Authors: Shannon McKenna
Then something made her turn. A pull, like wind in her hair.
She looked over her shoulder. Edie was slogging through the sand, waving her arms. Her words were impossible to make out, but her shouting tone was full of excitement. Her belly clutched in dread. Good news was impossible at this point. And that left . . .
She took off at a dead run, staying on wet sand for speed, angling out onto the sliding, sun-warmed, dry sand when she was close enough.
Edie’s face was wet with tears. Nina grabbed her arms. “What is it? Is he dead?”
Edie sniffed back tears, and shook her head. “No,” she said, her voice quavering. “Oh, Nina. Come. Quick.”
She grabbed Nina’s hand, and they sprinted. Edie pulled her over the dune that separated the house from the beach. And Nina stumbled to her knees, then her hands, a cry of shock choked in her throat.
Aaro was sprawled on the sand. His face was so thin, drawn with pain, but his eyes shone with joy. Nina clapped her hand to her mouth, losing her balance. Edie helped her to her feet. She didn’t trust her own eyes. After all that had happened, it had to be a dirty trick, a cruel joke. Just a way to slap her down again, once and for all.
“Nina?” he whispered.
She saw the blood on the fingers pressed to his side, and ran to him, dropping to her knees. “What is this? What happened?”
“Nah. Just the bullet wound from before. It’s leaking. No big deal.”
She snorted. “Just a bullet wound. Only you, Aaro. You can’t be a dream or a hallucination, then. My mind could not spontaneously come up with anything as irritating as you.”
He grinned. “Nope. It sure couldn’t.”
“We see him, too,” Edie assured her. “He’s really here.”
“What about the drug?” she asked anxiously.
“I never took the A dose,” Aaro said. “It was a dummy. Dmitri must have switched it out, at the cabin. He took the A dose, not me. He must have found your purse in the bedroom while they were messing with us. And he took his opportunity.”
“Oh, God,” she whispered. “Oh, my God.”
“So Dmitri was the one who died raving, two days ago. Not me.”
“So . . . so you’re not dying?” she asked. Still afraid to believe it.
He gave her a crooked smile. “I’m all fucked up, but not dying. You’re stuck with me, babe. To the ends of the earth, the end of time, and all that good stuff.”
Her jaw trembled so hard, her teeth chattered. She was going to fly apart, into a million pieces.
“Dmitri wanted the B dose for himself. That was why he followed us to Spruce Ridge,” Aaro said.
“But what about your psi talent? How the hell did that happen?”
His eyebrow twitched. “Just lucky, I guess. Must be a genetic thing. Remember, how Tonya said I never let it out of its cage? I guess, when I thought they’d shot me up with psi-max . . .” He shrugged, and froze halfway through, wincing. “I let it out of the cage at last. Thinking I was drugged gave me permission. An excuse to be more like my father, I guess.” He looked up at Kev.
“How’s Miles?”
“Not great.” Kev’s voice was grim. “He was in a coma for a few days. Bruising, bleeding on the brain. Almost bought it. Sean’s in Denver with him now. This morning he regained consciousness for a while. He was talking a little, to his mom, and Sean. About Lara Kirk. He’s obsessed with her now. But his vitals are better.
So we’re hoping.”
“And Rudd?”
“Rudd’s red paste,” Edie said, her soft voice unusually hard.
“He disintegrated on the rocks. Thank God.”
Kev placed his hand on her shoulder. “We should go out front, and wait for the ambulance,” he told her. “Leave these two alone.”
“Oh. Um, yeah. Sure.” Edie wiped her eyes, gave them a tremulous smile, and followed her husband back into the house.
The two of them gazed at each other, almost shy.
“I want to hug you,” she whispered. “But I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”
Aaro lowered himself carefully to the sand. “Lie down, and hug my good side. I want you to hug me ’til the ambulance gets here. And after.”
She did as he directed, shocked at how hard and thin his body felt, like a hot tangle of wires. He’d always been lean, but God.
The contact unleashed a storm of silent sobs, and she hid her face against his shoulder and let them flow. He kissed her forehead. Warm, real.
“You be sure to tell the EMTs when they come that I’m your wife,” she said, her voice shaking. “I want them to hear it from you.”
“Sure thing, sweetheart.”
“It almost killed me. When your father wouldn’t let me see you.”
“I’m sorry.” He kissed her tears away. “We’ll get all the paperwork straight, first thing. It’ll never happen again.”
“And I’m staying with you,” she said, still defensive. “In the hospital. Stuck to you. They’ll have to chain me to a radiator to keep me away from you. I own your ass, Aaro. Remember?”
He sighed contentedly. “Feels good. To belong to you.” He stared up at the crescent moon and its dangling star, and waved.
“Hey, Aunt.”
She jerked up onto her elbow. “About Tonya. Did she . . . ?”
“Yes.” He kept his eyes fixed on the star. “The day after we saw her. She told me she’d be my star for me now. That I could go out and look into the sky, and say hello to her. Remember?
You were there.”
“Yes, I remember.” Her throat fogged up.
“She stole us away from Oleg once. Me and Julie. A whole month, on the Jersey Shore, one winter. I was thirteen, Julie was ten. Best month of my life.” He glanced over at her, smiling tenderly. “So far.”
She nodded, her throat too tight to speak.
“We would look up at the stars with her, on clear nights,” he said. “She told us to wish on the stars. For freedom.”
“Freedom?”
“Yeah. You live in Oleg Arbatov’s household for any length of time, and believe me, you start fantasizing about freedom. But ever since then, I had this idea that we’d been so happy because we were free.” He spoke slowly, as if puzzling it out as he went.
“I thought freedom was the thing to strive for. But it wasn’t freedom that made us so happy.” He turned away from the star, and gazed at her, and the look in his eyes made her heart swell. “It was love,” he said. “I get that now.”
She was so happy, she could barely speak. “So, um, now you’d wish on the star for love?”
He shook his head. “No,” he said. “I don’t have to wish anymore. I have it. I’m in it. Lost in it. I’m in so far, I’ll never find my way back.”
“Let’s stay lost,” she said. “Let’s just live there together. Forever.”
“Yeah.” His lips met hers in a slow, reverent kiss. “Forever.”
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