by Anna Abner
No, Derek would close the gate. Even if it killed him.
The fact that his blood had helped open it and his summoning spell had initially fueled it meant he may have an advantage Holden didn’t.
Derek would close the gate.
“Get up, babe.” He urged her into a sitting position. “You’re strong enough to do this. Be a vessel for your sister’s power. Embrace it, and then send it straight into me. You can do it. I know you can.”
Jessa steadied herself. “I love you too. By the way.”
He smiled like a goofball. Her love filled him up more than any spirit ever had. Her love made him stronger.
He stepped into his spell circle. “Go ahead, Jolie.”
Jessa whimpered, but stayed upright.
Derek pushed the rising protective urges down temporarily. The best way to defend Jessa was to finish the spell.
As fire burst from his hands, he saw how useless it was against the fiery gate. This was not a case of fire fighting fire. The gate stood tall and untouched, a taunting reminder of how much of a failure he’d become.
A pair of demons flew past them and into the world.
And then Derek recalled Bo lounging in a camp chair on the banks of an icy Alaskan river.
Ice is the strongest element there is.
The gate wouldn’t shatter under fire. It might under ice. Derek adjusted his intentions, and sparkly flurries shot from his hands. He directed it at the gate. Up and over. Again. Then again.
The gate was freezing.
“More,” he shouted. “Just a little more.”
Magic flowed through him, blistering the glyphs around his waist. He sent the gate everything he had.
But it didn’t shatter.
Jolie weakened. Jessa sat with a thump onto her bottom and stayed there gasping for breath. Derek clutched at his aching burns and stared up at the gate as the ice faded. The portal mocked him with its indestructibility.
The thought that he may not be strong enough for the spell occurred to him as something shifted inside him. A swelling of power he hadn’t experienced before.
“Jolie?” he questioned, finding her hovering over her sister. “Is that you?”
“What?” She gave him a confused, concerned look.
The gust gained strength. He recognized spirit energy as it grew and expanded inside him.
“Holy shit,” he said, tears fogging his eyes. “It’s the coven. They’re channeling into me.”
“Holden and Daniela and all of them?” Jessa asked.
“They’re helping me finish the spell.” His eyes stung, and he quickly brushed away stray tears with the backs of his hands. “Channel into me, babe. We’re going to finish this. Now. Jolie, hit her.”
Power like a firestorm struck him in the center of his chest. Jessa screamed. Derek directed the magic outward, coating the gate with ice and snow. His body temperature dropped. His heart stuttered. He stopped breathing. But he didn’t stop fighting. Blackness crept around the edges of his vision, and he wasn’t sure whether it was demons crowding him or he was losing consciousness. Probably a little of both.
He gave everything of himself. Every particle of power, energy, and strength.
His muscles failed him. As he collapsed onto his side in the reddish sand, he imagined the gate shattering and crumbling around him. The vision of his home through the foggy portal vanished.
A glowing face appeared above his. “You’re not supposed to be here,” came a child-like voice.
The blackness reached up and yanked Derek down into oblivion.
Chapter Eighteen
Derek blinked heavier than normal eyelids, but what he saw didn’t make sense. He expected to wake beneath the black sky of hell. But instead, he came to consciousness under a white plaster ceiling.
He reached blindly for Jessa. His hand found hers, and he held on tight, rolling toward her. They weren’t in the hellscape behind the gate anymore. They lay on the cold concrete floor of his closet. There was no gate. And he couldn’t see spirits. Not a single one. Which probably hit the hardest, initially, because he’d been seeing the spirits of the dead his entire life. And he knew Jolie, for one, wouldn’t abandon her sister at a time like this. But she wasn’t there.
“Jessa?” he called, crawling nearer.
At the sound of his voice, she opened her eyes. “Hey, babe,” she said, smiling with effort. “Did we do it? Did we shatter the gate?”
He frowned. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I can’t see it anymore.”
“Me either,” she said with regret. “I can’t see Jolie or any of the others.”
