48. Forty-Eight
Forty-Eight
Aaron
“There’s something I need to tell you.” Kimberly sat on the edge of our bed.
I already knew what she would say. The entire drive home she’d been quieter than usual. She was torturing herself in her head. Thinking of ways, A to Z, on how to fix something that the power in the dagger had shown her.
It was something she was too afraid to tell Kilian, which meant it was another warning.
Chaos broke loose when she came to after the ritual. The whole room roared with talk after hearing the changing date for the battle and the unknowns that came with Cecily’s vague description. I’d called Presley on our way home to tell him the news that we weren’t leaving as soon as we’d hoped, and well, I was giving him the night to cool off before I talked to him again.
I didn’t agree with it either. I wanted to stop Ascension too, and I struggled to process the fact that Ascension was happening soon and Cecily mentioned that my brothers weren’t safe, but Presley and Kimberly were drowning, and I had to be there for them first. I’d work through it with Kilian all day and night if I had to.
“What did she say to you?”
“She said . . . that the only way for me to save all of you is if . . . I go to the island and that there is only one good way this ends.” Her attention shifted to her feet bundled in wool socks. “She said . . . I’ll likely die.”
My chest tightened at the mention, but I let the thought go as quickly as it came. There was nothing surprising about any of it anymore. If there was one thing I wouldn’t let happen, it was Kimberly’s death. Her death wasn’t an option.
“Oh.” I leaned forward to kiss her cheek. “Is that all?”
“Well, yeah. Aren’t you upset?”
“Kim, do you really think there’s a world where I let you die?”
“No, but—” I kissed her jaw and moved my index finger along her hairline and under her ear.
Her breath deepened, and her shoulders relaxed.
“Go on. I’m still listening,” I whispered.
“I . . . I just wonder what we should do. What I need to . . .”
I made my way to her neck, kissing slowly.
“You don’t need to do anything. I’ll handle it,” I said, keeping my focus on licking and sucking on the soft skin of her neck.
“This is serious, Aaron.”
I pulled away to look directly into her eyes. “Rest assured I take any threats to your life very seriously. But you don’t need to worry about this. I would never let anything happen to you. It’s dangerous. We’ve known that. It changes nothing. There’s nothing to fix. Let me handle it.”
“Let you handle it . . .”
She seemed to be contemplating my words as I continued my exploration of her body with my tongue.
“Why are you distracting me?”
“Because it’s good for you.” I exhaled against her neck, and she leaned into me. “Because your heartbeat slows. Because you let go and focus only on me touching you and on things like how good I can make you feel. It gives you a break from that war in your head.”
“I’ll just remember after you stop touching me.”
“Oh, I can keep you occupied all night. I’m not worried about that.”
I wasn’t using my hands yet, only my mouth to tease my way down her neck and to her chest. Every second, she opened up to me, shifting closer.
“I don’t know. I want to help. I want to—”
“There’s nothing to do about it. Just trust me. Just let me love on you. Let me help you relax.”
I continued but stopped short of peeling her shirt off. “Or we could stop if you want to.”
Her hand moved to my cheek. “No, don’t stop.”
I smiled, pulling her shirt off and vowing to ease any tension and doubt she had lingering in her mind.