Broken Visions

Chapter 37

It seems like hours tick by as I wait for something else to happen. It gets later, then earlier as morning starts to arrive. I’m not sure what compels me to do it, whether its sheer bravery or stupidity, but I finally dare to but the ring on. I expect something to happen—a big explosion or maybe I disappear—but nothing happens. So I keep it on and lie down on the sofa, skimming through the Foreseer book, while Aislin works on a spell.

At about three or four o’clock in the morning Laylen and Alex finally return. I sense something is immediately off by their bloodshot eyes and their worn out expressions.

“Are you two okay?” I ask as Alex shucks off his jacket and hangs on a coatrack it in the foyer. “Have you been crying? Or are you stoned?”

Alex chuckles under his breath. “I promise we’re fine.” He doesn’t really answer my question, though, swinging and arm around my shoulder and guiding me with him as he goes into the living room. He smells like barbeque sauce and beer, which makes me wonder if they went to a bar.

Laylen lies down on the sofa, looking beat, and I catch Aislin giving him a look that begs him for the details of where they’ve been, which he ignores, shutting his eyes like he’s going to take a nap.

As I’m about to sit down, Alex tugs me in the other direction toward the stairway. “Hey, come with me for a minute. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Okay.” Something is up.

“You put that thing on?” he asks, unexpectedly alarmed as he taps the ring on my finger while we gradually make our way upstairs.

I run my finger along the gems. “I wanted to see if it would do something if I did, but it didn’t.”

He seals his lips together, probably shoving down a lecture and remains that way until we’re in my room. He shuts the door behind us and even though it’s dark, he doesn’t turn the light on. Then he stands by the door and I can’t see what he’s doing, but I can tell he’s thinking about something intense by the way the sparks nip and bite at my skin.

It starts to drive me crazy, so I flip the light on. “Okay, fess up. Where did you and Laylen go?” I lie down on my bed on my stomach and rest my chin in my hand, fixing my attention on him.

He shrugs, his relentless gaze locked on me. “I just needed to talk to him about something.”

“So are you two friends again, then? I really hope so because this jealousy, male testosterone thing between you two is getting old.”

He chuckles under his breath then lies down on the bed beside me on his back. “Yeah, I guess it was getting old, wasn’t it.” He drapes his arm over his head, gazing up at the ceiling.

“It feels like you’re keeping something from me,” I state, turning my head and resting my cheek on my hand so I can look at him better.

“No, it’s not bad. It’s good…everything will be alright.”

My heart misses a beat. Those are the words he whispers to me right before we died. “How do you know that for sure?”

“I just do.”

“Alex.” I move a pillow out of my way and scoot closer to him. In response, he puts a hand on my stomach, just under my shirt, and his fingers splay across my stomach. Something warms inside me, in a different yet equally—maybe even better—way than it normally does, but the sensation baffles me. “What did you say during the Blood Promise you made to me last night?”

His expression is unreadable as he grabs my leg and swings it over his midsection. “I’ll tell you tomorrow, okay? But right now I just want to lay here with you and do something else to get my mind off the end of the world.”

I look down at my leg over his and then my eyes glides up his body and meet his tired gaze. “What did you have in mind?”

“I just want to have normalcy for a bit.” His arm wraps around me, his hand pressing on the small of my back, and he pushes me closer to him. “Just for a second.” He pauses then utters, “I won’t let it happen.” he says it more to himself than to me as his fingers trace the length of my spine. “I’ll never let anything happen to you.”

As his hands slide up to my shoulders and our bodies align, I’m not even worried about dying. And when he kisses me, every worry I have diminishes. I once heard this song or maybe it was a saying about letting yourself die in a blissful, loving, perfect moment, so that you could die happy. I think I might feel that way right now.