Chapter 15

Ryan

"Gracie!" I yelled as strong arms pulled me back.

"Let her go," Dan told me.

Let her go? What the hell was he talking about? The woman I loved was standing right there burning alive and no one was making a move to do anything about it.

"She"ll be alright," Big Dick insisted.

"Trust us. It"s better this way," Dan added.

"She"s not going to be okay; she"s dying."

"Well, yeah, but she"ll be back," Big Dick casually said.

I had no idea what they were talking about, but the pain in my chest as I helplessly watched her die was unbearable.

Anger, fear, and crippling sadness fueled me as I fought the need to lash out at all of them. They"d let this happen.

As her body lay in ashes on the ground, I thought I just might throw up. I couldn"t do this. I couldn't be here a second longer.

I shifted and started to fly off when a round of applause began.

As I flew over Gracie's ashes, I saw movement and then a small raven popped her head out. She looked up at me, right into my eyes.

Mine, my raven cawed.

My whole world spun out of control.

Clarence walked over to the bird and scowled. "I told you to stop doing that, Gracie. It's awful to watch. I think you"ve permanently traumatized our mayor and every civilian standing around watching."

The raven shifted and Gracie stood up in its place. My wings faltered. I couldn"t believe what I was seeing, but the pain and agony of watching her die was too much for me to handle.

I turned and flew away despite my bird"s protests.

At first I flew home, but when I landed on the balcony and looked into the apartment, all I saw was Gracie. She was everywhere and I knew her scent would still be lingering there. I couldn"t stay.

Instead, I flew off and went home, landing on the balcony outside what used to be my sister"s bedroom. I shifted and let myself inside, knowing that door was never locked. Without alerting anyone, I walked through the room, across the hall, and into my childhood room. I sat down in the back of the large walk-in closet, just as I"d done whenever I was upset as a kid, and tried to process what the hell had just happened.

Without a phone and unwilling to speak to anyone anyway, I curled up and fell asleep with tear streaks on my face.

Gracie was alive.I had to keep reminding myself of that.

It didn"t feel real.

I knew she"d always been reckless, but she never should have ran into that building without having her full gear on.

She told me fire couldn"t hurt her, yet I watched her burn alive. My stomach pitched at the thought. I knew that image was permanently burned into my memory and would haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.

She hadn"t cried out in pain or even tried to put the fire out. She"d just stood there and died.

I didn't understand how her raven could have appeared in the ashes like that. I didn't fully believe that she had truly shifted back into the woman I loved as she watched me fly away.

Was she truly alive?

It was hard to accept after what I"d witnessed.

I didn"t know what to believe anymore.

Mate, my raven wailed.

The shock of that realization hit me even harder than her death.

Mine, I thought. Gracie had been mine all along. Maybe that"s why I was so attracted to her and why I"d welcomed her into my space so quickly. It had never been like that with any other woman, but then again, no other woman was Gracie Montgomery, my mate.

My body was cold and I was shaking all over. I knew I was going into shock. It would certainly be ironic if I just died from the shock of everything.

I had no idea how long I"d laid there or exactly when I"d fallen asleep—as I was plagued by nightmares tinted with hope—but at some point, I awoke in total darkness. The only sign of light was the sliver under the door.

The door flew open, and I realized there were loud voices coming from the other side. Likely that was what had woken me. All I wanted to do was roll over and go back to sleep. I wasn"t ready to deal with reality again.

"Found him," I heard Elias say.

Dean peeked his head in next.

"Go away," I told my brothers.

"You scared the shit out of everyone, dude. Have you ever missed a Congress meeting before?"

"No," I grumbled, not even feeling guilty about it because I wasn"t sure I could feel anything at all.

"I heard what happened. Are you okay?"

"No."

"You didn"t know, did you?"

"Know what?"

"That Gracie is a phoenix."

"A phoenix isn"t real, dumbass."

"It"s what they call her powers. Fire can"t hurt her, and it doesn"t exactly kill her. I guess she sort of dies and then her raven is reborn amongst the ashes. Drives Clarence nuts, but Andrew thinks it"s the coolest thing ever."

"So you knew?"

"And clearly you didn"t."

"They call her a phoenix. It"s not unheard of in fire witches, but rare. One surfaces every hundred years or so and that"s Gracie."

I shook my head. "Go away. You sound like an idiot."

"No, you"re being an idiot. Your girl's fine, so get your ass out of the closet and go to her. She"s a hero. Guffy wouldn"t have survived if she hadn"t jumped in that fire to save him. And it"s certainly not the first time she"s done it. Andrew says she"s always saving their asses like that."

"I can"t. I can"t work with her. I can"t be with her," I argued.

"I don"t think you have a choice," my brother said. "Clarence says she"s the best and that you two have been working great together."

"She"s reckless, Elias. And she"s going to get herself killed. I don"t think I can just stand by and watch that happen. Not again. Not ever."

I shivered, remembering in horror how I"d stood there and watched her burn. She should already be dead, but apparently her fire powers wouldn"t allow it. I"d shifted to fly away from the carnage, but then she rose from the ashes, and when her raven took one look at me I knew she was made to be mine.

I"d flown away like a coward, angry with myself, angry at life, and unable to face her. Couldn"t he at least try to understand that?

She was my ultimate weakness, and I wasn"t sure I"d survive watching her die like that again.

"I just can"t, Elias."

