Serena held out her hand, and curled in her palm was his luceria. The rainbow of colors inside of it were still and lifeless, as if she’d never put it on. “This is yours. It fell off once you were out of stasis.”
It would have only fallen off if he’d died, which he hadn’t, or if she’d chosen to leave him.
Hot pain punched his heart as he realized what had happened.
“You’re done with me?” he asked as he scanned her throat for signs of Link’s luceria.
Had she chosen the other man after all? Had she gotten tired of Morgan or decided that he wasn’t worth the effort?
She opened her mouth to speak, but he couldn’t risk hearing the words that might come out of her now. He couldn’t bear the idea of losing her.
“I won’t let you go that easily,” he said.
He sat up in the bed, though the effort left him panting and weak.
“I spoke to Femi.”
Serena gasped. “What?”
“She was there, in that nowhere place you sent me.”
“That’s impossible.”
Morgan knew it wasn’t. He’d felt Femi, smelled her, seen her.
“She was there,” he insisted.
Serena nodded as if she understood, but then she said. “You want me to send you back, don’t you?”
“What? No.” He hadn’t even thought about that.
Though now that he did…. Was Serena right? Could she send him back there and let him live forever with Femi? And if it was possible, was that even what he wanted?
He knew after only a moment that it wasn’t.
Morgan took Serena’s hands in his. They were cold, trembling. Tears welled in her eyes, but her innate stubbornness kept them from falling.
“I loved Femi with everything I had in me. I devoted myself to her entirely. When she died, I died.”
Serena’s head fell in defeat. “I understand.”
He lifted her chin with his finger. “No, you don’t.”
“I don’t want to hear anymore. Please, Morgan. Just let me send you back.”
“No.”
Her luminous gaze hit his.
“I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here with you. I want to bind myself to you so tightly you can never slip away. I want to be your partner, to raise our children together. I want to fight and laugh and live by your side for the rest of my days.”
She frowned in confusion. “But—”
He laid a finger over her lips and enjoyed the silky softness of her mouth to the point of distraction. He wanted to kiss her so badly, his entire body ached.
The next time he took her, he was going to show her just how much he had to offer her, how good the two of them could be together. He was going to give her more pleasure than any man had ever given any woman. And then he was going to do it all over again, just to prove he could.
When he was done loving her body as much as he did the rest of her, she’d never again question whether or not she belonged by his side.
He levered himself up to sit on the edge of the bed, because there were simply some things a man didn’t do lying down.
Pledging his undying love to a woman was one of them.
He took her slender hand in his. “I love you, Serena. I didn’t think it was possible to love again, and even if it was, I didn’t want anything to do with loving another woman after Femi.” He held her gaze, willing her to see inside of him the way she would if he convinced her to take his luceria again. “But I’m not afraid anymore. Whatever happens, you’re worth the risk.”
“Is this your way of thanking me for saving your life? Because if it is—”
He pulled her onto his lap. “When I thank you for that, I’ll do it by giving you screaming orgasms until you’re too hoarse to speak.”
She blushed, which made her even more beautiful. “Oh. Well. I guess I can accept that currency.”
“I think we’ve proven that.” He opened her hand and took the slippery length of the luceria from her grip. “What do you say? Want to give this another go?”
“What would you promise?” she asked, her voice small and uncertain.
“I think I’d start with promising to love you forever and see where we go from there.”
Tears made her eyes luminous. “I love you, too, Morgan. So much I don’t think forever is going to be enough.”
He smiled and kissed her lips. “I guess we’ll just have to try it and see.”
Chapter Thirty-three
Days later, after Serena bound herself permanently to Morgan, after the colors of the luceria had settled into a rich, ruby red, and his lifemark had budded with a fresh batch of leaves, it was clear that her discovery of the source of the daylight demons had turned the tide of battle.
Teams had been dispatched in all directions to destroy the source of the demons, leaving daytime once again the domain of the Sentinels.
Serena didn’t know how long the reprieve would last, but for now, they were safe again—at least when the sun burned high in the sky.
Another team was sent back to the cave where Link had seen the toddler. They scoured the system of caverns and tunnels, but there was no sign of either the child or the creature raising him, the one calling itself Vazel. Everyone had been put on alert to watch out for the boy, but the chances of finding him were slim.
The walls of Dabyr were swiftly going back up, though there were still nightly attacks that threatened the compound. But with time to rest and heal between battles, the Sentinels were once again holding their ground.
Soon, Dabyr would be restored.
