Page 52 of Last Christmas

“Why not?”

“They would have killed her. Out of spite. Unlike Myone, she’s human.”

“She was supposed to be immortal!”

Jaden nodded. “That’s why she’s alive. They didn’t know that. I put her in a sleeping trance.”

“For eternity?”

Jaden shook his head. “Not quite. I couldn’t wake her while you were enslaved to the Malachais. Have youanyidea what one of them would have done to her?”

Yes. Actually, he did. And as much as he wanted to gut his father, Caleb knew he was right. They would have taken pleasure in torturing both of them.

And Lil would have ended up dead, anyway.

“Anytime in the last thousand years, you could have told me, you know.”

Again, Jaden shook his head. “You needed to be focused, and I didn’t think you’d want her to awaken to this world.”

There was that. The world had gone to hell. Literally and figuratively.

“So why now?”

Jaden gestured at the two of them. “I can’t tell you what the future holds. I lack those powers. But if this is the end, I didn’t want you to face it alone. Nor did I want Lilliana to perish in this cave where I hid her.” He put their hands together. “You’ve been apart far too long. Never let anyone or anything divide you again.”

Caleb choked on his hate, love, and gratitude. “I hate you, Jaden.”

“I know. But never hate her.” He stepped back.

The next thing Caleb knew, they were back in New Orleans.

And Lil…hisLil… was standing in front of him.

He couldn’t believe it. A part of him would never forgive his father for keeping her from him. But it was hard to hate when he finally had the one thing he wanted most.

The one Christmas wish he’d dared not ask because he couldn’t stand another bout of disappointment.

Lil was here.

Shaking, and afraid it was all a dream, he picked her up in his arms and kissed her.

This felt too real. She was warm and tasted like happiness.

“Am I really here, Caleb?”

He nodded as tears filled his eyes. “I swear I will spend whatever time we have left proving to you just how much I missed you. And I will never,everlet anyone harm you again.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she smiled. “My precious demon. You will never be alone. I promise.”

There was a peculiar note in her voice as she gave him a light kiss. A faint smile played at the edges of her lips. “Do you remember the day you went to battle?”

“It’s tortured me for centuries.”

“Remember that I told you I had a special gift for when you returned?”

Oddly enough, he’d forgotten that with the horror of everything else that had happened.

“Surely, you don’t still have it.”

Biting her lip, she wrinkled her nose. “According to your father, I do still have it.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. How could she have kept a present for all that time.

Unless…

A streak of hope shot through him. He wanted to be wrong and yet he really wanted to be right. “What is it?”

Her smile spread over her face as she whispered in his ear. “We’re going to have a baby, my demon. A little Caleb that I hope looks just like his father.”