Immortally Ever After (24 page)

Father had gone to fetch the new mamma something to eat.

We moved to the sculpture garden. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but it was hard with Galen right here, with me. So near I wanted to touch him, hold him.

We’d been through too much to let it end this way.

The child of the damned shall damn us all.

I ran my fingers across a particularly beautiful dove, poised to take flight off a twining metal olive tree. Father had given it a glittering yellow glass beak and pink-tipped wings. “I refuse to believe it,” I said to him, low so that Medusa wouldn’t overhear. “Baby Emma is a gift, not a curse.”

Galen stood opposite me. “Exactly. And I’m not sure what it means.”

It was the first time Galen had denied one of the prophecies could come true. I didn’t point it out. He knew.

Medusa and her child snuggled together, eyes closed. Several of the baby snakes had even curled to sleep. A few slithered lazily over Medusa’s hand, mouthing at her fingers.

I didn’t like waiting. There was too much at stake. I ran my hand harder against the sculpture, nearly slicing the pads of my fingers. “We need to strategize. Somehow, we need to change fate. Maybe it has been done before. It’s not like gods would broadcast that.”

We both glanced back at mother and child.

“Fitz.” Medusa frowned, her eyes half open.

The baby’s rattlesnake tail had escaped the blanket and the hellhound was licking it.

“Ew. Fitz,” I said, going for the dog.

The baby threw her arms out and laughed.

The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end as the air sizzled around us. “What the—” I stopped in my tracks as I heard the distinct crackling of a portal firing up.

Galen grabbed my hand and we both watched as a bundle of color spun in a compact spiral just beyond the minefield. It lingered waist-high, spitting energy and light.

It flickered at the edges, and it was small, but it was there. In fact, if I wasn’t mistaken, this was the same portal that had brought me to this cursed place.

Holy shit. “That’s the way to New Orleans,” I said, voice cracking.

I stared at Medusa, and the child she held. “Only the gods can open portals. This baby’s half damned.”

“Half god,” Galen said, his voice tight.

Medusa winked. “I’m not telling you who I slept with.”

I wanted to kiss her. Good thing I was too shocked to move.

Galen’s hold on me tightened. “Portals take you anywhere you want to go.”

The gods had kept them hidden from us. They’d trapped us here, isolated and unable to escape. Until now.

I turned to Medusa. “Make her laugh again.”

She smiled at my wide-eyed wonder and tickled her baby’s rattlesnake tail. Emma giggled and we were hit with another blast of heat as a faint red portal revealed itself directly over us.

Galen and I shielded our eyes. “Where the hell does that go?” I croaked.

“It’s a pathway of the gods,” he said.

As I live and breathe … “We definitely want to avoid that one.”

Galen watched it, as if he expected it to smite us any second. “Yes, we do.”

I couldn’t believe it. I was staring at our way out. “How did the gods even hide the portals?”

“Like this,” Medusa said, snapping her fingers. At once, the pathways disappeared.

“No!” I cried.

“Don’t yell in front of my baby,” Medusa scolded, as if she were the calm one. Luckily, little Emma was grinning up a storm. The gorgon let out a contented sigh and continued. “Portals are always there. The gods just mute them so mortals like you don’t do anything stupid.”

“But your child can unlock the portals.” Reveal them.

Medusa tucked Emma back into her blankets. “I told you she was special.”

“‘The child of the damned shall damn us all,’” I murmured under my breath. “But it’s not us. We’re not the ones being damned,” I said, the burden of it lifting.

“They were talking about the gods,” Galen said.

It made sense. The oracles served the gods after all.

I hadn’t known just how resigned to death and damnation I’d become until I realized that it wasn’t true. We could live. We could fight.

Or we could go home.

The child of the damned would damn them and their plans.
She’d revealed a way for us to go home.

Galen stood as tense as I’d ever seen him, full of wound energy and strength. “We can leave,” he said, the possibility of it washing over him.

Yes. “With two opposing armies.” This could get interesting. The portals were weak. The logistics were a nightmare. And the gods would fight us. I knew they would. But this was our chance and I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to take it. “Here’s what we need to do. We need to start sneaking people out of camp. Tonight.”

