“A parting gift.” Twila ignored my furious lover. Her smile was gentle, almost tender, as if she knew how disorienting the exchange had been.
Damned freakin’ loas. It would serve her right if I barfed on her carpet.
But there was a more important matter to hand. So I asked, “You’re saying that’s what lies ahead?”
“Possibly. Such things are never certain. Witness love’s triumphant return.” She tipped her head at Chance. “There are no destinies now. Life will be what you make of it, whatever you choose.”
“Thank you,” I said softly. “Freedom is a priceless gift.”
I remembered Kel. I ached. And yet I didn’t see how it could’ve ended otherwise. He had given up all hope.
“You earned it, not me. Farewell, Corine Solomon.” That was a dismissal, and one didn’t waste Twila’s time, so I backed out of the room like she was an empress, a courtesy I’d learned in Sheol. Her smile flashed wide and white; she understood.
Then she went back to work. Texas didn’t run itself.
The drive to Laredo went in a wink. At least, it seemed fast with all the talking. We both had so much to say, so many questions.
“I hated seeing how broken you were,” Chance said softly. “But . . . I loved it too. Since you left, I’ve felt like I was fighting to gain equal ground.”
“I was afraid. Of so many things. And then the worst came to pass. I lost you. If I could do it all over, forgive you sooner—”
But he was already shaking his head. “I wasn’t ready in Kilmer. You were right to call me on my bullshit. I needed you, but I didn’t want to open up. I was still clinging to the old double standard that had already failed once.”
“So you’re saying if I’d taken you back in Georgia, it wouldn’t have lasted.”
He lifted a shoulder in a graceful shrug. “I suspect not. You needed more from me than I was willing to give then. It took some straight talk from both you and my mom to wake me up.”
“Not many couples can say they’ve literally been to hell and back.”
His smile melted me from the inside out, and when he reached out to caress my stomach through my thin T-shirt, the tingles increased. I’d heard that sex drive spiked during pregnancy, but I could totally drag him into the backseat right now. From the way his eyes heated and his breath caught, he read my desire.
“Keep looking at me like that and we won’t make it to Laredo today.”
Butch yapped, keeping us on task. I fixed my gaze on the road and changed the subject. Already, Chance didn’t remember much about his time in his father’s realm. It was a protective measure, preventing humans from learning too much, coveting power they shouldn’t possess. But Ebisu didn’t need to worry about that with his son. Maybe, in time, he would be comforted to know he had a grandchild on the way—that his line would continue in the human fashion.
Then it occurred to me.
“Oh, my God,” I said.
“What?” Chance cut me a worried look.
“Pull over. Right now.”
His worry escalated to fear. “What’s wrong? Is it the baby? Oh, God, are you bleeding?” He was shaking when he pulled onto the highway shoulder, eyes frantic.
To shut him up, I kissed him as he’d done me in Sheol. That took longer than I expected, as he responded with full ferocity and desire. Only the honking of an eighteen-wheeler reminded me why we’d stopped in the first place. Otherwise, we might’ve tried to see if we could have sex in a Pinto.
Breathless, I handed him my phone. “Call your mother.”
Fond Farewells
Min was incoherent when she heard Chance’s voice. For the first ten minutes of the conversation, it was just her sobbing and him reassuring her. Eventually, she said, “I love you. I love you. Tell me where you are.”
I said quickly, “Have her meet us in Mexico. Give her Tia’s address.”
Chance complied. Then he added, “I’ll see you soon. It’s all right, I promise.”
More joyful tears, and I joined in, while the big trucks rolling by shook the Pinto’s windows. “Put Corine on the phone,” she eventually demanded.
With a surprised look, Chance gave back my cell. “Here.”
“Yeah, Omma?”
That surprised him again. He laced our fingers and brought my hand to his lips, thanking me silently for honoring his mother. But I’d always loved Min, even when he and I were apart. But from his expression, you’d think I had given her a chalice of solid gold. Since they’d had only each other for so long, in a way, I had.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you, ddal.”
“I have even better news for you,” I said then.
“Impossible. Nothing could be better than this. Nothing.” Her voice was strong, certain, but also shaky with repressed tears.
“Not even your first grandchild?”
The silence held for almost thirty seconds, and then she deafened me with incoherent, joyous shrieks. When she found the words at last, she said, “I was wrong.”
As she rang off, Min was mumbling about buying plane tickets. It seemed we would see her soon. Chance didn’t let go of my hand as he pulled back onto the highway. Our fingers clung for the remainder of the drive, and he didn’t release me until he had to in order to open my door at the Ortiz place. Inside the house, I got hugs from Chuch and Eva, but Booke wasn’t in the front room to greet us. I caught him packing. When I came into the bedroom, he folded the shirt in his hands meticulously and then faced me. As soon as Barachiel’s body hit the ground, he must’ve been booking travel arrangements. I didn’t blame him. He had only eleven months of freedom left. I hoped Twila treated him well upon his return, but that was his issue to deal with; he’d made the bargain freely, after all.
“I’m sorry about Kel,” he said softly.
“He chose his fate. Not everyone is so fortunate.” But it still hurt.
In my mind’s eye, I saw him fighting Barachiel, fierce and magnificent. I remembered what he’d said in his last moments. The future lies before you, dadu, but I have outlived my purpose. I choose to die a free man. Tears welled up in my eyes. Loss was inevitable; I couldn’t have saved everyone, no matter how I wanted to. I’d freed Booke, rescued Kel once, but his ultimate fate wasn’t mine to decide. At least I had given him that much. The wound in my thigh burned like righteous fire, a reminder of what my fate would have been without the half demon who had not been ordered to protect me, that last time. That ritual would’ve killed me.
He chose his path.
“Speaking as one with experience in adaptation, I think he never quite got over the shock of learning his whole existence had been constructed on a lie. He couldn’t adjust . . . and so, in those final moments, he thought only of surcease.”
“He seemed to be at peace.” But those were only words, what people said in order to comfort each other. Yet I hoped Booke’s interpretation was accurate.
And I hoped, unlike the full-blood demons in Sheol, that Kel hadn’t simply ceased to be. Perhaps his human half meant he had a soul, so there was an afterlife or reincarnation waiting for him. Those were the most cheerful thoughts I could muster, and they didn’t stem the tears. Booke hugged me, his hands gentle on my back. Soon, I got myself under control and stepped away.
“That wasn’t what I came to talk to you about, actually.” I put on a cheerful expression, as I had so many reasons to be happy . . . and grateful.
“Sorry I saddened you.”
“It was the circumstances, not you. The edge will dull in time.”