“Years,” Allison said, the innocence leaving her eyes.
Bex’s brows pulled together, and he pulled her closer. “Hey. I’ll never let anything happen to you, I promise.”
Allison managed a small grin and nodded, but Bex wasn’t fooled. He took her hand and guided her down the hall and to the courtyard.
“She’s tough,” Levi said. “She’ll figure it out.”
“I don’t know. She loves Bex, but some people can’t handle it like my mother did. So funny to think about the stories she told me, and how she described herself as weak and ridiculous in the beginning. She’s too hard on herself.”
Levi reached for me and pulled me close. I breathed him in, relaxing until I heard Bex scream at us from the courtyard.
“Enough for one day!”
Levi released me, letting his arms slap to his sides.
I chuckled. “We’ll figure it out, too.”
“Promise?”
“Somehow…” I said, frowning as any ideas eluded me.
Chapter Sixteen
Levi
Eden sat up the same time as I did, her fingers pressed against my sweat-soaked arm.
I stared at her door, breathing hard, trying to catch my breath and figure out a way to tell her what I knew.
“Was it a nightmare, or did you venture to your old stomping grounds?” she asked, squeezing my arm. “Levi?”
“Give me a sec,” I said, coughing.
That was the thing about breathing in Hell. Even if it was just a few minutes, the sulphur and heat made your throat and lungs feel seared, irritated, and scratchy. Swallowing made it that much worse. It used to annoy me that the feeling carried over, but now it came with the territory of bouncing planes.
“You went under,” she said, concerned. “It seems to affect you more than it used to. And you’re still not healed completely.”
I coughed again, and for a moment I had to suck in a few wheezing breaths to cough again, but my lungs finally settled down enough for me to form words. “I feel weaker every day. It’s alarming how much power my father gave me. Maybe I’m just Cambion after all.” That theory wasn’t something I wanted to share with my girlfriend, one of the most powerful beings in the universe, but it was proving to be right.
“Why did you go without me? You’re not in any shape to—”
“It wasn’t a choice.”
She frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”
“I was summoned.”
“I don’t suppose you can tell me who,” she said, pulling me to the mattress with her and holding me to her chest. Her skin was so soft and warm, her fingers so strong and delicate at the same time, her lips against my temple plush, tender whispers on my skin. It was such a contradiction of where I’d just been and what I’d seen.
“Not here,” I said.
She nodded and squeezed me tight, as if she already knew what I wasn’t saying. We needed to prepare, but my body wasn’t ready for a return. As much as I hated it, I needed to rest.
“I wonder…” she said, sitting up. “I changed Morgan’s memories, his brain. I wonder if I can manipulate your healing process?”
I shrugged. “You can try.”
She held her hand against my stomach and closed her eyes. She was silent for a full minute, then grinned. “I think I…”
The pain from my wounds began to subside. Eden’s heart rate rose, her eyes flickering beneath her closed lids.
“It’s…” she began again, instead concentrating. Her eyes popped open, and she lifted her hand and pulled back the dressings to find flawless skin where my wounds were. “Holy sh…”
“Don’t…!” I raised my voice, then quieted. “Press your luck.”
Her eyes widened. “How do you feel? Do you think I just messed with The Balance?”
“I don’t think you could’ve done it if you did.”
“Right. Sit up.” She patted me. “Sit up! Stretch, move around,” she said, excited.
I did as she commanded. The pain and stiffness were gone. “Whoa. I feel better than better. It’s like it never happened.”
She covered her smile and giggled. “It was like doing surgery in my brain. I could feel your skin, your muscles, your facia, your blood individually; even your cells!”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Not getting hurt again, though.”
She shook her head. “Understandable. But if you do, know I’m here for it.”
I chuckled and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, nuzzling her nose with mine. “Thank you, my love.”
She sighed, at total ease. “Any time.”
Eden’s phone pinged. It was Bex, and the text message simply read, “Stop.”
Her laughter chimed across the room. She was the happiest I’d seen her since she’d come back. I couldn’t tell her that my brothers were planning an attack that night. Not yet, anyway. I didn’t want to spoil the moment.
“What?” she asked, her smile fading.
“Not a thing,” I said, tackling her to the bed.
I swept back the nearly white strands that had fallen into her face, her ice blue eyes staring into mine, her bottom lip full and glistening from her biting it the second before.
“Except that I love you. I love you, Eden. Whatever happens next, it’s us. You and me.”
She nodded and then touched my cheek.
“I know.”
“You know?”
She nodded and then giggled when I grabbed her side. She laughed out loud, not trying at all to escape my grip. I could tell she was holding back. I wasn’t even sure if I was actually tickling her. But what I had to say next would put all this to an end, so her pretending was fine. More than fine. My black heart needed the white lie, and she likely knew it.
When I stopped, she relaxed, but the content smile I expected wasn’t there.
“We’ll make it, one way or another.”
“I’m limited,” she said, biting her lip again as she fell deep into thought. “What if … what if I can’t help you? What if I can’t help my family?”
“What-ifs don’t exist, Eden. We’ll handle what comes along.”
“If it doesn’t, though,” she said, her gaze rising to meet mine. She squeezed my shoulders with her fingers. “If it doesn’t, we still have Gehenna, to use it for what it was created for.”
“No,” I said. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Don’t you remember what it was like apart? Every thought of you was painful. I felt sick. And I thought about you nearly every moment. When you were in the Oubliette it was worse.” She looked at the pastel painting the sunset outside had cast on her windows and bit on her perfect oval thumbnail. “Humans know death. They know injury, but they don’t know pain.”