Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Josie

It looked just like Kellan. My mother read that story to me so many times growing up. I'd begged her to read it to me almost every night for months. I was enthralled in every page. I knew the prince saved the princess, but it sent a surge through me every time. It wasn't until I saw it beside Ernest that it hit me. I'd hidden it in the back of my mind.

As you grow up, the things of your childhood fade away. I locked it away somewhere in the back of my subconscious because those fairy tales proved to be just that.

Make believe.

Until it wasn't.

Kellan was called to kill Deidamia. I didn't know how he expected to do it, but it was his calling. I shifted against the trunk of the tree, trying to forget the sadness on his face when at the village.

All the hurt he'd been trying to hide boiled over. Deidamia took his family out from underneath him. Gave him eternal life as a curse to live forever without them.

It saddened my heart to think of all the lonely nights he spent without them. I shifted my gaze to Kellan standing above Ernest as he finished his bread.

I often wondered what he thought about when he had those distant looks on his face. I nibbled on the corner of my lip. Tearing off another piece of bread, I tossed it into my mouth.

Kellan's dark gaze shifted toward mine, and, like a coward I looked down at my lap. I knew he was attracted to me, and we were supposed soulmates, but his past life was attached to his back like a spider monkey.

I was uncertain if he'd ever be able to overcome it.

"Do you not like your bread?" Fern asked.

I looked over at her sweet smile. "I do," I said, taking another bite. "I'm just thinking."

She nodded, swatting her blonde hair from her eyes. "It's weird, isn't it? The book. The fairy tale." She smiled and looked over at me. "You're the princess, Josie."

I chuckled. "I'm hardly a princess, Fern. I'm just a girl from Louisiana wanting to get back home someday."

"What's it like?"

"What's what like?" I asked, tearing off another piece of bread.

"Louisiana?" she asked. "Your realm."

"It's different than this one," I whispered. "We don't have fae's or faeries. I guess that's not true. Until recently, I didn't know we had immortals either, but apparently, we do. Maybe they"re hiding from us."

Fern bent her legs and rested her chin against her knees. "Why do they hide?" she asked.

"I don't know. That's a good question. Probably because humans ruin lots of things."

"I don't understand."

"It's hard to explain," I said. "Humans are selfish and fear the unknown."

Fern nodded and wrapped the remains of her bread into the napkin it came in. "Do you think he can do it?" she whispered.

"Kellan?" I asked, wrapping my own bread.

She nodded.

"Yes," I said in a breathy sigh. He'd surpassed my expectations a long time ago. His strength not only sent my heart into a rapid ocean of lust, but it made me trust him. "I don't think there is one thing he can't do. I just think he needs to believe in himself first."

Fern smiled at me when I felt his eyes crawling over me. I looked up to see him staring at me. His forearm rested against the trunk of the tree, and his gaze was heavy. His dirty blonde hair was pushed from his face showcasing his handsome features.

I was sure no illustrator in a book could capture just how perfect he was. Most of the drawings were of his side profile and didn"t hold a flame to the real thing.

I didn't dare look away. I hoped he saw the confidence that I had for him. The trust I had that he could save this realm, save me, and bring Deidamia down to Hell, where she belonged.

Ernest decided we needed to get closer to the Dark Woods, since Deidamia needed to be killed in her dragon form. I saw her over the woods a few times while I was in my dream state.

She was large. I couldn't imagine how Kellan would kill something so big. We had no idea when she turned or how long she stayed that way, but we had to get close to kill her.

Kellan was oddly distant most of the day. When night fell, we set up camp in a clearing in the middle of the woods. I'd camped many times with my father growing up, but this time, my entire body was full of nerves.

Kellan started a campfire as we ate the remains of our bread. The feeling of someone watching me had become normalized, so when I heard Deidamia's crow land on the branch above me, I didn't flinch.

"Who wants to sing?" Fern asked.

Kellan shot her a look from across the fire, and Ernest did the same. Fern sat back against her tree and shrugged at me.

"It was worth a shot, Fern," I said.

Kellan's heated stare sliced through me across the fire. I met it, knowing seeing his village had brought up buried trauma.

When he stood and gestured for me to follow him, I was surprised. I dusted off my clothes and followed him several yards into the woods.

The moonlight did enough to give me a path through the trees. Kellan stopped abruptly and interlaced his fingers on the back of his head.

