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A voice, calling through the layers of all that was and will be. Calling her. Back?
Death’s arms cradled her with so much care. Infinite care.
Where was Back? And when?
She floated.
That voice again, piercing the darkness.
Isannarî.
She jerked, electrified, called forth by a power she could not resist. All the parts of herself that were eternal, the fabric of her soul, her mind, the tapestry of her being, were ripped open, apart, unraveled. A million threads of possibilities, unwoven, untangled…knitted together again, forming the pattern that was Isa.
Come back to me.
And, lovingly, Death let her go.
Chapter 26
Isa’s mind and soul slammed back into her body with enough force to make her convulse again.
Her back arched, her heart started—its rhythm a staccato beat—and her lungs contracted. She opened her mouth, hauled in air with a strangled wheeze. She flailed, flailed, her arms and legs twitching, every single nerve overloaded with too much sensation.
“Isa.”
Darkness still, this one harsher than the stygian velvet she’d just floated in. Colder, except…for the heat of the arms that held her.
“I’m here. Isa, baby. I’m here. I’ve got you. You’re okay.” His voice broke. “You’re okay.”
She opened her eyes, and the world was gold and light and sunshine, finely honed beauty, and myriad shades of brown, and love in the tears that ran down his cheeks.
Basil.
Her hand rose to touch his face, trembling fingers brushing his lips. “I was…”
“I know.” Hoarse, his voice was so hoarse.
“But you brought me back.” She frowned. “How?”
A jerky shake of his head. “I don’t know. I don’t care.”
She blinked, remembering, her frown deepening. “You…unmade me.” A tiny gasp. “And wove me back together…”
“Whatever I did,” he whispered, “whatever it was, I don’t care, as long as you’re here, you’re back…” His throat worked as he swallowed. “I couldn’t lose you. You’re my life. You’re everything. I need you here, with me. When I saw you die…” He shook, shook so hard he made her tremble as well.
“Shh.” She brought her other hand to his face, too, cupped his cheeks, stroked up into that hair of spun gold. “You came for me. You brought me back. I’m here now.”
He clutched her to him then, his embrace speaking of despair in the face of death, of an abyss of loss in his soul that gaped so devastatingly, it threatened to drag her down into the void of his excruciating pain. She inhaled on a shudder, grabbed onto him with all the force of her newly sparked life, to let him know, down to his bones and the marrow of his soul, that she was going to hold on to him as hard as he did to her.
“I will always come for you.” A harsh whisper against her ear, a vow that was a balm to her battered heart. “I’ll never let you go, Isa. You’re mine, and I’m yours, and not even Death will take you from me.”
It broke out of her on a sob. All the fear and the anger, the guilt and the despair, the greedy, insatiable, selfishly selfless love, the hope for the impossible, the rush of disbelieving joy, it poured out of her with the waning of adrenaline in her veins, and she was left shaking in Basil’s arms, crying into his neck.
He held her, and rocked her, and together they cried, for what could have been minutes, or hours, or eternity.
Only when Basil eventually lifted his head and spoke to someone else did Isa realize they weren’t alone. With a start, she twisted in Basil’s arms, glanced around.
Calâr’s lifeless body—or what was left of it—lay several feet away, but two other people stood in the temple—a demon and a witch. The male she recognized immediately, her stomach dropping with acidic fear. The way he glared at her…he, too, remembered how they met before, and under what circumstances.
