by Gina Sturino
Neal and I were delivered into this world, into the sea, newborns whose first cries went unheard. The crowd understood our fate. The midwife cradled my body, dipping a finger into the sea and pressing it against Neal’s head, then doing the same to me.
I was a child born and baptized in the ocean, and now it would cement my destiny. It would bring me home. Embraced in its arms, I calmed. My eyelids drifted open and shut, seeing only blackness.
A second wave of memories floated over me, this time slow and steady, unlike the chaos of my birth.
A first cry heard by the angels. Warmth and love, clouds and music. We sat among the divine. Bathed in gold, my dresses were pearls and Neal’s playground was arches and waterfalls.
A little girl swirling and singing, my white hair fanned like a halo. Angels watched as a symphony of music floated in sunshine. My face radiated with pure joy. Safe and secure, blanketed in divine love, I was home.
My eyes shot open, only to see the blackness of the sea. I tried to protest, to scream and shout.
“You are fated for greater things. I always believed you would earn your wings. It is your destiny.”
“A destiny that comes at the expense of my family.”
“You have always been logical, Novalee. That is why among the mortals you became a lawyer, a bargainer of right and wrong. You are questioning your destiny, conflicted as to whether you should accept your station as an angel, whether you are worthy of perfection, but you are neither judge nor jury. Mortals revere faulty courts of law that dictate good and bad, guilt and innocence, but sin and temptation are a part of humanity. They are inevitable.”
As Lucille’s words vibrated in my head, the tide turned harsh, jerking and whipping my limbs until I was spinning and churning. An underwater tornado. It propelled me upward, and my head momentarily bobbed above the surface. I heaved, gulping salty sea air before being plunged under once again. Resisting was futile. The sea held me steady, held me under, until I could no longer fight. My time had come.
You have learned the truth, and now you have a choice; claim your wings, or buck your destiny.
Only now did I understand the real truth. Humanity was fragile, a world filled with uncertainty, anger, betrayal, fear, and deception. Emotions that lead to impulses and actions that could destroy a life, change the course of the future.
But by understanding humanity’s faults, I learned to appreciate its beauty. The joy, passion, excitement, courage, and love that made life worthwhile. The hope that even in its darkest moments, we believed in a future.
Humanity gave me that hope. Humanity would give me a future.
“I want it all!” I tried to scream the words, but my attempt was cut short by a jolt of lightning. It fractured the darkness, clearly illuminating the path my soul had chosen. I looked up, and my pupils moved in and out of focus as I tried to discern sea from surface. Another flash lit the water. This one a sharp dart that sliced like a knife through butter, striking me.
Bolt after bolt, the water and my body twitched from the sky’s assault, until one final burst laid us to rest. It crackled so loudly, I felt its vibrations in my blood. An electrified starfish, my arms and legs shot outward. The seabed shuddered, vibrating and blinking from the flash of a million lights.
Blindingly white… then blackness.
Thirty-Five
Something stroked my arm. A touch so gentle, it felt like feathers sliding along my skin. I sighed, a content breathy noise, and my eyes fluttered open. Perfect, plump cloud formations floated above my head.
“You’re awake,” a voice called. I slowly twisted my head toward the sound. Liam sat in the sand next to me, watching intently.
“Liam?” I whispered.
“Relax, Nova,” he directed.
“I don’t feel so good.” A roll of nausea assaulted my stomach.
“Yeah, well, you had quite the night.”
I clumsily pushed up, breaking free of the sand that cocooned my body. “It’s my decision, right?” My words weren’t necessarily aimed toward Liam.
“Doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. You gave up everything, for what? For him?” Liam’s voice rose with each word, and I flinched as they hit my already sore head. “I thought you were smarter than that.”
“Why do you care?” My voice held neither anger nor sarcasm. It was an honest question.
Looking at him, his face gruff from several days of a missed shave, and his wet, sandy jeans, it struck me that Liam must’ve been at the beach for a while, waiting for me to come to.
“I love him,” I said softly, “but I didn’t do it for him. I did it for me.”
