Revived (The Lucidites Book 3) (42 page)

“I love you,” I whisper. He kisses me. A kiss so brilliant and pure I’m transported. If anyone is still in the main hall watching this expression of love then I believe they are inspired too. Love like this…love like ours, is the kind to dream about. Pray for. Slaughter demons to protect. The love I have for the guy holding me now is more than enough to sustain me always, it’s enough to heal and flourish my heart, set it free to finally allow bliss into my life.

Epilogue

T
hrough the years my correspondence with George stayed steady. He knew of my life and happiness. Although at times I sensed his disappointment that it wasn’t with him I think our friendship meant more. It was difficult to convince him to attend the wedding though.

“George, you’re one of my dearest friends. Please. It won’t be the same without you there.” I knew what I was asking of him was a lot, but many years had passed. Our friendship had deepened, never with a hint of romance. Still, I always knew he was in love with me, always felt it like fabric against my skin.

“Roya, you’ll ruin your wedding dress by wearing the frequency adjuster.”

“Oh, there’s no way I’m wearing a wedding dress,” I said, sitting on the dewy grass and enjoying the misty hills of Laos before us.

“But it’s your wedding day,” he said, taking the seat next to me, legs crossed.

“Exactly. It’s
my
day. And I’ll look absolutely ridiculous on top of Mount Kilimanjaro in a fluffy dress. Let Samara wear one for me.”

“Mount Kilimanjaro, huh?” he said, raising an impressed eyebrow at me. “So Samara will be there?” George inquired casually. He hadn’t returned to the Institute since he left. He once told me that returning would be like going backwards, and it had been so difficult for him to move forward. Now he was in his graduate program at Dartmouth. He stayed closed off from the rest of the Lucidite society, keeping mostly to himself. This was one of the reasons I wanted him at the wedding. I wanted the event to feel complete, and George was a part of the love that had led to my union with Aiden.

“Of course Samara will be there. Everyone will be there,” I said.

“Is she your maid of honor?”

“Do you think for a second Joseph would allow that?!” I laughed. “Joseph elected himself into that role. Trent is Aiden’s best man.”

George was slow to cover his grimace at the mention of Aiden’s name. “How is Samara? I haven’t seen her since I left.”

“Good. She married a telepath,” I say, enjoying the brilliant gold sunrise as it kissed the tops of the mountains.

“What a perfect match,” George said.

“Maybe we can find you an empath.”

He lowered his chin. Gave me his trademark punishing stare. “You’re the last person I want trying to make a match for me.”

“I’m sorry, George. That was insensitive. I only meant––”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” he interrupted.

“But I do,” I said, reaching over and grabbing his hand, squeezing it once. “Are you happy?”

“Roya, I don’t need someone in my life to make me happy. I’m certain I will love again, not like I love you, but I will. Still, I don’t want to search for someone hoping they’ll fulfill a part in me. That’s what you told me, right, before I left?”

“I told you to stop looking to me to make you happy.”

“Right, and that goes for everyone else too.”

We sat quietly listening to the birds. Watching the sun shift, creating new patterns on the mountains. After several minutes of silence George said, “You feel guilty for how things turned out between us.”

There was no arguing with him and we both knew it. I pressed my lips together and regarded him for a long moment. Finally he said, “Everything I wanted was pinned on you, like you were the bulletin board for my dreams. Do you realize how wrong that is? Don’t feel guilty, because if we would have ended up together, neither of us would have been happy. Love like that is too unstable, it’s destined for disappointment.”

His hand was still in mine. I squeezed it and leaned my head on his shoulder, letting out a gentle sigh. “Oh, George…” I said, all my words falling away into the delicate mist.

♦

The wedding didn’t end up being on Mount Kilimanjaro. It had been a lofty idea of mine, but I finally decided I wanted to be married in the flesh. The wedding was held in the only place fitting, the main hall. Garlands of hydrangeas in blues and greens hung around the space. A gazebo was erected in the center of the hall so that our guests sat around it in a circle. And real grass was brought in so that Trey led me down an aisle that felt like it was inside a garden.

