He laughed with me, the sound deep and barrel-chested as he twirled me around and around.
“You did it, my sweet Annabelle Lee, just like I always knew you would.” He set me down oh so gently, strong arms holding me as though I were the very finest piece of china.
Then he gently brushed a knuckle down my cheek.
I trembled, gripping tight to his wrist as I stared into his beloved face one last time. I did not know what our afterlife held or whether we’d ever be able to find one another again, but we had right now to say all we needed to say.
“You sacrificed yourself for me. Why? I never knew you’d do such a thing.”
His smile was so gentle, so sweet, and so very Julian. “I promised you my fealty, and not even death could take that promise from me. I was never going to leave you alone with that evil. Not if I could help it. But in the end, it wasn’t me that saved us, Anna. It was you.”
He tipped my chin up with the rough pad of his fingertip. I trembled.
“I will love you until the end of eternity and then some,” he whispered, “but I am tired and weary of this life. For far too many years I lied to you, Annabelle.”
I frowned and his lashes flickered, revealing the shame glittering in his bright eyes. “Annabelle...I...I never heard the Aunt’s music when I saw you that day. I said it to keep you with me I wanted you so bad. But the truth is the fortune-teller told me I would never hear the music and that I would die alone. I was ready to do that until you stepped into my life. It was wrong of me, I know, it was just that I...”
I covered his mouth with my fingers, more relieved than he could possibly know that the Aunt’s magick couldn’t be so cruel. “Once, maybe a long time ago, I would have been hurt by this, Jules. But those days are long gone for me. You were my very dearest friend then and now. In my own way I will always love you.”
He shuddered, fingers digging tight into my hipbones. “Thank you, Annabelle. Thank you. But, I must move on now. It is time, my sweet girl.”
My smile faltered and I sniffed. “I know, Jules. I know. And you were the very best companion a girl could ever hope to have in the afterlife, I want you to know that. I need you to—”
He sighed deeply, taking an infinitesimal step back. “Annabelle, it’s time for me to go. But...” he shook his head and flicked a glance over his shoulder, “are you sure about this?”
I frowned, cocking my head to the side as my heart banged wildly in my chest. “What? Sure about what? Moving on? I must.”
He shook his head, holding my gaze without flinching. “No. No, you don’t have to. The darkness wouldn’t let you go then, but you have the choice now. I’ve not seen you this happy ever. Not even when you and I were together. I said I loved you and I meant it, but I see now what I didn’t see then. You came to Blue Moon Bay, not for me, but for your future. A convoluted one to be sure, but the call of the Aunts is never wrong.” His grin was crooked. “It doesn’t hurt me, Annabelle, because I’ve only ever wanted to see you happy. And...there is nothing here for me anymore. Hasn’t been for a long time.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, wanting to apologize, wanting to tell him I was so sorry. That I had loved him in my own way, and that he’d been exactly what I’d needed.
I felt the doubts begin to rise up in me again and he quickly shook his head.
“Don’t do that to yourself. Be happy, Annabelle, that’s all I want for you.”
Then lowering his head, he kissed me so gently upon my lips.
My lashes fluttered when he pulled away, I didn’t feel passion or desire, but I did feel love and it burned like a flame through every inch of my soul.
When next I opened my eyes, Julian was at the door, his hand on the knob. It was open, and a wash of radiant golden light bathed his blue soul.
“Farewell, sweet Annabelle.” With those final words my guardian left me.
I hung my head, feeling the loss of his love keenly. For so long it’d only been Julian’s companionship that had kept me sane, fleeting as it sometimes was. Who was I without him?
What was I anymore?
Could I stay?
Should I even? And if I did what did that mean? I’d never get this chance again? To leave the land of the living behind permanently and move on to where I should have been all along. But if I left, I left it all. I left Dante. I said I’d wait for him, but what if I didn’t remember him where I was going? Worse yet, what if he stopped caring for me at all? Fickleness was the way of mortals, through no fault of their own. Humans were adaptable, resilient. They needed to be because their time was so fleeting. Dante would move on. He’d find someone else eventually. How could he not? He was too wonderful, and eventually someone else would have no problem figuring that out.