Liam’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”
The Kingdom could give me perfection, but I wanted more. The good and the bad. Humanity and divinity. Mother and child. Brothers and sisters. Husband and wife. A family and a future, even if it didn’t include Dane.
I let out a sigh. “This is where destiny led me, the story written for me. I belong here. My soul chose this path, even if Dane didn’t choose me.”
He walked away. He said he’d never walk away.
Liam leaned closer and his voice dropped. “I suppose it’s time you learn the truth.”
“The truth?” I gulped.
“The night Dane arrived in Milwaukee—the night you lit up the sky—he wasn’t on orders.”
“What?” I stuttered.
“He’s always been too nosy for his own good. When he found you, his curiosity got the best of him. He saw a fallen god, and he couldn’t resist.”
“What are you saying?”
“You were never his mission.”
I pressed my fingers to my scar. “I need to lay down.”
“You still have divine blood, Nova. You’ll heal quickly,” Liam advised. “Let me help you back to the inn. After you rest, you can decide where you go from here.”
“Is he here?”
“Knowing Dane, he’s probably holed up at a bar somewhere, drinking tequila until he passes out. If anything, he’s predictable.”
Taking Liam’s extended hand, I pushed to my feet. We walked silently along the sandy path. As we neared the sidewalk across the street from Charming Inn, my fatigued body nearly gave out. Liam stepped in, putting an arm around my waist.
“You okay? It’s three flights of stairs. Think you can make it?” he asked but didn’t wait for me to answer. Instead, he effortlessly lifted me into his arms.
As Liam carried me up the stairs, I struggled to keep my eyes open, yet I mustered the energy to ask, “So, are you going to help me find him?”
“A chance to see Dane wallow in misery? I wouldn’t miss that for the world.”
For the first time since meeting Liam, I saw him smile.
My body was too sore and tired to do anything more than take a short, hot shower. Liam waited outside the bathroom, then helped me crawl into bed. The curtains were pulled back, allowing the morning sunshine to filter into the room. I didn’t have the energy to ask him to close them before slipping under the duvet and falling into a fitful sleep.
Several times, I woke gasping for air and bolting upright as memories seeped back into my head. Life-defining moments of my existence.
Playing in the Hark with Neal. Meeting my best friend, Mira. Christening my goddaughter, Calla.
Then came the terrible moments—the heart-wrenching acts I wished to forget, the memories that had been masked by Lucille, my guardian. They infiltrated my dreams. Worse than a nightmare, I relived the harshest phases—Calla’s injury, Mira’s anger, Anya and Arthur’s devastation, the sea unleashing its fury, the sky exploding.
I screamed and thrashed in bed. With each jerk and flail of my body, I’d feel gentle arms wrap around me. Feather-light touches stroked my cheeks and hushed away my demons. I’d slip back to sleep wishing it were Dane, not Liam, by my side.
Over and over, my life replayed until I woke drenched in sweat. Dazedly, I blinked away the dreams and nightmares and sat up. The room had turne
d dark. A large, familiar figure sat in the lounge chair, facing me. As I shifted in bed, my eyes struggled to focus.
“Do you feel better?” Dane asked quietly. He waited for me to nod before continuing. “Good. Are you hungry?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten, yet I didn’t feel hunger. Instead, I felt complete. Whole.
Dane crossed his arms over his chest. With grimy, sand-caked jeans, a tattered black T-shirt, and bags under his eyes, he looked as haggard as Liam.
As if he’d also been waiting for me.
“Where’s Liam?” I asked. Scooting to a sitting position, I kicked my legs out from the sheets that had been securely tucked around my body.
“Gone.” Dane frowned but continued to watch as I wiggled around in the bed. All the aches and pains from earlier in the day had seemingly healed, even my pounding head. I lifted a finger to touch my temple.
“My memories are back.” I cocked my head, and repeated, “All of my memories are back.” Dane didn’t reply. Instead, he pushed up from the chair and moved to the patio door. He looked out to the darkened sky. Several minutes of tense silence passed. Closing my eyes, I rubbed them, then asked, “Why are you angry?”