“I knew I’d lose my gifts,” he lamented. “I didn’t know you’d lose yours too.” Something in the shattering spell had glitched and stolen not only his ability to communicate with spirits, but Jessa’s as well, and his anger swelled.
“Derek!” Heavy footsteps crossed the hallway, and then Holden burst through the bedroom doorway, followed by the entire Raleigh coven.
“How are you here?” Daniela demanded, shoving around Holden to kneel inside the closet. “We saw the gate collapse. How did you get out?”
“We didn’t.” Dizzy, he palmed the floor to stay upright. “Is the gate destroyed?”
“Yes.” Daniela’s expression filled with gratitude and maybe even a new respect. “You shattered it.”
“Let me through.” Cole’s girlfriend Talia pushed past the group to hover over Jessa.
“How are you feeling?” Talia asked in a brisk manner, checking the pulse at Jessa’s wrist. “Nauseous? Sleepy?”
“Fine,” Jessa assured, swatting at Talia’s hands and sitting up. “Just worn out.”
Derek struggled to his feet and held out both hands for Jessa. Without hesitation, she took them and stood, leaning a little into his side.
Daniela extended her hand. “Thank you,” she said simply, but he read deeper emotions lurking under the surface.
Feeling awkward, Derek shook her hand.
“Thank you,” Holden said, clapping him on the back. “You did what I couldn’t.”
Derek made his way through the crowd, and they stepped aside for him. He just nodded, picking up his pace, trying to escape the uncomfortable sensation under his skin. He wasn’t used to people being grateful to him.
“Thank you,” Talia said.
Others joined in, a chorus of gratitude. Derek held Jessa closer, and they passed through the front door and into the light.
Hurricane Hadley was only a memory. The rain had stopped, the wind had died down, and the sun was beginning to find its way through the heavy clouds.
All signs of the battle were gone. No spell circles, no ice missiles, no scorched earth, no Chaos Gate.
“How did you get us out of there?” Jessa asked quietly as they trudged through four inches of mud to reach her car. “I think I passed out as the gate was shattering.”
“Me too,” he confessed. “But I saw someone.”
“Who? A demon?”
“No.” He recalled the comely, glowing face. “I think it was an angel.”
“He was a little late to the party,” Jessa said, “if it was an angel.”
“I don’t know how else we made it out of the gate,” he said, “if it wasn’t.”
“I’m just glad we did.”
* * *
Late Friday night, Jessa collapsed into her own bed and fell asleep almost before her head hit the pillow. Sometime later, the bedsprings creaked and she peeled open one eye.
“Derek?” she called softly, too worn out from the past week to do much more than roll toward his body heat.
“It’s me.” He curled protectively around her.
She held him a little tighter, thinking of how close she’d come to losing him. “I love you,” she breathed, smiling sleepily.
He made an affirmative grunting sound. “I love you too.”
Maybe it was the reassuring sound of his voice. Maybe it was his warmth. Maybe it was finally
feeling safe, but she fell asleep and didn’t wake again until morning.
And when she did, she was in no hurry to venture out from under the covers. “Do you want to go back to Alaska?” she asked, drawing spirals across Derek’s bare chest.
If he said yes, she’d do her best to be supportive. She’d never pictured herself living like a frontierswoman, but she was willing to try if that’s where he was happiest.
A low rumble tickled her fingertips. “I was hiding,” he answered. “From now on, I want to be wherever you are.”
“Me too,” she assured. “What about your house?”
Another rumble, but louder. “I don’t ever want to lay eyes on that place again.” He turned his head and peered at her. “Will you sell it for me?”
She flushed with warmth. “That, Mr. Walker,” she drawled, “may be the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
He laughed, tugging her higher upon his chest to plant a long, soft kiss upon her lips.
Her cell phone chimed, and she reluctantly stretched an arm out of the blankets to check it. “Willow practically texted a novel,” she warned, and then read, “The Raleigh coven will be responsible for finding and destroying the demons that got through the gate.” She arched her eyebrows at Derek. “And she says to tell you, you’re an honorary member of the coven. Meetings are every third Saturday at two. Bring sandwiches, and don’t be late.”