Galen looked at me like I was nuts. Which, okay, maybe I was. “You don’t think they’re going to notice when people go missing?”

It could get dicey. But, “We’re one prophecy away,” I said quickly. “We can cover.”

Galen swore under his breath. “It’s a risk we’ll have to take.” But his lips tipped up and soon he was smiling. We both were. “First, we’ll get the dragons out,” he said. “That means Marc, Leta, and anybody else in camp who may be targets.”

“Right. Then we’ll find a way to expand. Open portals in the other camps.” I didn’t know how, but we had to figure it out. This was it. Our chance. “I can’t wait to get out of here,” I said, throwing my arms around his neck. We could do this. I knew it.

“I love you,” he said, grinning as his lips brushed mine. “We will get out of here. Together. And when we do, I’m going to show you exactly how much.”

I kissed him slow and sweet, ignoring Medusa’s groans.

We broke away to find the gorgon rolling her eyes. “Ah, what do I care? I’m Greek,” she said. “It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

chapter twenty-one

Father returned to us with four plates of chipped beef Wellington from the cafeteria.

We ate standing up, and it tasted fantastic, which meant I was starving. After we finished, Father gathered up the plates. I wasn’t sure why he focused on neatness in the middle of the wreck that had been his home. Maybe it was just his way to cope.

Meanwhile, Medusa eyed the statues.

Galen caught her watching. “We’ve got to get rid of those before she knocks the heads off,” he murmured. “How about I take care of that while you get cleaned up?”

I eyed the change of clothes and shower kit Father had brought me. “Is it that bad?”

Galen barked out a laugh. “I’m not going to answer that.”

“Ah, so the big, bad special ops soldier is afraid of something,” I said, gathering up my things while he began tossing a few loose boards out of Father’s jeep.

Padre hooked up a trailer and positioned it next to the statues while I headed off.

Luckily, Father’s shower was still standing. Most likely because he’d connected it to an old water tank, about twenty feet into the minefield. I cleaned up and put on my fresh clothes.

Medusa and the baby were asleep when I got back.

Galen was talking to Father.

“Done so soon?” I asked. Those statues had to be heavy.

“More or less.” Galen shared a conspiratorial glance with Father. “I couldn’t take them to camp.”

True. He didn’t need that kind of attention. Besides, I supposed it would be hard to explain three flesh-to-stone injuries without talking about the birth we’d conducted outside the clinic.

“So what did you do with Thaïs and company?” I asked.

“We left them in the overturned guard tower,” Father said. “You know. The one with the colony of saber-toothed sand lizards.”

No kidding? “I’ve never heard of that prank.”

“Oh,” Father remarked, rather innocently. “The point is, we didn’t think anyone would look there.”

I’d have to agree with him on that one.

At least we had the investigators off our case. For now. We’d have to bring them back eventually, but there was no need to rush.

“Come with me,” Galen said, taking my hand.

“Is Father going to be all right here?”

“Go.” Father shooshed us along. “I’ve got this handled.”

Twenty bucks said he was the first person to say that about Medusa. Still, I wasn’t about to argue. Instead, I let Galen lead me down the path to the rocks.

I felt better than I had in a long time. Free. Like things really could work out. Medusa’s baby was beautiful. She’d opened up possibilities I’d never dared imagine. For the first time, I let myself hope.

“Galen.” I stopped him at a small clearing before we descended down to the rocks. “I love you.” We’d come so far since we’d been here last. And we’d done it because we loved each other, because we trusted each other and worked to make things better.

He brushed a kiss over my lips. “I’ve always loved you,” he whispered, his mouth against mine. His fingers threaded through the hair at the back of my neck and drew me closer.

He kissed me and my eyes slipped shut. My heart pounded and I felt it in the back of my knees as I opened my mouth to his.

My fingers tightened on his shoulders and I moaned as he kept up his delicious assault, his tongue battling with mine. He was erect, as excited as I was, and I ground against him. He felt so good. So hard against me. And I knew exactly how it felt to have him inside me.