“Because I love you, dammit!” he shouted, turning to face me.
The words sliced through me, cutting me with their pain, their force. But then they made me whole again with their truth. He loved me.
Dane slumped again into the lounge chair. His head lolled back as he looked to the ceiling. “You chose wrong, Nova. Don’t you see?”
“No, I didn’t. Why are you here anyway? You walked away. You left me.”
“Do you think I’d really leave you? Never, Nova. Never.” Dane shook his head. “I watched, I waited, and I almost stepped in when I saw Liam carry you up here. Big bad Liam to the rescue.”
“He helped me,” I said vaguely, trying to piece together what transpired.
“It should have been me. I should have been there.” Dane looked me in the eye. “He knew it’d get me out of hiding, seeing you in his arms.” My heart thumped with Dane’s confession. “After that night at Neal’s, he gave me the good news.”
“Good news?”
Dane stood up and walked to the fireplace, running his finger along the mantle. “You’re Mira’s sister. Your mother was the Mother.”
My heart beat faster, acutely aware there was another reason behind Dane’s unease. “And?”
“I’ve done things. Unforgivable things.” Dane’s eyes dropped to his feet. “Your memories are back. You should be able to piece it together.”
“Why do you let the past define you? What happened to second chances and new beginnings? Your hope?”
“It doesn’t work that way for me. Hope is something humanity desires, thrives on to survive. Do you see where it led me? So far from the divine, I’ve been paying for my sins for decades. Decades, Nova. I’m locked out of the heavens, exiled from the Land. I’m a hunter now, and until I am released from the binds that have kept me tethered to the past, I am stuck. I have no reason to hope.”
“You have me. Am I not enough?” Now hurt coated my voice as I matched his anger.
“You are everything.” Dane ran his fingers through his mussed crop of black hair. He sunk into the plush chair, then rested his chin on his hands and looked down with an odd nervousness. “Your mother was my first assignment. I was the one who brought her to the superiors after she delivered her twins. Neal and you. I didn’t know, Nova. I knew you were divine, but I had no idea you were Anna’s daughter.”
I closed my eyes and leaned against the headboard. “My parents knew there’d be consequences. They found their way back; they earned redemption. They found peace. Don’t you see, you can too.” I hesitated, pinching an edge of the bedsheet and twisting it nervously between two fingers. “I know I wasn’t an assignment.”
“Liam told you, huh?” Dane sighed. “I came to Milwaukee for my buddy, Nick. He asked me to help Mira, help her cope after their daughter was injured. I couldn’t get there in time. Another of my many failures.”
Dane’s best friend, a friend as close as a brother, was married to my sister. When he’d spoken of Nick before, I didn’t remember his name, or make the connection, but with my memories restored, I finally pieced it together.
“By the time I was able to fly out there, Nick’s request changed. He asked if I could clear out her place. The night I arrived, it was so overgrown with plants and weeds, they’d begun to decay in the carpets. Mold and moss caked the walls.” Dane wrinkled his nose. “The place stunk. It was late, and I didn’t want to deal with it. I figured I’d get a good night’s sleep at the Hilton, work things out the next day.”
Dane stopped talking, taking a moment to collect the memory. He scratched his chin. “There was something in the air that night, something not quite right. Then I saw you, a fallen god, caught in a tangle of metal. Your skin was singed, your hair was matted with blood, but you had the essence—a beauty—that only comes from the divine. I should have walked away, but I didn’t. True to form, I did the opposite of what was right.” Dane hung his head and spoke quietly. “Can you imagine my surprise when days later I ran into you in the hallway?”
He paused, and then turned to look at me. “I failed your family, Nova, on so many levels. I should have stayed away.”
Logical, lawyer Nova worked through the series of events. Clicking in my head, coming together like pieces of a puzzle, I pushed upright from the bed, remembering Dane’s words.