They’d live their life together. Be happy. Create a family. Maybe he’d go off and build her their dream home just as he’d always wanted, or maybe they’d go and see the world. And then he’d forget all about me except in those infrequent, fleeting moments that never lasted and hardly left a mark at all. What if no one really wanted me here? I was a ghost. Nothing. No one. I didn’t matter.
The infection of doubt and fear begin to spread through me again, making me feel cold all over. I shook.
“Annabelle, no!”
Dante’s wild cry was all the warning I got. I twirled and gasped as the darkness that had been being dragged back into the shadow realm now rose up like an ebony flame in front of me, moving so quickly that I didn’t even get a moment to register what was about to happen. I just stood there, staring at the face of permanent death, its sickle-shaped fangs ready to rend me into oblivion. Hate pulsed and throbbed, becoming a living breathing entity as it stretched out its claws toward me. It reached for me.
“Leave her alone!” Dante screamed just as its claws whispered against my spirit. Rough, violent hands shoved me out of the way. I dropped to the ground watching in open-mouthed horror as Dante blocked my view of death’s cold hand.
“You can’t have her,” he roared, standing tall and proud like a bastion, arms spread wide. “You can never have her.”
The shadow laughed and shoved its fist through Dante’s chest, touching his heart. I screamed as my brain finally caught up to instinct. Dante turned white as a sheet, but still he didn’t stop. Instead he lunged headlong into the darkness, screaming at it.
“Go back to Hell where you belong!” He shoved, but sweat poured down his trembling frame, and his voice was growing hoarse, weaker.
I scrabbled to my knees. “Dante, don’t do this! It’s—”
But my warning came far too late. The shadows claws swiped through his body, and tugged violently.
The blue soul glow radiated from him.
“No! NO!” I shrieked, unaware of the turmoil of nature in the madness of my desperation. I reached out a hand and without even a shred of doubt in my spirit, I cried, “No more! This is done! Go back! NOW!”
And from my own hand, poured light, radiant blinding light. Thunder and lightning flared in the midnight skies. The world crashed with the boom of chaos and the wail of adrenaline pounding noise.
That light poured over the pillar of hate and in a violent rumble, the night went suddenly and eerily silent.
The darkness was gone forever. I felt it deep in my soul. I was aware of female shrieks, but I didn’t look back. My eyes were on Dante’s crumpled body.
The blue glow of his soul glowed dim.
“No,” I breathed, shaking my head as I rushed to his side and dropped to my knees what felt like an eternity later.
His beautiful eyes were closed, his skin ashen and waxy looking.
“You’re not dead. You’re not dead. I won’t let you be dead, you hear me? I love you, damn you. Don’t you do this to me too! Don’t you dare!”
I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t stop to think, didn’t bother answering the shrieking questions flung at my back from a wild and desperate Blue. Didn’t care what the witches were saying.
&n
bsp; I felt the energy of my door beginning to fade. Soon it would leave me behind, but that didn’t matter either.
Picking up his hand I marveled at the rough softness of it, realizing that in this place we could finally touch. I brought his hand to my mouth, placing a tender kiss to his palm.
Words issued forth from me, words I’d never even known could be until suddenly I knew exactly what to say.
“A gift to you, my dear Prince. A life for a life. A soul for a soul. My love always...”
I gasped as unseen hands reached inside of me and pulled. The energy of my spirit came willingly, cleaving itself in half. I trembled, feeling the loss of part of me even as I rejoiced watching it sink within his parted lips. The glow of his body and the glow of my spirit mingled, meeting and twining into an infinity loop. Partly him, partly me.
“What is this?” Blue sobbed. “What is she doing? What have you done to him?” She screamed.
“Ssh. Shh, now,” one of the witches murmured. “This is ancient magick. We stand upon holy ground now. Watch and see, dear Blue.”