I went for his zipper and ended up running my hands down his arms instead. God, I loved his arms. He broke away and kissed my cheek, my chin. He ran kisses over my neck until he found the soft spot behind my ear. I practically purred with it.

“This is where I belong,” he murmured between kisses. “Here. With you.”

I touched my hand to his temple, drawing it down his cheek, and saw the raw love in his eyes. “I know. I want it too.” More than anything. I knew exactly what he was feeling—the joy, the love, the knowledge that this was good and right. That for the first time, we had a chance at true happiness.

And here—now—he deserved to know exactly how much I loved him.

He cupped my breast, his fingers finding the nipple, eliciting a gasp from me. I ran my hands down his arms, over his back. I gripped him and pulled him tighter to me.

“You taste so good,” he murmured, pulling away, kissing my breast through the thin material of my tank top. He lifted it off so I was standing in front of him, nude from the waist up.

“We have to get out of here,” he said, voice rough.

Only then did I realize that we were indeed still standing on the path to the rocks.

“This way,” he said, leading me toward the minefield, past a wall of plywood, to a small blue telephone booth.

I’d never seen it before. “They don’t have telephones in limbo.”

“Not anymore,” he said, drawing me inside, bracing me against a cool metal wall. The sun was going down. It was getting chillier. Although I had a feeling I wouldn’t be worrying about that.

“I left my top on the path.” I gasped as his mouth closed around one nipple. I leaned my head against the wall. God, it felt incredible.

“It’s in my pocket,” he murmured, moving to the other breast, but by that time, I’d forgotten what he was talking about. I just wanted more.

His hand slid down under my scrubs to where I was slick and wet and dying for him.

Oh, yes. Right there.

One of his fingers circled my slit, teasing me. I drew in a hard breath, clutching his back as he touched me and stroked me and made me lose my mind. His fingers moved in rhythm with his mouth and I felt myself gasping, tensing. I felt so empty and I wanted to tell him to hurry the fuck up only I didn’t want him to stop.

I was drenched, throbbing. Focused on the delicious tightening between my legs. I wanted his cock there instead of his fingers. I fumbled once more for his zipper and ended up hitching a leg over his hip instead. I was desperate, needy. I wanted more.

He gave a low chuckle, kissing up my neck as his fingers worked their magic between my legs.

His warm breath tickled my ear and an orgasm flooded through me. My bones went weak and my cry of ecstasy was swallowed up by our little room, our escape.

He rested his forehead against mine, telling me how much he loved me, how beautiful I was, how much he needed me, while he kept touching me until the last streaks of my orgasm sparkled through me.

I watched him as he shrugged out of his flight suit and boxers. He was perfect. Rippled and muscular. Restrained and loving. And oh, my God—hard as a rock. He gave me a small, sweet grin that quickly turned into a groan when I wrapped my hand around his cock.

My nipples tightened against his chest hair as he kissed me. I ran my hand up the length of him, then abandoned it, running my fingers through his hair as I kissed him for all I was worth. I poured all of my love, faith, and strength into that kiss. Because he believed, I believed. Galen was my rock. The one man I could count on, now and for everything we would face.

We’d do it together.

I savored the surety of his arms around me. His hard determination. The way he rubbed against me, my breasts crushed against his chest, his cock against my belly.

It seemed he was as desperate as I was, kissing me, holding me. He shifted and the thick, wet head of his erection pressed against me.

“Now,” I murmured, rubbing myself against him, wetting him with my juices.

I was so slick, so ready as he pulled back and looked into my eyes. I saw the love reflected there, the trust—the knowledge that we were meant to be together.

My breath hitched as he slid into me, filling me perfectly.

He fought to keep his eyes open, groaning as he withdrew slightly, found the right angle and buried himself to the hilt.

He kissed my neck, my shoulder, burying his head against me. I braced against the metal wall behind me, grasping him as he stroked me in the most intimate way possible. Loving it as I felt the puffs of air as he gasped against the curve of my shoulder.

Sweat slicked between us, our heated strokes magnified in the small booth. I ran my fingers along his back, over his ass, and down his thighs. He tasted like salt and desire and I gave a small cry as his long, thick cock stroked me.