Caleb silenced me with a kiss and pulled me close against his body. I didn’t blame him for not wanting to talk about it, I didn’t either, but it felt like a dark cloud just looming overhead. I relaxed into his warm embrace and kissed him back with equal vigor.
As his lips parted and the passion became more urgent, I felt a weightless sense of falling backward and the room around us changed. Caleb pulled away from me and smiled, but when I saw him now, there was something different in his eyes — a warmth and familiarity we had not shared before.
The realization dawned on me that I'd fallen into another vision with him and me together. “Ug, my feet are killing me,” I heard come morosely from my lips.
“I'll help you over to the couch,” he assured me, looping his arm around my waist.
Where are we? I thought to myself a little confused.
The home was familiar somehow and I recognized it as the guest house on the Murphy’s citrus grove. I’d only been there once or twice myself, and certainly not with Caleb. That, and the fact I couldn’t remember this conversation happening, led me to believe ... this must not have happened yet. Instantly, my stomach was filled with butterflies, knowing I was having a glimpse into our future.
His arm wrapped around my waist and supported my weight as we walked over towards the couch.
Why is he being so protective?
There was something weird about the way I walked and felt pressure in my knees and stomach I was not familiar with. I glanced down and came face to face with the reality. My stomach was swollen and round, with a comfortable flowing top that billowed out around my stomach. Realizing what that meant, my lips turned out into a surprised and elated smile.
I'm pregnant… We're going to have a baby!
Discretely as I could, I made sure there was a wedding ring attached to it. When I found the simple golden band, I exhaled in relief.
“How are you feeling?” he asked me.
“Well, if I didn’t know I was pregnant, I’d be pretty sure I’m dying, but since I do, I guess everything is normal.”
He chuckled as I collapsed onto the couch in the strange and foreign body, with an alien baby growing inside and he took a seat beside me. Carefully, he removed both my shoes and pulled them into his lap so he could give me a foot massage.
“Ah,” I sighed in gratitude. “That feels amazing, honey. Thank you.”
There goes my voice again! This is weird.
Caleb smiled at me and continued to message my ankles, and sinking back into the couch. “You're seven months pregnant, Wynn. Water retention is inevitable.”
A giggle came bubbling up inside me and he eyed me curiously.
“How's this even going to work?” I asked him playfully. “I'm not cut out to be a mom! We’re crazy for even trying this.”
He rolled his eyes at me and smiled. “We’ve read all the books, decorated the nursery, what else is there to prepare for?”
“You know what I mean,” I told him seriously. “I'm worried that ... I just didn't inherit the nurturing gooey-center that other women have. I can't relate to kids. And look at my mom, she was a train wreck. I don't want to screw this up like she did.”
“Well, have you sold him to a demon?”
“No….”
“Then you’re already passing her by a landslide.”
I rolled by eyes at him. “That’s a ridiculously low bar. You know that, right?”
“The fact you're even concerned about it means you're going to be fine. And for the record, I think you're going to be a great mom. I can't wait to share this next adventure with you.”
I smiled at him. “It is an adventure, isn't it?”
“It is,” he agreed, leaning over to kiss me on the forehead. When I closed my eyes to receive it, my vision ended and brought me back to Caleb’s patio.
I couldn’t shake it even after I came back. That life was mine. Being together with Caleb and carrying his child — it was truth. It could have scared me but it didn’t; I became fiercely protective. It just felt right, like everything leading up till now had lead us to this point. We belonged together.
Mine. That was my happily ever after and I needed it to come true.
Aidan would never let that happen, he would torment me for as long as possible. If I wanted this to be real, I had to finish things with him once and for all to ensure that life for us. So many things had been taken from me, chosen for me, that I had no say in whatsoever, but this … this was the life I chose for myself and I would fight for it to the bitter end.
I would fight for that. Before that could happen, though, I would have to ensure that future, and the future of our child. I couldn’t continue this cycle and leave room open for another demon to come and ruin things again. I would defeat Aidan and I would do it for us. I wanted that - that life with Caleb was everything.
“Wynn, talk to me.”
I wanted to tell him, and let him know what I had seen, but something inside me whispered not to. What if telling him changes things and that life was no longer possible? What if he was in love with that dream too and something happened to take it away from him? I couldn’t put the weight of that knowledge on him until I knew that it was secure.
“It's nothing,” I told him quickly. “I'm just happy … and tired. It might be time for me to go home and study.”
He eyed me skeptically and smiled, “Are you okay? You’re acting weird now.”
I almost laughed at him, and snuggled in close against his chest. “No,” I told him honestly. “How am I supposed to go inside and sleep when I'm going to be thinking of you all night?”
Caleb barked a laugh and wrapped his arms around me. “That I can't help you with.”
I put my hand around him neck and pulled him down to kiss me. It still took my breath away every time we did — touching him was magical. I sucked lightly on his bottom lip as he pulled away from me and let out a contended sigh.
I helped him gather the blankets off the ground and carry them inside before heading back myself. “If Lacey is still awake when you get there, tell her I said ‘hey’,” he told me gently.
