I can feel him,” she says wonderingly. He’s so warm and bright, even though he’s hurt.
That’s what love looks like, I explain. “That’s what it feels like to care about someone more than yourself.”
I want to feel like that,” she whispers with longing.
“You will, I promise. “But first, let’s save Tristan.”
She nods determinedly and closes her eyes, focusing all her energy on pushing life back into the man who was willing to die for both of us.
I can feel the change immediately, the shift from taking to giving. The power that was draining Tristan begins to flow in
back to him along with something extra.
Something that feels like hope and healing and second chances and love.
reverse, carrying his life force
“Is it working?” she asks anxiously, her small face scrunched up with concentration.
“I think so, I tell her, and I can feel myself starting to rise back toward consciousness. “Keep going. Give him everything you took and more.”
- is.
The little girl nods and focuses harder, and I can feel Tristan’s life force growing stronger, brighter,
more substantial by the second.
“Will I see you again?” she asks as the darkness continues to fade around us and the connection starts to thin.
“You’re part of me now,” I tell her with a smile. “We’ll never be separated again. We’re going to do amazing things together.”
She smiles for the first time since I found her, and it transforms her entire face. She looks less like a scared, lonely child and more like what she really
A gift.
The darkness disappears completely, and I feel myself rushing back to the surface, back to my body, back to the room where Tristan is lying.
I open my eyes to find everyone staring at me with expressions of shock and fear and hope all mixed together.
“Athena, Sarah breathes, her voice filled with awe. “Your eyes. They’re glowing.”
I don’t know what she means until I look down at my hands, which are still pressed against Tristan’s chest. They’re
pulses in rhythm with something.
glowing
with a soft, warm light that
A heartbeat.
Tristan’s heartbeat.
I look at his face and see color returning to his cheeks. His chest rises and falls with steady, strong breaths, and his eyelids flutter like he’s having
pleasant dreams.
“Oh my god,” Orion whispers, and his voice is filled with pride. “It’s working. It’s actually working.*
00
TUE
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1/2
:53 Tue, Jan 13 GRM
Chapter 221
Derek leans over Tristan with shaking hands, checking his pulse and breathing and looking at the wound that should have killed him.
His vitals are not just stabilizing,” he says in disbelief. “They’re getting stronger. His heart rate is better than it was before we started.”
I can feel the power, the little girl, working inside Tristan’s body. She’s not just returning what she took, she’s repairing damage, healing organs, making everything work better than it did before.
And she’s doing it with love.
I understand now that this was always what she wanted to do. She never wanted to hurt people, she just didn’t know how to help them. She’d been trapped in darkness and fear for so long that taking had become her only language.
But now she knows different.
Now she knows what it means to heal.
Tristan’s eyes flutter open, unfocused at first but growing clearer
“Did it work?” he asks weakly, but his voice is getting stronger with each word.
by
the
second. When they find mine, he smiles.
I laugh through my tears, overwhelmed with relief and gratitude and love for this man who trusted me enough to die for me.
“Yeah, I whisper, leaning down to kiss his forehead. “It worked.
But more than that, everything has changed. The power inside me, the little girl who just needed someone
She’s exactly what Tristan said she was.
A cure.
And for the first time in my life, I’m not afraid of what I am.
I’m proud of it.
Comments
blackmoonsage
20000
4 days ago
to
understand her, she’s not a curse anymore.
8
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