The joy of new love filled Serena to bursting. Every day she felt a deep sense of gratitude and belonging, a deep sense of purpose. She was right where she belonged, doing what she’d been born to do.
She was still growing into her newfound power, but she could already see her future self as deadly and terrifying to their enemy as her mother had been.
It was strange how she could now think about Gertrude Brinn without anger. If not for her mother’s overbearing nature, Serena might never have met Morgan. She might have taken an entirely different path.
Perhaps one less joyful.
There was no way to know for sure, but she found it was easy to forgive her mother now and wondered what things she might do to protect her own children that they would find horrible and unfair.
Serena smiled as she lifted Iain’s newborn child from his arms.
The shelter was bustling, but the residents had all agreed that the infant deserved her own space to sleep. There were whispers that giving her one of the private offices had been as much about protecting the sleep of others from her tiny cries at all hours as it had been about helping the baby sleep.
Iain’s daughter was perfect and tiny, barely any weight at all. She smelled like the color pink might, of hope and innocence.
Morgan was by Serena’s side, though he gave her the space she needed right now to come to terms with her emotions.
Jackie was glowing with pride and joy. Iain was strutting around, all puffed up and overprotective.
Serena cradled the child she’d thought of as stolen from her—the one she thought she’d have with Iain. And yet, instead of jealousy or resentment, all she felt was happiness. This child represented their people’s future, their hope. How could she not be happy to be holding such a wonder in her arms?
Once day soon she’d have a child of her own—Morgan’s child—but for now, this little bundle of hope was enough to satisfy her. More than enough.
Her time would come, but not yet.
Serena still had work to do before she could become a mother. There were still abominations out there to destroy, still a stronghold to rebuild.
“She’s beautiful,” Serena told the proud parents.
They both beamed in agreement.
“And strong,” Jackie added. “I never realized how strong something so tiny could be.”
“We’re sure as hell not sending her into battle an
ytime soon,” Iain said. “Maybe never.”
The women exchanged a look filled with rolled eyes and shared experience.
They’d both loved the same man, after all. If that didn’t give them common ground, nothing would.
“She’ll go into battle when she’s ready,” Jackie told her husband, “and there won’t be a thing you can do to stop her.”
Serena admired the woman even more in that moment. And surprisingly, she was relieved that Iain was no longer hers to deal with. That joy and that burden belonged to another.
She was free to be with Morgan, and that alone was more than she ever could have imagined for herself. She’d had no idea a person could hold so much joy without exploding, and yet every day, she swelled and grew to hold more.
“She’ll grow up too fast like all children do,” Serena said. She leaned low and whispered in a voice meant for the child’s ears alone. “But not too fast, little one. If I have my way, there will be no enemy for you to fight by the time you’re grown. I will have killed them all.”
Morgan slid his arm around her shoulders. He was linked to her so tightly, there were no secrets between them, not even ones whispered to babies.
He grinned down at her. “A woman like you always gets her way.”
She winked at him and said silently through their shared link, You didn’t mind last night when I had my way with you.
She could hear laughter in his tone. And I won’t mind tonight, either, love. Do your worst. I’m man enough to take it.
Yes, she whispered across his mind, her tone filled with equal parts love and lust. Yes, you are.
Novels by Anna Argent
The Lost Shards
Shards of Blood and Shadow
Shards of Light (a novella in The Secret She Keeps)
Sing Me to Sleep
The Whisper Lake Series
The Longest Fall
The Sweetest Temptation
The Biggest Risk
The Taken
Taken by Storm
Taken by Surprise
Taken by Force
The Stone Men
Made Flesh
Heart of Stone
About the Author
Bestselling author Shannon K. Butcher, who now writes as Anna Argent, has written more than thirty-five titles since launching her career in 2007. She has three award-winning series, including the paranormal romance series The Sentinel Wars, the action-romance series The Edge, and the romantic suspense Delta Force Trilogy. Now writing as her alter ego Anna Argent, she has published several series with a fresh and interesting spin on paranormal romance (The Lost Shards, The Taken and The Stone Men series) as well as a contemporary romance series set in a small town in the Ozarks (The Whisper Lake series). As a former engineer and current nerd, she frequently uses charts, graphs and tables to aid her in the mechanics of story design, world building and to keep track of all those colorful characters, magical powers and alternate worlds. An avid bead and glass artist, she spends her free time turning small sparkly bits into larger sparkly bits. She’s rarely on social media, so the best place to find out news about upcoming releases under either name is via her newsletter. You can sign up at AnnaArgent.com.
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Saving Daylight Page 27