A laugh burst from deep within his chest. “I don’t do sandwiches.”
“What, then?” she asked, leaning up on an elbow.
He smirked, a sexy lop-sided grin. “I make a killer key lime pie.”
Jessa arched an eyebrow. “Make one for me?”
“That’s a promise.” He yanked on her elbow so that she toppled flat onto his bare chest. “What about you?”
“Do I prefer sandwiches or pie?” she asked, distracted by the way her breasts pressed hard against his ribs.
“No,” he chuckled, making her bounce a little. “Do you want to stay here? Or do you maybe want to find a place that’s…”
“Fancier?” she guessed. “Bigger?”
“More us,” he finished, smiling a satisfied smile.
“And what would that be?”
“A house?” he ventured.
She nodded, back to drawing circles, this time over his bicep. “A house would be nice.”
“I want a window seat,” he said quietly, so quiet she almost didn’t catch the words.
“Deal.” Jessa wiggled higher on his chest. “I want you.” She kissed his chin, and then his cheek, and then the corner of his mouth before he’d had enough of her teasing and cupped the back of her head for a real kiss.
* * *
The next time Jessa woke, golden sunshine poured through the bedroom window and she was sprawled perpendicular to Derek, her legs tangled with his. She squinted into the light, remembering when it had been Jolie’s face in the window rather than a cloudless blue sky.
“I need to talk to Jolie,” Jessa announced, tumbling out of bed and heading for the bathroom. If Derek replied, the shower drowned it out. A quick scrub, some swipes of a disposable razor, and she re-emerged to dress.
“Holden can see her,” she said, digging clean underwear from a pile under the foot of her bed. “And she likes to hang around him and Rebecca. Let’s check there first.”
She’d only been a necromancer for a matter of days, but she’d gotten used to it fast. She missed Jolie with a fresh stab of grief.
“We promised to help her find peace,” Derek agreed, taking her place in the shower.
Jessa finished dressing and turned on the TV as she poured cereal into a bowl for her breakfast and another for Derek.
“Hurricane Hadley,” reported the attractive young newscaster, “has meteorologists baffled. The storm swept through eastern North Carolina last night causing flooding and property damage estimated at over ten million dollars, but it was downgraded from a category 3 hurricane to a tropical storm in the shortest window of time in recorded history.”
“What’s the latest?” Derek asked, ambling into the room fully dressed but still damp from the shower. He gratefully accepted her breakfast and poured milk.
“No one knows why the storm pooped out so fast last night.”
“Any news on the mayor, yet?” he asked.
“Not yet, but I’m guessing his family will keep his disappearance under wraps for a few more days,” she supposed. “His political reputation and all that garbage. Because his extended family probably doesn’t realize he was an evil mastermind. They must think he’s off on a weekend bender with a prostitute or something.” Jessa nodded at the screen as a second reporter took over.
“Talk about bad timing,” the big-toothed man said, “in case you didn’t feel it—And how could you not?—last night North Carolina experienced an earthquake during the worst of Hurricane Hadley. Experts have measured it as a seven point four on the Richter scale. The extent of the damage is still being calculated, but we are getting reports of wide scale property damage and at least four deaths.”
“Jolie,” Jessa breathed. She ate the last bite of cereal and then dumped the bowl in the sink. “Let’s go. I need to know if she’s still on earth.”
Though he wasn’t finished, Derek placed his bowl of cereal beside hers and grabbed his cell phone off the counter. “Hold up. Let me put my shoes on.” He sat and with quick, sure motions, he tied his new leather shoes onto his feet.
She smiled, thinking if it wouldn’t embarrass him, she’d tell him how proud she was of everything he’d suffered and everything he’d overcome.
He caught her staring and sauntered over. When she turned the doorknob to leave, he palmed the door, preventing her from exiting just yet.