"Stop being a prick. I"ve never seen you so hung up on a girl before. She makes you happy."

"How the hell would you know that?"

"I may not be all up in your business, but I have seen the two of you coming and going. I can hear you laughing together in the hallway. She makes you happy, Ryan, and you deserve to be happy. She"s your true mate, isn"t she?"

I cringed as guilt settled into my gut.

"Holy shit. She really is."

"Shut up. You don"t know what you"re talking about."

"For a great politician, you have a terrible poker face, little brother. That"s probably why so many people trust you to do the job and be straight with them about everything."

"Is she really your true mate?" Dean asked.

I sighed. "I don"t know. Maybe."

"You don"t know? Have your birds even met yet?"

"Not exactly, but sort of. I saw her bird for the first time last night as I was flying away after watching her burn to death, so forgive me if I"m struggling to figure things out this morning."

"It"s not morning, dude. It"s almost dinnertime. You slept the day away."

"What?"

"You heard him. You slept the day away. Everyone"s been out looking for you for hours," Elias said.

I groaned. "They aren't wasting public resources on that, are they?"

My brothers laughed.

"There"s the Mayor Davenport we know and love," Dean teased.

David walked in behind them. "They found him," he yelled out.

Soon Mom, Dad, Gia, and Kim all joined him as they tried to cram into the closet with me.

"You have got to be kidding me," I mumbled. "I"m fine. Go away."

"You"ve never been fine when holed up in this closet, sweetie. What is going on?" Mom asked.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Gracie Montgomery is his true mate and he had to watch her die yesterday so she could rise from her ashes like a phoenix," Dean explained.

"Gracie?" Dad asked.

"You found your mate?" Mom cried.

"What the hell are you doing hiding in here then? She"s not actually dead," Gia said.

"Language, Gia," Mom automatically corrected.

"You do know I"m a grown-ass woman now, right?"

Mom scowled at her. "We"ll discuss this later. Now why am I just finding out about your mate?"

"Maybe because I just found out about her."

"But you two have been sneaking around for over a week now. How could you not know?" Kim asked.

I glared at her. "How long did my brother pine after you before you finally let his raven meet yours?"

"And I"m just gonna keep my mouth shut."

"Good plan, babe." Elias winked at his mate.

"I want to know how Elias and Kim knew about this but I didn't," Gia protested.

"Ryan just likes to keep things to himself," David told her as he wrapped an arm around her like he was trying to protect her from getting hurt or something.

"I"m not in the habit of introducing you to every woman I sleep with," I blurted out.

"Oh dear Lord. Do you have to be so vulgar?" Mom chastised. "I expect that from the rest of my kids, but not you, Ryan."

"Well, it"s the truth."

"But you also don"t bring flings back to your apartment, and you"ve had her over for more than one sleepover."

"Shut up," I warned him.

"Wait, she came to your apartment? Wow, she really is your mate, isn"t she?" Gia asked.

"No. Yes. I don"t know. Maybe."

"I"m confused. How do you not know?"

Elias stepped in and explained it all so I didn"t have to keep repeating myself.

"Ryan, get your ass up right now and you go to the girl and find out if you really are mates or not. Because if she is, then she deserves better than this from you," Mom said.

"Language, Mom," Gia warned with a smirk on her face.

"Oh, shut the hell up. It"s not like everyone in this house doesn"t curse once in a while. Just try not to make a goddamn habit of it. Ryan, get out of my house and face this like the man your father and I raised you to be."

"You heard your mother. I"ll let the Congress Council know you"re okay and just needed some personal time off. Take a few days to get this mess sorted."

"Mess? A true mate is not a mess," Mom insisted.

Dad pointed to her behind her back and then made a circle with his finger next to his head to signify that he thought she was crazy.

We all stared in shock as he backed out of the room.

"You really should go and talk to her," Gia said.

"I know. I just don't know if I can do this. I"m more than a little freaked out. You weren"t there and didn"t see how horrific it was. I watched her die."

Gia looked over at David and reached out for his hand to give it a squeeze. "I have a bit of an idea what that feels like. I thought I"d lost David forever, remember? But when he came back to me, there was nothing standing in my way of getting to him. So what are you waiting for?"

"He didn"t even know who you were when you found him. Hell, he still doesn"t. What if Gracie loses her memories when she"s reborn or whatever Elias called it?"

"What are you talking about?" David asked. "All of my memories are intact."

"Wait, what?" Elias asked.

"When did that happen?" Dean demanded.

"Yeah, why didn"t you say anything?"

He shrugged. "I guess I didn"t really think it mattered to anyone but Gia. They weren"t gone all that long. Everything came back to me when we went on our trip. The doctor said the swelling in my brain just needed to go down some first."

I didn"t know what to think about that. We were all quiet for a bit before Kim, Elias, and Dean all started asking questions at the same time.

I smiled and then frowned.

I wished my life could be that simple. I didn"t almost lose my mate; I watched her die. It made me want to throw up just thinking about it. I wasn"t strong enough to deal with this, but I owed it to her to at least tell her that to her face.

While my siblings were all distracted, I shifted and flew out of the room and then out of the house. I didn"t even detour, flying straight to Gracie's house. A part of me still didn"t believe she would be there.

I"d heard about her powers, but I couldn't reconcile it with the crazy, beautiful woman I"d spent the last week or so with. That woman had died last night. Right?