Instinct drove me, and I bent over his still frozen form.
I had just enough light left to pull him from the death lands. I smiled, and brushed my fingers over his pallid features.
The choice whether to live or die suddenly seemed absurdly easy. Julian had been right, I had been brought to Blue Moon Bay for a reason. And the reason was him. To save him someday. To give him the very best of me, to let him live the life I could not, but to do it for the both of us. My sacrifice so that he might live.
I felt the tugging on my soul, the demand that I give him the rest of me. Already the pink stain of life was starting to spring up in his cheeks.
“You will live again, my darling boy. Live. And love. And make so many beautiful memories. This sacrifice I give willingly.” And then I kissed him. For the very first time I tasted of the wine of his breath and the hint of berries upon his mouth.
Already the flush of life returned to him. He moaned low, bringing his arms around me. Holding me so tight that all I could do was cry tears of joy even as the last bits of life left my spirit.
My door was long gone. Soon I’d be nothing but oblivion. A memory only. But a good one I hoped.
His eyes opened. “Annabelle,” he breathed my name like a prayer.
My hands had already begun to fade, but I brushed my nearly translucent fingertips over the firm warmth of his skin. Shivering with pleasure.
“I love you,” I whispered. “Just remember that, Charming.”
He frowned as the joy that had been there just seconds ago began to turn into an expression of dawning horror.
He sat up, arms sliding right through me now. I was barely a wisp of light, but his soul glowed so beautifully now.
I nodded.
“Goodbye, Dante. Farewell...” My voice drifted off, merging with the rolling winds, as the last bits of my light burned slowly away.
Chapter 12
Dante Martin
I JUMPED TO MY FEET, feeling different and burning up with so much power and energy that I felt I might burst. I reached out for my fading ghost, knowing something desperately wrong had just happened.
I whirled and gazed into the worried faces of three women standing behind me.
“Dan...Dante,” Blue stammered, reaching out toward me with hope reflected in her eyes.
I grabbed my sister’s hands, yanking her to me. But my thoughts weren’t on her.
“Where is she? Where’s Annabelle?”
Zinnia blinked, looking as shocked as I felt. I shook my head.
“No. No, don’t say that.”
“I”—she shrugged and tossed her hands up—“Dante, I’m so sorry. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Feeling numb and cold all over, I tried to process what it was my heart already knew.
“She’s not gone. She’s not gone. Where’s her door? What happened—”
Hyacinth stepped up, looking determined and angry. But I didn’t give a damn, I just needed someone to fix this right now. And I didn’t particularly care who.
“Ye want her back?” Her words rolled with strong undercurrents of emotion, she stood with her legs braced and power crackling around her so strongly that all the fine hairs on my arms stood on edge.
“What? Yes! Bring her back. She can’t do that, I would never—”
“Listen to me, boy,” she snapped. “Ye want her back then ken this, to do it I must cleave yer soul. Half to her. Half for ye.” She spoke with a sharp and rapid burr.
Blue’s fingers clutched at my shirt. “What does this mean? Are you going to have to kill him again?”
I frowned. Again? Had I died? I shook my head, my thoughts in turmoil. I didn’t know what had happened or why, all I knew was that it was all my fault Annabelle was gone.
“Of a sort, I willnae lie. But Time is ticking away, boyo. Can ye live half a life if it means bringing back the one ye love?”
Suddenly a man appeared beside Hyacinth. A man I’d never seen before. Tall. Dark. Powerful looking. He was cloaked in shadows and in his hand he held the sands of time, the grains were nearly all gone. He said nothing, but there was challenge burning like a flame in his golden-eyed gaze.
I knew without asking that was Annabelle’s life he held. Her last chance to come back. To come back to me.
“Understand, you’ll be bound to her forever. I’m sorry, Dante. I’m so sorry, but you have the choice now. Listen to your heart.” Zinnia clutched her fingers tight, looking imploringly at me.
