Chapter 33 #2
A pulse of rose-colored pink floods through the room with her recognition, and when she finally opens her eyes, they’re full of tears.
She allows them to freely track down her cheeks, and I finally give in to my urge to comfort her.
As I lift my hand to brush one away, she leans into my touch.
Her aura pulses again, this time, the golden color burning brighter with blacks and blues that match mine, Remi’s, and Kai’s. It’s stunning.
It’s her.
“Sam?” she asks tentatively.
I brush my thumb over the apple of her reddened cheek. “Yes?”
“You said that could be my future?”
“I did.”
“But it doesn’t have to be?”
My heart thuds in my chest, and I nod. “No, Greer, it doesn’t.”
“I can change it?”
I drop my hand. “The past may be written, but today and tomorrow are not.”
Her aura turns richer in color, the bold energy of it heating my skin.
It isn’t until I feel Kai’s and Remi’s voices of awe in my head that I glance around the room to discover it’s glowing, the gold, blue, and black colors nearly encasing the four of us in its beauty with not a lick of gray in sight.
Greer blinks, her gaze following where mine had just been. Her mouth parts, and her eyes widen. Just like she saw my aura earlier, she sees hers now, too.
“What’s happening?” she asks.
Like so many things with Greer, I’ve never seen this happen before.
The people we’ve helped in this way, we’ll see their auras change and shift as they go through their time with us, but they don’t see them like this, nor do they pick up our colors.
I believe they’re visible to her because of the connections she’s made with me and my fellow guardians, intimate connections we’ve never had with anyone else we’ve helped.
Or anyone else we’ve come across, Kai adds, speaking the words I already know.
“It’s your aura, Greer. When you arrived here, it was colorless, but now—”
“It looks like all of yours,” she finishes for me. Her eyes trail from my black halo to Kai’s comforting blue one and, finally, Remi’s gold.
I nod.
“What does it mean?”
Kai and Remi want to tell her what they believe it means, what the voice inside me is saying it means—that she is ours, that she’s more than just a job that passes through. Unfortunately, I can’t ignore that there’s more to it than that.
I tap into her shining aura, using my grace for what I do best: seeing the future.
My heart warms when I no longer see what I’ve shown her—the scenes are changing to ones filled with love and joy instead of loneliness and fear.
I send the visions to Remi and Kai, letting them see what they cannot, feeling their own happiness at the change but also the realization of what it means in the end.
The three of us can’t be selfish when it comes to her. Our work isn’t done yet. More than that, Greer’s work is only beginning. If we tell her she’ll forget us when she leaves, we could risk the new future she’s creating. It wouldn’t be fair or right of us.
“You’re healing, love,” Remi says, answering Greer’s question that lingered in the air. There’s a happiness to his tone, yet I can hear the sadness that simmers beneath it.
“Healing?” she asks.
“By feeling, by opening yourself up and letting those who love you into your heart, your aura is shifting to match your new choices,” Kai answers.
Her eyebrow rises in question.
I step in to answer. “I can see that your future is already changing based on whatever you were thinking when you saw your aura just now.”
She inhales and exhales multiple times, her eyes traveling between me, Remi, and Kai.
It starts slowly at first, but a wide smile I haven’t yet seen warms her face, pulling at her cheeks and showing off her straight white teeth.
There’s no more Scrooge or anger, no signs of a woman who tries to keep her emotions at bay and remain in control.
She allows herself to feel it all, and it’s beautiful to witness.
“I need to go,” she says abruptly. “I have people I want to see.”
The energy in the room remains charged, but our auras all dim, including Greer’s. Despite knowing she needs to leave, the idea of it doesn’t sit well with any of us.
I’m not sure she realizes that yet, though.
It’s funny to think that only yesterday, I was still trying to deny what I felt for her, and now I’m holding myself back from begging her to stay like I know Kai and Remi want to do as well.
But this is where it was always going to lead, where I knew it would even without seeing our futures.
Greer wants to make amends, and she deserves to be with those who have and will always love her. We’re three supernatural beings she just met who shouldn’t desire to keep her in the first place. She’s human, and we are not. Elysian Pines is our home; it is not hers.
As much as I tried to avoid this pain for me and my fellow guardians, it still hurts to know that it’s ending, even if Greer’s new outlook on life is just beginning.
“We’ll get your car ready,” I tell her.
She nods and tugs on my hand before I can leave. “But the snow?”
“You’ll be safe, I promise,” Remi assures her. “The roads will be clear.”
“Christmas magic,” Kai adds with a boyish grin.
Greer smiles back. “Don’t you mean Nephilim magic, Angel Boy?”
He chuckles, the sound warm and light despite what’s going through all of our minds.
“I’m going to miss you, Princess.”
Her smile falls. “We can see each other again, right?” She looks at me. “Will Elysian Pines let me find it again?”
I stare into her eyes, eyes that are every bit as unique and wonderful as she is.
I should tell her the truth, that unless there’s a miracle, this is the last time we’ll see each other, but I can’t make myself do it.
She looks too hopeful, and I don’t want anything to stop her from doing what she needs to do.
Remi picks Greer’s hand up and kisses her knuckles, diverting her attention to him. “If you need us, love, I have no doubt you’ll find us.”
Remiel, I scold through our link.
Let us have hope, Samael, Kai pleads.
My gaze flicks between my lovers then to Greer, and I do the only thing I can do, even if I shouldn’t. I nod and hope that Remi is right, even if that makes me an idiot for doing so.