I stopped next to him, looking to see how far away we were from the others.

"I know you believe in me," he said, his voice gravelly from silence. "But I don't want you to have false hope."

My brows pulled down in confusion. "You don't think you can do it?"

Kellan slid his tongue over his teeth. "I'm not saying that. I'm saying that if I don't succeed ... I-I don't want you to mourn me like I did my family."

I bit my bottom lip and attempted to keep my emotion in check. Kellan didn't believe in himself because he'd failed before. Because Deidamia was powerful, and he didn't see his power.

I shifted as a chilly breeze slithered down my spine. "Kellan—"

He stepped back and shook his head. "Promise me that you will move on."

It hurt me to think my soulmate didn't see a future with me. That he imagined himself dying at the hands of Deidamia.

"I promise," I whispered, not knowing if it was something I meant or not.

It felt like acid coming out of my mouth.

Kellan nodded and looked down at the ground.

"Why don't you think you can do this?"

He looked back up with a heated stare. His chuckle was humorless and harsh. "Have you not seen anything that's happened the last several days? Heard the stories? We're going off a storybook, Josephine. We don't know that I'm supposed to do this. We're doing this because I look like a cartoon drawn in a book that was written however many years ago. It's absolutely absurd. I-I'm not sure I'll make it out, and I need you to be prepared. If I don't make it out, you run. Follow Ernest. Follow Fern. Hide. You do whatever it takes to get back home."

I wasn't able to hold back the tears in my eyes. I felt myself grow angry at his acceptance of failure.

My bottom lip trembled as he glared at me without any empathy.

Shoving his chest, I watched the shock travel across his features. At least it was something other than failure and anger. I shoved him again. All my energy going into each shove.

Each time, I felt smaller and smaller compared to him.

I felt myself crumbling to pieces.

Kellan grabbed one wrist and restrained me. "Stop it," he hissed.

"No," I said. "You stop it. You're admitting failure before you've even tried. Like you don't want to be with me. Like you don't want to try."

Kellan's finger tightened around my wrist, he hauled me toward him, and his mouth crashed against mine.

The surprise of it was swallowed by my greediness. I needed him. He needed me. Whether he wanted to admit it or not.

His fingers sank into my hair then he maneuvered me to his hips and pressed my back against the tree. All my troubles and my heartache tumbled out of me and into his mouth.

Kellan kissed me as if he would never get another chance. I hated and loved it all at once. I tore my mouth away from his, the stars twinkling brighter above me while he kissed a hot path down my neck. "Don't do this because you think you'll never have another chance."

He didn't answer. He gripped the globe of my ass in his palm and finally pulled away to look at me. "I pray that I get to do this for the rest of your life."

The rest of my life.

Because he would continue to live forever. More tears fell down my cheeks. "We have to force Deidamia to reverse it."

Kellan rested his forehead against mine and smiled softly to himself. "Josephine," he whispered, shaking his head. "How do you suggest I kill her and force her to revert my immortality? We can't trust her. How would we even trust her?"

I took a deep breath. "We get her spindle."

Kellan looked at me. "We don't know who has it, Josephine. We can't get back home to do it—"

"You can't open the portal, but maybe someone else can. Is Deidamia strong enough to block everyone from moving portal to portal or just us?"

Kellan searched my face with those dark, hungry eyes. "I don't know."

"It's worth a shot," I whispered.

Kellan dropped my feet to the ground and offered me his hand. I interlaced my fingers with his as he walked us back to Ernest.

He was half asleep when we walked to him, but he jerked awake. "Is everything okay?" he asked.

Kellan nodded. "Josephine has an idea, and I think it's worth a shot."

Ernest looked over at me with curious eyes. "Tell me," he encouraged.

I cleared my throat. "We need Deidamia to revert Kellan's immortality. We have no leverage. Have you ever opened a portal?"

Ernest shook his head. "I've never had to. I have no interest in going to other realms."

"We need you to try," I said.

Ernest used the tree as a crutch to stand. "And what do you expect us to do once it's opened?"

"I'll go back and find the golden spindle." Ernest waited on me to continue. "Because if we have that, we have what she needs. It's the only way to waiver Kellan's immortality."

Ernest frowned. "Once you give her the spindle?"

"We kill her."

"How?" he asked.

"One problem at a time, Ernest."