Blue grabbed my chin and turned me to her. She was shaking her head, tears streaming down her eyes. “I don’t know what that means, half a life. But I can’t lose you, Dante. You’re all I have left.”
I nodded and kissed the crown of her head. “I know, Blue. I know. But I can’t lose her either. She sacrificed everything for me, how can I—”
She shook her head. “You can’t. I’d hate you forever if you let it end this way. But you’d better not ditch me, that’s all I’m saying, and if you’re gonna haunt anyplace well...you know where to find me.”
“He willnae die, but he will be trapped in this place, bound to her and she to him. He will be her tether and she will be his.” Hyacinth clenched her molars, causing a muscle in her jaw to tick. Her lavender eyes pierced me. “Decide, boy. And do it now.”
I didn’t know what was coming or what my future held, all I knew was this. “Annabelle is my future. Come what may.”
A sigh of relief issued from Zinnia. Hyacinth was already murmuring her incantations just as the final grain fell.
A blast of light issued from the witch’s mint green fingertips and encircled me. The light was warm, but it was demanding. I didn’t fight it as it reached into my body and pulled at my soul.
My soul that was no longer just my own, but hers too. I saw her thread of gold mingled with my blue. I had died, and she’d sacrificed what was left of herself to bring me back.
I could only do the same for her.
Soon the light that had faded, the light that was my Annabelle began to form, coalesce, and take shape. I winced, grabbing at my chest as my heart gave one powerful final thump and then...it stopped.
Annabelle, standing just before me, now more here than there and far more physical looking than she’d been before gasped, looking at me wide-eyed and patting her body.
“I’m...I’m...alive.”
“Nay.” Hyacinth said as she strode forward and tugged on Annabelle’s hand, bringing her hand into my own.
I trembled at the solid warmth of her, pulling her tight into my body and hugging her so tight I knew she couldn’t breathe. But I had her back now, and I was never letting her go again.
Her touch was deliciously warm as she slid her hands up my back. “Dante, how? I don’t understand, what is—”
“This is where your happily ever after meets,” Zinnia said softly, placing a gentle hand on either of our shoulders. “He has shared his life with you.
And since he was living, he had more light to give. In the betwixt you can now meet as equals. But in the land of the living, you will still be a ghost, Annabelle. And Dante is just dead enough that he can cross into the dead lands too. Here you live again with a heart that beats true. But you are now always bound one to the other. Where you go, he goes. And where he goes, so do you. I hope this is an eternity you can handle.”
I swallowed, finally understanding the sacrifice I’d made and what it meant, not just for me, but for her too.
I stared at Annabelle’s lovely eyes, drowning in their indigo depths, and shook my head. “Casper, I...I’m sorry if this isn’t what you wanted. I just...I couldn’t let you fade away like that. I couldn’t let you become nothing. I just could—”
She stopped my words with the touch of her fingers and I shivered, knowing I’d never get enough of her or of the fact that we could touch now, and all of the possibilities of what that might mean for our future.
“Don’t you ever let me go again, Dante Martin. I’ll love you until the stars turn red and the moon withers away. You didn’t need to sacrifice yourself for me like that, but I’m selfish enough to be glad that you did.”
I kissed her. And this time I did it the way I’d promised her I would.
Moving into her body, I held her slight trembling form close to mine and breathed her in before placing my lips over hers. Fire arched between us. The flame of our souls being joined as one, burning bright as a beacon in the night.
When I pulled away I was stunned to notice the withered bushes lining the derelict home seemed to budding with new life. And I could finally make out that the bushes were holly.
I frowned and Annabelle gasped. “Is that—”
Zinnia stepped forward and rubbed her fingers over a waxy leaf. “I don’t know how you guys have done this, but life seems to be springing up in the dead lands.”
“What does that mean?” Annabelle asked, still clutching tight to my shirt.
Hyacinth looked as stumped as we felt. “I’ll have to do more research to see how this is even possible, but for now rest assured that the darkness that has plagued your steps for so long has finally been laid to rest. Enjoy yer afterlife, Spook. Ye’ve earned it.”