Aiden wore the same tuxedo he had when we danced during the party after the Day of the Duel. And I was somehow persuaded by an unrelenting Joseph to wear an actual wedding dress. It was simple, strapless, and light, since I had the train chopped off.

My something blue was the sash I wore around my waist which matched Aiden’s eyes. The something borrowed was a set of diamond combs from Samara that she arranged in my pinned up curls. The something new was a necklace of pearls my father had given me that draped in rows around my neck. And the something old was the frequency adjuster which I’d had a pocket sewn into the dress to hold. Even though George said he wouldn’t come, I had put it into the dress anyway. And when I marched down the aisle, my father’s arm almost vibrating around mine, I was relieved to find George staring at me from the second row. Then my eyes found Aiden’s and everyone in the room disappeared from my attention.

“Aiden is a lucky man,” George had said as we danced through the crowd of happy Lucidites after the ceremony. “I knew he loved you since the moment the frequency adjuster fired up for the first time. I knew you loved him then too.”

Traumatic relief at his disclosure constricted my chest. When the dance neared the end, he kissed my hand. Suddenly the words I struggled with so many times came out unrehearsed and as natural as the sound of wind. “I love you, George. I always will.”

He didn’t say another word, just offered me a rare smile, one that made his deep brown eyes light up.

♦

I didn’t knock, just strolled on in. He was so engrossed in his work that he didn’t see me until I was a couple feet away.

“Oh, no you don’t. I’ve got too much work to do to have you prancing around my lab teasing me with distractions,” Aiden said, backing up several feet.

“I think I’m going to choose to be offended by that,” I said, continuing to stroll in his direction.

“If you choose, but I’m still going to politely request you take your pretty mouth out of my lab.” I reached for him, but he slipped away with a sideways smile. “I promise to give you audience later.”

I huffed. Hopped up on the high table currently cluttered with gadgets. “And I promise to be quick, but there’s something I need to discuss.”

Aiden leaned against the opposite table, giving me a skeptical look. “All right, go on with it.”

“
Well,
you know the Head Strategist’s living quarters across from ours are bigger. And…I was thinking that before Trent is promoted to the position, that we make the case to my father that we move into the place.” The Institute had been through half a dozen Head Strategists since Ren had left. The position had opened up again and since Trent had been working successfully in the department for a few years it was strongly rumored he’d be promoted.

“Yes, but if it’s a space issue then it’s a moot point. There are two of them and two of us.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. We need more space. There’s soon to be three of us,” I said, motioning between him and me.

His eyes were clear and blue and wide. In two movements he was in front of me, hands cupping my face. “Roya, you’re…?”

“I am.”

If happiness has a sound then it’s the chuckle that fell out of Aiden’s mouth. His breath was warm as he neared my lips. I wrapped my legs around him, tugging him in closer as he kissed me more delicately than ever before, each a moment captured and frozen.

“Oh Jesus,” Joseph said when he entered the lab. “Do y’all always have to be making out?”

We parted enough so just our noses were touching. Without taking my eyes off Aiden I said, “Yes, we do.”

“Well, Stark, you told me to meet you down here. What’s this about?”

“Mr. Jordan, the future you foretold to me on Day Z is about to come to pass,” Aiden said, eyes still pinned on me.

“What?!” Joseph bellowed, moving forward. I looked away from Aiden to catch the gleeful look in my brother’s eyes. “Li’l Joseph is on his way?!”

“Wait!” I said, staring between Aiden and Joseph. “That’s what you told Aiden on Day Z? That’s why you released us?” I asked Aiden in astonishment. “He told you we were going to have a child together?”

He smirked and nodded.

“Why didn’t either one of you tell me?” I said in a high-pitched screech.

Aiden kissed me softly on the cheek. “We wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Surprise!” Joseph said, wrapping his arms around the two of us giving us a group hug. “Man, this boy is gonna be so lucky to have me as his uncle.”