“I will,” I responded with a laugh. “Now go in and get some sleep, you’re exhausted.”
He smiled against my lips and said, “Okay, I’ll see you in the morning.”
~ * ~
After I got home from Caleb’s apartment and went to bed myself, my thoughts ran wild over the vision I’d had of us. The thought of being with him forever and being the mother to his children struck an emotional chord with me I couldn’t shake. I didn’t realize how much I wanted that until I saw it, until it had been offered to me and now I just couldn’t imagine such an amazing thing could be possible.
Looking around my room, it felt like a very long time ago when he’d come waltzing into my life. It was hard to believe that he and I had even been mere acquaintances, when I couldn’t imagine spending a single day without him. Fate had thrust us together in the most unlikely scenario, but that’s the funny thing about destiny — we have a choice on how we bring those things to pass. We saved each other, in so many more ways than one.
I pictured the vision in my head and the future it had laid out before us — it was everything that I wanted. It was everything I never knew I wanted. My heart raced at the thought of everything that would mean and I brought my hand up to my head to brush the hair out of my face, thinking of Caleb as my husband. My husband.
I felt my cheeks getting hot as I buried my face into the pillow.
“I hope I’m not interrupting,” a woman’s voice cut through my blissful reverie. I sat up instantly on the mattress and found Asmodea sitting on my desk, with the hint of amusement on her face. “Well, don’t let me stop you!” she insisted comically. “You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”
“What do you want, Asmodea?”
“It’s time to deliver your test,” she informed me with a smile. “But you already knew that.”
My face went hard as I climbed o
ff the bed to face her, still dressed in my nightclothes. “Then state your challenge.”
The spider waved her hand against the wall and three picture frames emerged, magically shimmering into existence. “I am Asmodea, the Lady of Lust. In these frames, you will find what you most desire, but look carefully because time is short and you must choose one of them.”
I walked over to the wall and saw three gilded paintings, nearly identical in their presentation, but it wasn't a photograph within the frame; it was a mirror. All of them enchanted with someone I had lost, or whose place in my life was tentative at best. Michele, my mother, was shown in one, with her pitch-black hair and creamy skin displayed clearly on the glass. Color returned slowly to her cheeks, and she seemed peaceful, more alive than when I visited her last. It seemed as if she really was just sleeping and not permanently laid to rest in her cursed dreamlike state.
In the middle portrait was Elyse, but her skin was tinged with blue around the lips and her blonde hair caked with blood. A large purple bruise had arisen colorfully on her temple where the blood had begun to pool. It was a gruesome and cruel depiction of the fate that had befallen her. Unmoving, cold and void of the life and carefree spirit she always brought with her. I could only allow my eye to rest on her vision for a moment — the emotions were still too fresh, and seeing her like that brought them all crashing down at once.
Moving on to the last, I was not at all surprised to see the face of the man I love — Caleb. His shocking blue eyes and dark brown hair carefully sat above a chiseled jawline. I loved him — passionately and fiercely … more than anything else in the whole world. Seeing him placed beside my long-departed sister and my mother was harrowing, marking him as part of that tragic end. It was almost like a threat.
The Demon Lord watched my eyes drift from one picture to another, with a vicious twinkle in her eye. “As you know, my sin is Lust. I have come here to test you and perhaps even give you what you seek.”
I swallowed the lump rising in my throat and ripped my eyes away from them saying, “I don't understand.”
Asmodea smiled, not even trying to conceal her contempt for me. “There is an old saying; 'the heart wants what the heart wants.' I am Lust, it’s my prerogative to know what you desire. Lust is the irrational desire and pursuit of something even at the cost of everything else. Your desires are not that interesting to be quite honest, you're straightforward in that regard. Your mother, to be brought back from her dreamlike slumber and restored to her former state.”
“Nice try, but I already asked for that with Mammon. He said only Lucifer can do that. You don't want to step on each other’s toes.”
“That’s true, but Aidan and I are close. I have some sway in that regard where Mammon does not. If that is your request, then I can break my brother’s spell.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because this time, I’ll be the one who’s asking. You can choose her, or I can bring Elyse back from the dead.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Bring them back!”
Usually in these situations, I had some insight or logic into what I was supposed to choose, but this time I didn’t understand what she was trying to achieve. There was no clear path here, all of the options held desperate need for me and I couldn’t make up my mind.
“Oh, let’s not be greedy, Child,” Asmodea crooned. “It's unbecoming. However, you can only choose one of them.”
“WHAT?”
“I can bring your mother back, dear, but you'll have to sacrifice Caleb in the exchange. His existence on this plane is fragile at best and it would be so easy for me to send him right back where he came from. That should be an easy choice for you, I mean you barely know him ... right?”
Is there a “right” answer to this question? I wondered frantically. My thoughts went back to the discussion with Charley about infiltrating Aidan’s inner circle and I knew one day soon I would have to leave. Soon, but not yet.
I wasn’t ready to cut our time short while that option remained open, I had to cherish every moment we have left. When, and if, that time came to end things it wouldn’t be until the last possible second. I didn't think. I just blurted out what ached within my heart. “CALEB.”
