction.
She didn’t give him a chance to get any further when she ran at him and slammed into his body, wrapping her arms around his waist. The tears were instant, and she melted into his hold as he held her tight and kissed the top of her head.
“I’ve got you.”
“I thought you left,” she said and then broke down into more sobs that she wasn’t sure had anything to do with Wolf but felt like it did.
“I wouldn’t leave you, Maeve. I’d never leave you.” She looked up at his handsome face but could barely see him through the tears in her eyes. “I love you, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Maeve isn’t my real name,” she said. “It’s Isabella. I remember pieces…I don’t understand it all, but I lived somewhere hot before. It had large gardens with fragrant flowers and tall, sweeping hallways that seemed massive at the time. Dean was there. He was younger, maybe my age now or a little younger.”
She stepped back and shook her head as she tried to piece together what she’d seen. Wiping the tears away from her eyes, she grabbed the half-drunk bottle of beer on the counter and took a sip.
“You saw Dean in your memory?”
She wandered over to the table. With shaking hands, she picked up the discarded photo and stared at the handsome face of a man she’d known when he was a teen. He looked so different, rugged and muscular, with a lot more tattoos lining his arms. His hair was cropped short rather than messy like it had been the last time she’d seen him. There was no doubt in her mind it was him.