“And you know it’s a boy?” I asked, still reeling from disbelief.

“Without a single doubt.” Joseph half skipped to the exit. “Well, I’ve got my work cut out for me telling everyone this news.”

“Uh…” Aiden began, “shouldn’t that be our job?”

“Nope, y’all stay here and do what you do best,” he said, sending the door shut after him.

“Well, that’s all I wanted to discuss,” I said, pinning my hands on either side of the workstation. “As promised I won’t take any more of your precious work time.” I tried to push him to the side so I could spring off the table.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Aiden said, locking me in place with his body. “I believe this calls for a celebration.” He planted a soft kiss on my mouth that quickly turned into a series of harder ones. The music overhead was ironically the first song I ever heard in his lab,
Plans and Reverie.
The emotions, his hands, the music, the feel of a room coated in his energies transferred me to a plane of reality without ever having to dream travel. Entangled in his arms and his world, I collided with something new.

♦

I left their place boarded up for the first year. Although I’d inherited it, as well as everything they owned, I thought that going there would make their absence unbearable.

I was wrong.

When I walked through Bob and Steve’s home for the first time after their death, their energy returned to me. Being in their home made me feel they’d never be gone from my life, that there’d always be a way to reconnect with them. And even after their death, they continued to have a positive influence on my life. People who are innately good, as Bob and Steve were, don’t lose their ability to inspire when they leave this world.

After our son was born, Aiden and I made the decision to live half the year at the Institute and the other half at the lake house. It was important to us that Max was able to play in the sand, run through the grass, and swim in the water. But we also wanted to continue our work at the Institute, and expose our child to the lives that had shaped
both
of our childhoods. It wasn’t that we wanted our son to have a normal life, we wanted him to have a life that was meaningful. And that meant knowing both the world above and below the surface of the water. These were choices we made to suit our lives, which is why I was surprised when my immediate family assumed the new living arrangements included them.

“It’s called working remotely,” Joseph had said. “And the lake house is plenty big for all of us.” He’d shown up last night as I rocked Max on the porch, listening to the crickets in the bushes and watching the lightning bugs swarm around the sloping lawn.

“But how did you get here so fast?” I asked, remembering the long trip by submarine, plane, and then car.

“Well, I don’t have an infant, so dream traveling to the nearest GAD-C isn’t too difficult. It’s only a few hours away. Although, I would sweet talk your hubby into building one closer. What’s the point in sleeping with the guy if you can’t get favors?”

“There are many reasons,” I said, with a wide smile.

“Gross,” my brother said, slipping Max out of my arms. “Give me my boy. Soon the others will be here and they’ll be tryin’ to steal him from me.”

“Others?”

Joseph winked at me before taking off with Max. “She’s so thick to think we’d let her steal off with you for a whole six months. I’m gonna teach you how to fish and catch tadpoles and––”

“He’s only six months old,” I said with a sigh.

“Shhh. Don’t you limit this child with those low expectations.”

♦

The next morning I awake to the sound of laughter. It’s unsurprisingly Aiden’s. What surprises me is to find him drinking coffee and playing chess with my father.

“Hey, Dad,” I say through a long yawn. “I didn’t know you were visiting.” I kiss his cheek and check on Max, who’s scooting himself across the rug.

“Visiting? Hmmm…yes, that’s what I’m doing,” he says, giving Aiden a sly smile.

“Have you moved into the room next to Joseph?” I ask, through another yawn. Joseph and I spent the whole night catching up. We’d only been apart a few weeks, but still with limited opportunities to dream travel due to the demands of late-night feedings, it was difficult to see him.

“I have,” my father says, looking a little sheepish. “Is that all right?”

“Just no late-night parties,” I say, taking Max in my lap.

“All right, go ahead and finish your story, Trey,” Aiden urges.

“Oh, yeah…where was I?” he says, scratching his head. “Well, she must have been around eight. After two weeks the principal called her into his office and said that he was concerned because her hair was so unkempt.”

“What are you doing?” I ask, suddenly standing with Max tucked under one arm.