Chapter 53 #2
I couldn’t put Julian back in that, not when it was too easy to imagine what he’d looked like sleeping there without me. Cleaning it all up was the only option, but it’d taken longer than I’d expected. Not that Julian stirred once.
He’s still out cold when I sit beside him with a glass of cold water.
My heart sinks, and not for the first time today. Maybe we were idiots for trusting a witch.
We had no other choice. We listened to our instincts, but if Katerina was as powerful as she seemed, what’s there to say that she hadn’t manipulated us somehow?
I pray she didn’t. And if she did, Goddess help us for being stupid enough to believe her.
Climbing onto the bed, I feather my fingers down the side of his face.
“Hey, Jewels,” I whisper. “Time to get up.”
His eyelids twitch, breath hitching just enough to make my heart leap.
“Come on, baby,” I whisper as I shift closer. I stare at him for a second before it comes to me. My lips twitch. “Salmon.”
One crystal-blue eye pops open, then the other. Julian looks around for a confused moment before he shuts his eyes again and groans. I snort.
“Hey, you’re okay. I’m here,” I whisper, relief slamming through me, making it so much harder to breathe. I brush his hair out of his face. “How are you feeling?”
“Alright,” he mumbles, rubbing his sleepy eyes. “If alright meant I got hit by a bus.”
Laughing, I watch as he finally opens his eyes again, this time looking right at me. The world stops spinning, finally ending the wild rampage it’s been on since I realised that something was wrong with my mate.
As Julian stares at me now, he’s my Jewels—too quick, too smart, and too fucking beautiful.
“Here,” I croak as I reach for the water. “Drink this.”
Julian sits up slow, still a little dazed, and gulps the whole thing down. “When did we get home?”
“I brought you back right after. You were knocked out by the time I was back in control.” I pause, searching his face. “I don’t know what happened with Alex and Max. Can you feel him?”
If he can’t, then I have no idea where to go from here, but I’d figure it out. For him, I’d do anything.
“I can feel him!” he blurts, jerking up so fast that I almost fall off the bed, but he catches me before I go flying. “He’s here! He’s back and talking to me! Aiden! It worked!”
Julian’s smile is brilliant and shimmering with relief as his eyes dart between mine.
His heart pounds, hard and strong, but not from fear or panic this time. It’s hope. Tears pool in his eyes, but he fights them, seals his mouth shut before diving into my arms.
I hold him tight, not daring to let go while he laughs, squirming with his excitement.
He’s back, I tell Max, hoping desperately for an answer.
Good, he says, but it’s slow coming. And he sounds miserable.
What happened? I ask, and not for the first time. Nothing. Max, please. I can’t have what happened with them happening to us. What happened?
He … he won’t forgive me, he says finally, his voice cracking noticeably at the end.
My stomach twists. What did you do?
I broke a promise, he croaks the words, and I feel the cut of the truth slice across us both before he fades away.
That only deepens my concern, but when Julian pulls himself up to look at me, I shove the unease aside.
“How’s Alex?” I ask as my hands sink down to his waist.
“He says he’s fine, but I know he’s not,” he admits, but he’s still grinning from ear to ear. “I didn’t want to push it too soon though. I’m just happy he’s back.” His smile wavers. “He stopped replying when I asked what happened with Max.”
“Max says he broke a promise,” I tell him, and his eyes narrow.
“A promise?” he echoes. I can see my worry spreading to him, which is the last thing he needs—and exactly what I didn’t want.
“They’re okay,” I say, forcing a smile. “And for now, that’s what matters.” It becomes a real one, watching the light return in his eyes. “You hungry?”
Julian pauses before he nods. “Yeah, I’m starving actually.”
“Then, let’s get some food in you,” I say, standing up and tugging him with me.
He stumbles against my chest, eyes narrowing with sudden focus. “You said something about salmon, right?”
“Addict,” I mutter before I kiss the top of his head. “I’ll find you some.”
Julian smiles gratefully before pulling me into a kiss. I hum against his lips, the tension finally easing from my shoulders. For the first time in such a long time, it feels like we can exist without collapsing from the weight of it.
Alex and Max still have to work their issues out, but at least Alex is back with Julian, where he belongs.
I melt against him, relaxing for a minute. It’s been a hell of a few weeks, but we finally resolved all our shit. Well, most of it. All but one thing.
Julian pulls away with a small frown that I hate being the cause of. “What’s wrong?”
“I hate how well you know me sometimes,” I mumble, and his lips tug up for a second before he smooths his fingers over mine. “We can talk about it after. You had a witch in your head today. You need food and maybe an exorcism.”
Julian chuckles, but doesn’t let it go so easily. “You feel sad.”
I don’t know if sad is the word. Guilt doesn’t really fit either. Before everything went to shit, I’d planned to tell Julian about my past. I was working up to it, but then we’d gone stumbling back down the way we’d come, and I shoved it down until he showed up to fight for us.
But now Alex is back, and I don’t have to tell him … but I want to. I want to start clean. No secrets or ghosts between us. Nothing left that could ever pull us apart again.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” he says, and by Goddess, I want to. But I don’t know how to do this.
I’ve never talked about what had happened. Not in the way I want to with Julian. And fuck it, I do want to tell him—everything. Even if it hurts, even if it makes me feel weak. He deserves to know. Because I know everything about him now. He trusted me with himself—every part—and I trust him.
“Aiden,” he whispers my name with so much devotion, and it’s what ultimately breaks me.
I sit back down on the edge of the bed, and Julian sits beside me, his eyes trained on me.
I take a deep breath before I speak.
“I was seven, not six.”
Julian stiffens at my side, barely daring to breathe. “Is this …”
I nod stiffly, my gaze on our clasped hands. “I was seven when they took me.”