by Allison Rios
Her tired eyes opened into slits, the light from the sunset blinding her momentarily as she searched the immediate proximity in an attempt to recall what had just happened. While she’d watched every moment of the battle, it had been surreal and she wasn’t certain she actually believed the movie her mind was replaying. It was as though this was all a fairy tale concocted as part of a movie; not something that occurred in the lives of real people.
Her warm brown eyes looked up, down, right and left as her eyelids blinked furiously to wash away the fogginess. She rolled her head to the other side and blinked again before the daze cleared and she was able to make out a form.
His form.
She tried to move her lips but the words wouldn’t come. Her mouth was so dry, her throat scratchy. She tried to swallow but there was nothing to ease the pain and so she tried to call his name again.
“AJ…” she managed to squeak out, her voice scratchy and high-pitched. His head was so near to hers. She knew if she could just make it a little louder he would hear her.
“AJ…” she called again. And again. And again. The name was so familiar yet it felt so strange rolling off her tongue in a voice she didn’t recognize. The desperation was starting to show in her murmur. Every moment from the last day was a blur, a cloud of the unknown. Was it just a horrible dream or a cruel reality? Had everything ended? Who had been victorious?
It was only then that she began to notice they weren’t alone.
Max sat beside her, crumpled into a mass with his head buried in his set of dirty hands. The paths down his dusty cheeks were evidence of saddening tears and they forced Addie’s thudding heart down into her stomach. Her chest burned with the familiar pain she always felt as she was about to cry. It welled within her, starting in her stomach and working its way up into her throat.
The tears peeked out of the corner of her eyes and fell like anchors towards the now hallowed ground.
“No, no, no, no, no…” she cried, her voice as rough as before. The adrenaline rush came on just as it had the night Rose had fallen from the ladder, forcing every inch of her body to tingle and shake. Her chest rose up and down, the sobs welling inside of her but unable to escape. If she cried, she felt it would all be too real. That he’d be really gone. If she held it in, perhaps time would stand still and she could lie here forever simply looking at him.
“Max!” she cried, locking eyes with her friend and then looking over at AJ as if to signal Max to help; to will him to run over and heal the man she loved. “Max, heal him…please…Max…MAX!”
Max sat next to her, his own tears piercing his eyes with fervent speed. He was frozen in place, unable to flex a muscle to even reach out to Addie. He wanted to stop the pain she felt but he knew the order of the universe would not allow him that luxury. He had always followed the rules, never broken them. He wouldn’t start now. AJ was gone, and there was no sense in everyone losing powers over this. He needed his gift to justify all that had happened; if he could help people, AJ wouldn’t die in vain.
He remembered back to a few days before as he and AJ had sat in the old rocking chairs donning the rustic front porch of the bed and breakfast. Neither had spoken as their eyes simply scanned the horizon, taking in the beauty of the green and gold fields. Max had known AJ’s thoughts were all on Addie and how to protect her. The kid had already told Max to take care of her after the battle, knowing he wouldn’t walk away from it alive. With so many Healers in the area Max wasn’t convinced AJ would lose his life – until he placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder and allowed the visions to flow.
He had never opened himself to AJ this way and the force of the future was sickening. He had watched AJ grow from a naive young man into a strong and powerful warrior for good; it seemed impossible that the end was nearing for the kid. Yet the visions flowed furiously through his mind; first the battle, then AJ healing Addie. Finally, visions of the two of them crowding around AJ’s visibly lifeless, tears filling their eyes.
Max had yanked his hand away that day on the porch, unable to absorb what he had just seen. AJ only looked over at him with a knowing stare – an apologetic stare - and then shifted his gaze back onto the horizon.
“It’s okay, Max,” he had said, his eyes never again making contact with his oldest friend. “I’m prepared and willing. I know the way things have to be and I’ve accepted it. My heart doesn’t ache for the fact that I will lose my life, but rather that there are people left behind who will ache in their heart for me.” AJ understood what his mother must have felt in her last months on earth.
It had taken everything in that moment for Max not to cry and now he found himself unable to retain the flow of tears. The walls were down, the barriers gone with his friend lifeless on the ground in front of them. Addie looked back over to him, her face red with a mixture of anger and devastation and her heart shattering into a thousand pieces as the seconds passed.
“Please, Max,” she begged again, her voice fading to a whisper. “Please, oh please….”
He knew she’d hate him forever. He knew she’d never forgive him for staying put and not rushing to AJ’s side. He knew she would never recover wholly from the pain of losing someone she loved, and being betrayed by another.
“I’m sorry…” he whispered back, heat stinging his face from the shame and damage his response would reap. “I’m so sorry, Addie….”
Her neck arched, forcing her face towards the sky as the sobs began to increase. Her hands were gripping the ground as if the entire world might flip over and spill her in a never-ending free-fall through the sky. Her head felt like exploding as images of all the what-if’s ravaged her mind. What if she’d not volunteered to help? What if she’d told him how she felt sooner?
What if she’d forced him to give in to his feelings for her? Would he still be alive? She thought about their kiss, the electrifying shock it had sent from her lips all the way down through her toes. She would have stayed in that moment longer if she had known.
The sadness crept from her mind throughout her entire body. The soreness from Devin’s throw was nothing compared to the pain that surged within her soul at the loss of AJ. Unlike Robert, AJ hadn’t walked away. He had died for her. He had done all of this to protect her and her daughter. He had loved them as no one else ever had and now she would have to bury him.
She turned once more to look at AJ, to will him back to life. She realized his hand was still on her arm, his soft skin connecting to hers. She became perfectly still, not wanting to lose that moment. She wanted the feeling forever.
She closed her eyes, wishing for the world to swallow them both up and send them to eternity together. She could see them as she let her mind leave her body. She and AJ, stretched out in a perfect T-shape on the ground as she swirled higher and higher up into the sky and through the branches, breaking through to the radiance of the sunset. That was what she had always wanted; to share every sunset with him.
Her sobs lightened to a choked whisper and her exhausted eyes opened once again to AJ. She used her strength to roll onto her side, bringing her free hand down on top of his.
“Take me with you,” she whispered, the words shattering her very soul. She felt selfish not thinking about Rose. Rose needed a mother. Addie had first-hand experience in needing a mother’s love, but she couldn’t help but think that the anguish over AJ would end if she could just be him, wherever he was.
The flow of tears picked up again. Her stomach warped into knots and she heard a sob escape Max’s lips behind her.
Then a gasp. AJ’s body twitched as though life had just rushed back into him.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allison Rios was born and raised in Joliet, Illinois. Writing has been her relaxation and hobby since childhood, when she began taking notes on neighborhood happenings (the big stuff, like someone mowing a lawn or washing a car) and putting together hand-written newspapers. She grew into a career in public relations, marketing and web but never lost the love for wri
ting fiction. In between a full-time job, chauffeuring kids and shopping for high heels, she spends her free time typing out daydreams and creating new worlds with her imagination – a hobby she likes to share with her children. She is currently working on the next book in the Healer series.
Table of Contents
Copyright
DEDICATION
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1 The Drive
2 The Town
3 The Caretaker
4 Old Friends
5 Broken Hearts
6 Protector
7 The Visit
8 Grims
9 Soft Spoken
10 One Dance
11 Stories
12 Plotting and Planning
13 One Touch
14 REality Refined
15 Look But Don’t Touch
16 Good into Evil
17 This Is Why
18 A Mother’s Love
19 Beginning of the End
20 A World of Sacrifice
Book Two Preview
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