Every molecule inside me claimed him as my own and I didn’t care what the consequences were. He was MINE.
If I had chosen Mom or Elyse, it would have been for them, but Caleb was for me. I didn’t choose him out of respect for his decision to lead a mortal life, I did it because I couldn’t bear to give him up. I did it because I wanted our happy ending. Elyse was dead, and I’d said “goodbye” to Mom a long time ago, but he and I had a future ahead of us and losing that would be infinitely more tragic.
When I said his name, Asmodea turned around surprised. “You choose the boy over your own flesh and blood?”
“Yes. That's who I choose.”
“But—”
“I don't care, our story isn't done yet. Give him back to me.”
“Very well, if that is your decision….”
The mirrors reflecting Mom and Elyse both cracked, the light within them dark. Somehow the frame around Caleb disappeared, and he fell through to the mortal plane, and I had to catch him in mid-air.
“Augh! Caleb!”
He stumbled onto the floor beside me, and we sat on the ground together.
“Wynn, what's going on? How did I get here?”
I looked up, but Asmodea was gone, and the crystal on my necklace had turned black.
“Your charm,” he muttered softly. “Wynn ... what did you do?”
~ * ~
“Snap out of it, Wynn!” Charley barked at me. “I almost took your arm off just now, you’ve got to concentrate.”
I groaned and corrected my fighting stance before she came at me again. Her Icy breath cut through like knives every time she got the upper hand on me and I was starting to get tired. She’d been anxious to get back training ever since we returned to Tuscaloosa. I made her buy me coffee first, of course, then we got right back into the action.
The first session was all about improving on the basics. I already knew how to blink, but she taught me how to make it cleaner and less noticeable. It also improved my accuracy, so I'd appear exactly where I wanted to and not generally in that area. After that, we started stretching — teleporting farther, with few breaks in between.
At first, it was tiresome, but then I saw how it strengthened my endurance. I was gaining control of things and becoming more precise. It all came down to sensing the power within me and being aware of it at all times, like the flow of an electric current. My confidence was growing and it finally seemed like I was getting the hang of this.
Charley smiled at me from across the kennels, then ran upwards alongside the wall before launching at me with all her might. I evaded her grasp before she blinked to a space behind me and jumped onto my back. I collapsed from surprise under the weight of her and fell hard onto my knees.
I tapped her on the knee to let her know that I was done and rolled over to catch my breath.
“What’s up with you today? You could have taken me,” she complained. “Any other day that would have been a breeze.”
I shrugged, looking up the ceiling tiles and coughed, refusing to make eye contact. She had this uncanny ability to leach the truth out of you. Words just happened whether you wanted them to or not.
“This is about your trial, isn’t it?” she demanded. “You’re still upset about that?”
I snorted lightly and rolled over on my elbow. “Of course, I am. I failed.”
“So what? You’ve passed all the others without any problem.”
“This was different,” I insisted. “I chose Caleb above my family, instead of giving Elyse a second chance. I wanted that life with him. Still, I can’t help but wonder if there was a correct answer to Asmodea’s question to begin with. If I had chosen any of them it would have been choosing something I wanted.”
If I had chosen my siste
r, Elyse would have been given a second chance at life. She could have married Kevin, raised a family, and done all the things we wanted had the cruel hand of fate—or rather, Aidan—not cut her gentle life short. Mom could have woken up, rekindled her relationship with Dad, and patched the wounds her betrayal had inflicted on our family. I wasn’t the only one hurting, Dad and Nate both needed her too, and I denied them that. Either of those options would have set forth ripple effects of positive changes in the lives of those around me. Instead, I chose Caleb. I chose the one thing I had been selfish enough to put above the needs of others.
Charley nodded, listening to me as I spoke. The shimmering hourglass necklace fells down across her chest, reminding me of the choice that she had made as well. Ryan’s time on Earth was bound to her life force, since she chose to save him in the cafe. Maybe we’re not as different as I once thought.
“Maybe that’s the point,” she offered quietly. “Maybe the correct answer was to choose none of them and to let people choose their own fate for themselves. Michele chose to make that deal with Aidan, that’s why she’s asleep. Caleb chose to fall … and Elyse, she loved you so much she gave her life for you. They all chose their own fate and the best we can do is love and respect them for it.”
I stared at her for a minute and felt part of my stomach drop. She was right and I felt foolish for falling for her trick.
“Do you think she would have done it?” I asked Charlene embarrassed. “Do you think she would have brought back Elyse, or woken up my mom?”
She didn’t look at me when she responded. “Yes, and that also means you would have lost Caleb, for good this time. Stop dwelling on what could have happened and worry about where to go from here, because as bad as Asmodea is, Lucifer is ten times worse. Aidan doesn’t need your love or loyalty to get what he wants — you’re letting him win by reacting. Aidan wants to dominate, he doesn’t care how, or why, that happens.”
The Devil's Due (The Earthwalker Trilogy Book 2) Page 27