“In case it wasn’t obvious last night,” he said, his brown eyes warm and open, “I’m ridiculously, outrageously in love with you. But,” he looked away, “now that you’ve seen every part of me, the good and the bad,” he removed his hand from the door, “if you need some time or space or—”
She rose on tiptoe and kissed him, drowning out whatever he’d been about to say. “I’ve been in love with you for years,” she confessed. “I always knew we’d make a great team. I was just waiting for you to figure it out for yourself.” She stroked the side of his face, and then reached for the door again.
A soft knock from the other side brought her up short.
* * *
Derek swung open the door and stared into Rebecca Powell’s slightly uncertain expression.
“Hi,” she said, clutching her bag a little tighter. “How are you?”
“Good.”
His gaze swept up from her designer stilettos to her tailored pants suit to her glossy lips. Not a blonde hair out of place. Not a wrinkle in sight. And yet something behind her eyes gave him a sense she was barely holding her emotions in check.
“Come in,” he said, stepping aside.
“Thanks.” She didn’t sit down.
“This is a surprise,” Jessa exclaimed. “What are you doing here?” She moved in for a hug, and though her tone was friendly, Derek had to wonder the same thing.
The three of them stood for an awkward moment in Jessa’s living room. Derek wasn’t sure what his old boss wanted with either of them. They hadn’t exactly ended their professional relationship on the best of terms.
“Is Holden with you?” Jessa asked.
“He’s in the car,” Rebecca replied. “I asked him to wait.”
Derek shared a confused glance with Jessa.
“It’s like the old days, isn’t it?” Rebecca laughed lightly. “The three of us?”
No, Derek thought. Not at all. But he didn’t say so. Obviously, Rebecca was having problems getting to the point.
“We had fun, didn’t we?” she asked. “I thought we did.” She stared at her handbag. “The three of us did everything together.”
“It was fun,” Jessa agreed. “But it was work too.”
Head still bow
ed, Rebecca nodded jerkily. “I worked you too hard. I know it now. But if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been as successful as I was.”
“We don’t hold anything against you,” Jessa said, and then sent him a quizzical look. He shrugged. “It was part of the job.”
“Well.” Rebecca straightened and seemed to shake off whatever emotions had been dogging her. “I wanted to tell you,” she said to Derek, “thank you. You saved my soon-to-be husband’s life. Definitely once, possibly twice. So, I wanted to say,” she hesitated a moment, “I forgive you.”
His stomach clenched so tight he felt ill. “No. Don’t.” He didn’t deserve it.
But she wouldn’t be stopped. “I forgive you for everything you did this spring,” Rebecca continued. “You were going through some stuff I don’t understand, but I do know that Derek isn’t the real Derek.” She smiled wistfully. “I hired you because you were a smart-mouthed little shark, but also because you were kind and respectful.”
Derek started shaking his head, and then couldn’t seem to stop.
“So, I forgive you.” Rebecca exhaled slowly. “It feels good to say that.”
Jessa closed the distance between them and clasped his hand. Immediately, the tremors ceased and his stomach began to settle.
“Thanks for saying that,” Jessa said to her former boss. “It’s very big of you.”
“I mean it.” Rebecca’s gaze flitted over their joined hands. “I know you’re going to call me crazy, but I always thought you two would end up together.” Her eyes twinkled like she had a secret. “I saw the way you looked at each other. The way Derek would use any excuse to ask Jessa a question. The way Jessa would just randomly find herself at Derek’s desk at lunchtime. It was so obvious you two were crazy about each other.”
Rebecca glanced at the door as if she was ready to say good-bye and rejoin Holden, but Derek couldn’t let her leave until he got one last weight off his shoulders.
“Rebecca,” he blurted out, “I’m sorry. If I haven’t said it before, or enough, I’m truly sorry about how I treated you. You didn’t deserve it. I made you a necromancer against your will, I caused you pain, and I’m sorry.”
“I accept your apology.” She waved them nearer with both arms. “Get over here. Like in the old days.”
