Jennifer Estep: By a Thread

While we’d been fighting Dekes in the library, something else had happened—Vanessa’s elemental Fire had spread through the mansion, leaping from one hallway to the next. The flames burned through the structure unchecked, and most of the west wing was already fully engulfed, with the rest of the house soon to follow. We headed toward the main staircase to go out the front door but had to turn back because of the smoke and intense heat.

Vanessa stood there, watching the flames lick at the walls in front of us. The fire had already engulfed the rooms on either side of the hallway, the ones that housed all the things Dekes had collected over the years. The models, the lockets, the antique dolls. The bright glow matched the fierce emotion in her eyes.

“Burn, baby, burn,” she muttered in a hard, satisfied voice.

I cleared my throat. “As much as I hate to interrupt the supreme satisfaction you’re taking in watching the mansion blaze to the ground, I’d really like to get out of here before the whole house collapses on top of us.”

Vanessa gave me a chagrined smile. “This way,” she said, leading me down another hallway.

The flames seemed to chase us through the house, moving almost as fast as we did, and we were coughing and choking on smoke by the time we finally stumbled out of one of the side doors. We stood there a moment, getting our breath back and letting the night air clear our lungs, before walking around to the front of the mansion. My cell phone had been broken during my fights with the last giant and Dekes, but I knew that the others would be there waiting for me, just as I would have been for them.

My friends, my family, stood on the front lawn, a safe distance back from the burning mansion. Owen, Finn, Bria, Sophia. They stared up at the flames, waiting for me to walk out of them, waiting for me to come back to them the way I always did—the way I hoped I always would.

Nearby, Jo-Jo was using her Air magic to tend to Callie and Victoria, who were both on the grass even farther back from the roaring flames. Jo-Jo had already healed Callie’s minor injuries, and Callie watched while the dwarf worked her Air magic on Victoria. The dwarf had the girl’s head cradled in her lap and was slowly stroking her hair, whispering to her, even though Victoria was still unconscious. I could see the power glimmering in Jo-Jo’s eyes all the way across the massive lawn, and I knew that Victoria would be alert and awake by the time the dwarf got done with her.

A few of Dekes’s men who’d escaped our hunting party and the fire milled around on the grass and stared up at the burning house as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. I wondered if they were waiting for their boss to stroll out of the dancing flames. If so, they’d be waiting a long, long time. If there was any justice in the great beyond, Randall Dekes was already getting ripe and toasty in hell.

Vanessa spotted Jo-Jo and Victoria and ran across the lawn to them. The others were turned the wrong way, so they didn’t see me step out of the shadows behind the Fire elemental.

But Donovan did.

The detective had noticed Vanessa running out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to follow her movements—and that’s when he saw me. His eyes widened, and he did a double take, just like he had that night in the Sea Breeze when we’d first seen each other again.

His mouth dropped open, and he blinked and blinked, as if his eyes were playing tricks on him, as if he couldn’t believe that I’d somehow survived the giants, Dekes, and the fire. He should have known by now that I always came back—no matter what.

I braced myself for what I knew was coming next, for that old, familiar, bitter disgust to fill Donovan’s face at the knowledge that I was still alive and kicking and that I hadn’t met the messy demise I so richly deserved. But instead of looking conflicted and disappointed as he had when I’d shown up on the hill above Tobias Dawson’s coal mine, relief filled Donovan’s face, and he did a most unexpected thing—he smiled.

He actually smiled at me.

It was a wide, welcoming, beautiful smile, full of relief, warmth, concern, and other, deeper things that shocked the hell out of me. It was the smile I’d expected to see that day outside the coal mine; it was the smile I’d hoped to see a dozen times before. It was all that and so much more—it was everything I’d ever wanted from Donovan.

The others were standing behind him, so I headed in that direction. Donovan hesitated, then took a few steps toward me, then a few more, then a few more still, until he’d walked halfway across the lawn—meeting me in the middle. He didn’t say anything, and neither did I.

I stood there a moment, my eyes trailing over him, starting with his black hair and bronze skin and working my way down his strong, lean body. Despite the smoke that boiled up into the dark, humid night, I could somehow still smell his clean, soapy scent, the one that used to appeal to me so very much. Finally, I raised my eyes to his, so that our gazes locked, gray on gold.

Desire glimmered in Donovan’s gaze, more desire than I’d ever seen him show before—desire for me . For the first time since I’d been in Blue Marsh, he let me see just how much he wanted me, maybe just how much he’d always wanted me. Desire, heat, raw, naked longing. They were all tangled together in the sharp planes of his face, along with other, softer emotions. I stood there and just stared into his eyes, looking at all the things I’d hoped to see, all the things I’d thought he’d never feel for me—ever.

Finally, Donovan held out his hand to me, palm up in supplication and a silent, agonizing question. I knew that if I took his hand, if I wrapped my fingers in his, he’d kiss me and pull me close, even though his fiancée was less than a hundred feet away.

I stared at his outstretched hand. Once upon a time, I would have given just about anything to have Donovan look at me like he was doing now, to reach out to me like he was doing now. The old feelings rose up in my heart then, all the electricity that had sparked and hummed between us, all the desire we’d felt toward each other, all the delicious things we’d done to each other the few times we’d been together.

I stood there, and I remembered all that.

And then I walked right on past him.

I saw surprise fill his face, but I kept on going, heading toward the others, heading toward Owen.

“Gin?” Donovan called out behind me. “Gin?”

I kept walking, and I didn’t look back.

A few seconds later, Bria spotted me. My sister let out a shriek of glee and pointed me out to the others. They all ran in my direction, but Owen was the fastest.

My love caught me in a fierce embrace, lifting me up off my feet and spinning me around and around. I laughed at the dizzying feel of it, and the rush of emotions that tightened my chest to the breaking point. Owen put me back on my feet and rained kisses down on my cheeks, nose, and forehead before finally capturing my lips with his. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back twice as hard.

I didn’t look at Donovan, and I didn’t give him another thought. Not once. I didn’t need to. Not now, not ever.

Dekes’s massive mansion continued to burn well into the night. The island’s fire department was eventually called out, but the house was too far gone by the time they arrived. There was nothing the firefighters could do but stand there with the rest of us and watch the mansion disintegrate.

“Burn, baby, burn,” I said, echoing Vanessa’s words and encouraging the flames with a smile.

The Blue Marsh Police Department arrived as well. Donovan stood off to one side of the yard, talking with several men in suits and spinning some story about what had happened, while Bria stood behind him, listening and occasionally adding to the conversation. The higher-ups in the department had already come out in full force to make sure that all the i’s were dotted and all the t’s were crossed, since Dekes had been one of Blue Marsh’s leading citizens. Of course, the po-po didn’t know about the had been part yet, but they would when the ashes cooled and they found whatever was left of Dekes’s body in the library.