Slay Alive

Chapter 25

twenty-five

“Rhia said it would be in the woods. South of the city, right past where I actually landed. She called it the Cradle, which just gave me the ick. Figures, with all the activity out here. I guess Lucien’s vamps weren’t completely off the mark.” I look up at the sky nervously. It’s getting dark fast, courtesy of the impending eclipse.

“Here, see it?” I hold up the enchanted map Rhia gave me for him to look at in the dying light. Briarwood Hollow and the surrounding woods are drawn on it with ink that moves like it’s alive.

Cade leans close to it. “I know the place. It’s on the way to Haven.” He points further south on the map to an area that looks blank. As much as I know my way around Briarwood Hollow, the map Rhia gave me for my side quest of saving the world contains a lot of blank space. I have no idea what’s meant to go in the parts that are empty.

“The Cradle has always been a myth. Just a scary story all the things that go bump in the night tell each other. Old school magic was used out there once but it’s long dried up.”

“Guess its getting a revival with the Ascendents.” I squint at the map. I don’t understand why only Briarwood Hollow is on the map. Why even make the map this big if it’s going to be empty?

“Why is that blank? What goes here?” I wonder out loud. It looks closer to where I landed when I ended up in this world. Interesting.

“Neighboring towns, a few actually. There’s a river here,” he says, tracing his finger across the top of the map. A mountain range here too. The fact that you can’t see it on the map means something. The witch always has a reason. I reckon we’ll find out if it’s important to this errand.”

“Right, just a little errand.”

The errand being saving the world while I don’t know how to tell my soulmate that I’m going to have to leave him here.

I clear my throat and shove the map into my back pocket. “We’re close to it, right?”

“Just a few more minutes. It’s over that hill.”

“Right, let’s get a move on then.” I take off at a run. I don’t know when the fuck I’m supposed to break the news to Cade but one crisis at a time. I’ll figure it out after I chuck the orb into the Cradle. Maybe once we go to the masquerade ball. It’d be far easier to tell Cade the shit news in a fancier setting than out here in the woods with the threat of ancient vampires looming over us.

I don’t know what I’m expecting as Cade and I race through the woods but it isn’t the nothing that we encounter. No vampires attack us and we have no trouble finding the Cradle. It’s a jagged hole in the ground, it’s not even that big. Only one Ascendent could get out, two if they were feeling well and truly motivated. It won’t be any trouble at all to handle this.

“That’s it? Really?”

“Like I said, not much to see here anymore.”

Cade and I walk up to the Cradle. I slide my hand into my pocket and grab the orb, it’s warm to the touch but I don’t pull it out.

“I have to tell you something,” I tell Cade. Who am I kidding? I can’t wait till the masquerade. What if something happens and I go flying out of this dimension after I drop the orb into the Cradle?

I’d never be able to live with myself if I didn’t get to tell Cade goodbye properly.

“What is it?”

“I can’t stay here,” I say softly. I squeeze the orb in my hand. It’s slippery from the sweat of my palms. “I have to go. I think…from the way Rhia talked to me today, that it’ll be after we do this.”

Cade is silent for a moment. He slips his hand into my free one. “If that’s the case then what’s it say about me that I’m perfectly fine with not saving the world if it means I get another day with you?”

I laugh and look up at him. He’s already looking down at me. I should have known he would be. “I think it means we’re made of the same stuff. I told Rhia I didn’t care what happened to anyone else but you. I meant it.”

Cade’s eyes move over my face slowly. He leans down and kisses me and when he pulls away, I’m crying. “I don’t want to do this,” I whisper. “If there was another way, if there was something else I could do, I would. I’d stay with you.”

“No tears, love. I know. Even if it was only a few days, it was worth every single one that I waited for you. I’d do it all over again, Bonnie. I’m going to carry your mark on me for an eternity.”

My tears come faster and I know damn well I’m an ugly crier. Not the look I want Cade to have before I get pulled out of this world. “There’s never going to be anyone else for me but you. It’s always been you. It always will be you. ” The words I really want to say get all stuck in my throat. Even though it’s just us I still don’t say those three words.

Why can’t I?

What the hell am I so scared of?

Probably that Cade won’t love me for an eternity like he says. A shitty boyfriend who was never a fiance is one thing to get over but a soulmate? That would destroy me. If I say the words, if I set them loose, I can’t take them back.

I raise up on my toes and kiss Cade. It’s chaste, just a brush of our lips more than anything else. Like this isn’t going to be the last time that we kiss. I grab onto the lie, hold tight to it until my bones ache.

I pull the orb out of my pocket then. Cade winces and shifts away from me. “Burns some.”

“I wondered if it would do that. It’s like portable sunshine. If it burns you, it’s going to light up the purebred demons.” I move to the edge of the Cradle and angle to shield him from it with my body but Cade stops me.

“No. Let’s do it together.” He puts his hand over mine.

“Cade, no,” I try to pull the orb away from him. His skin turns pink and then red before flames go up on the back of his hand and he grunts in pain. “It’s hurting you.”

“Worth it to touch you up until the end. We’re doing this together.”

“You’re insane.”

“Just the way you like me.”

Cade looks at me and I look at him. We let go of the orb together. Bright light glows for a second before it falls into the dark.