I’ve learned over the years that nothing is a coincidence. There’s a reason he’s here, just as there’s a reason I’m here. And I’m certain there’s a reason I was meant to meet you. I just can’t put my finger on it.
Finally, I pieced it together, a series of events that came together so perfectly, they couldn’t be considered mere coincidences.
“Nothing is a coincidence—that’s what you said. Nothing is a coincidence. So how do you explain it? You were with my mother when she lost it all, but she’s found peace. She found peace, then I found you. You saved Nick, my sister’s husband. You were his protector. I was hers. How do you explain that? How do you explain us arriving in Milwaukee on the same evening? There’s a reason.”
Looking up, Dane’s eyes held the first sign of hope I’d seen in days. He reached out a hand but then let it drop.
My voice lowered to a near whisper, yet it rushed with urgency. “Fate, destiny, whatever we want to call it, none of this is a coincidence. There’s a reason you were delayed in helping Mira. If you would have come when Nick asked, Mira never would have felt that overwhelming grief. She never would have had the energy to transcend the realms. She wouldn’t have reunited with Nick. They wouldn’t have fallen in love again. Calla wouldn’t have fulfilled the prophecy—my duty as a protector never would have been completed. None of that would have happened.”
I placed my hand on my hip where my tattoo, a permanent reminder of my bond with Mira, marked my skin. “You said the arrow on your chest once pointed to Nick, a man who was like a brother to you. You were his protector.” I pulled back the hem of my sleep shorts, and tapped my hip. “This knot symbolizes my bond with Mira, my sister. I was her protector. None of this is a coincidence.”
“None of this is a coincidence,” he repeated, and then he was to me in three steps. His knee dropped to the floor beside my bed as he cupped my face. A thumb rubbed over my cheek.
I leaned closer, until my forehead touched his. “By giving up the Kingdom, I wasn’t defying my fate, I was accepting it. You are my destiny.”
Thirty-Six
Wrapped in each other’s arms, Dane and I spent several sweet hours reconnecting. Holding one another, absorbing the events of the last several days. We spoke of our families and friendships, the connections that wove our stories together.
Dane confessed that he brought me to the inn in hopes Josie could provide guidance.
“It’s been a long time, but sh
e hasn’t aged a bit. One of the many perks of being a god, I suppose,” he said, leaning against a pillow.
“Did you know she gave it all up?” I asked.
“I heard through the grapevine. After I got back from the war, I was so ashamed. Jake was gone, and I couldn’t bring myself to come back here.”
“She’s waiting for him,” I said sadly. “I wish there was something we could do. After all this, it’s impossible to think their story is over. No matter their mistakes, there’s always hope for redemption.”
“Ah, Nova, after all this, is there any doubt?” He twisted in bed, rolling to face me. “Speaking of… I’m not naïve enough to believe we’ve seen the last of Liam. He’s a presider, my superior. I’ve done plenty over the last few weeks to warrant reprimand.”
“I think we’ve done enough talking for the night about what’s to come. For now, I just want to think about us. You and me, this bed… well, and the shower. You definitely need a shower.” I wrinkled my nose.
“Come on, I’ll wash your back, if you wash mine.” Dane winked, then jumped from the bed. He walked toward the bathroom, stripping off his grimy clothes as he yelled over his shoulder, “First one in gets to pick tonight’s take out!”
“Unfair advantage, Dane!”
After showering, I called for Thai delivery while Dane ran to the lobby to ask Josie if he could snag a bottle of wine. He returned to our room with a basket brimming with bricks of cheese, crackers, and fruit.
“Did you relay my message?” I asked, settling into one of the lounge chairs. I wanted to talk to Josie in person, but Dane and I agreed tonight was for us. Tomorrow would come the heavy stuff. We’d try to connect with the rest of my family, including Neal and Mira.
Dane had tried calling Nick over the last few weeks, but hadn’t reached him. I wondered if Mira and Nick had returned to the Land with baby Calla in tow. I desperately wanted to speak with my sister, but I also needed time to absorb the ramifications of my decision, how I’d explain my fall, and the journey that lead me to Dane.
