Chapter 91
-Ava’s POV-
There were so many circumstanc them
in life that I hated, most especially the kind that we couldn’t control–this was one of
I knew Tessa was going to die. I had known the moment I practically ran into the hospital after Grayson dropped me off.
I hated that I was going to have to tell Mikayla that her mother was gone. I didn’t have the best relationship with my own mother, but I knew I would be devastated if I knew that I could never see her again.
With a sigh, I closed my eyes, placing a hand on Tessa’s pale head. “I know she’s human, but please, please, give us a miracle.
Please.”
be
My eyes moved to the machine, and I shook my head. I needed to find Mikayla. I knew getting attached wasn’t supposed to part of the job, but I couldn’t help it. Surprisingly, she was with Grayson when I found her, crying. I was just about to ask him why she was when, as soon as Mikayla rushed off, he spoke first
“There’s a way to save her.”
hark “What?*
I blinked, taken aback. “What?”
“She’s going to die, but there’s a way she doesn’t have to stay dead. She just has to put this on.” He raised his hand, showing me a ring I had vaguely noticed before, one that he never took off. I always thought it was a family crest or something
“I don’t understand. What does a ring have to do with this?”
“I had Maria make it for me. It was a dangerous spell, and it can only be used once, but it grants me three chances to come back to life.”
What?
But he wasn’t finished. “I have one chance left. I don’t know if it automatically resets on someone else’s finger, but that doesn’t matter. There’s a chance left, and if she puts it on, she’ll come back from the dead.”
If he had one chance left, that meant- My eyes widened. “Oh my goddess. You’ve died twice? When? Where? How?”
A faint smile touched his lips. “I’ll tell you about it after we get the ring on Tessa’s finger. From the expression on your face, I’d say she doesn’t have much time left.”
I nodded, my heart racing. “But how do we explain what’s happening to Mikayla when her mother dies and then comes back to life in front of her?”
Grayson’s tone was dry. “That a miracle happened.”
Despite the situation, I found myself laughing. But we didn’t need to tell Mikayla anything because she was asleep, clutching her mother’s hand when we got there. Grayson moved to Tessa without hesitation, removed the ring, and slid it onto her finger.
It was like giving up a chance to come back to life was nothing to him.
I guess we just had to wait for this miracle ring to work its magic I didn’t want to hope on it, though. I gestured to a corner of the hospital ward, and he followed suit. When we were both seated, I finally asked, “Why?” But I lowered my voice so that didn’t wake Mikayla.
His tone was soft, low. “She said I didn’t know how it felt to watch someone I loved die knowing that there was nothing I could do about it. And I might not know her, but I was exactly in that situation sixteen years ago when I stood at the other
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end of the door, watching helplessly as all my efforts to get my mother out of the fire failed. A fire I had started. I don’t know why it bothered me. I don’t care, but if there was a chance, a way my mother could have lived, I would have done anything to make it possible.”
“I killed my parents,”
The words echoed.
He started a fire. A fire that killed his mother. Was it intentional? He had tried to save her, right? So it couldn’t have been. I didn’t ask because I didn’t know how much of his walls he was willing to bring down, and I didn’t want to push him away with the same questions.
But he surprised me. “Are you not going to ask me why I started the fire? Your eyes are asking a hundred questions, if not a
million.
I blushed. “I didn’t know if I should. I didn’t want to end up pushing you away.”
“I promised you steps forward, right?”
1 nodded.
Then you can ask me anything in the world, and I’ll give it to you.”
I felt my heart swell, and he continued. “Like I wrote in that letter, my father wasn’t a good person. My mother used to blame it on the fact that he was sick, that there was a possibility he was slowly going insane, but it had been that way long before he started having episodes, And one day, it got too much I just wanted him gone, so I took a silver blade and drove it into his chest while he slept. Unfortunately for me?” He scoffed. “He survived, and the price I paid for that act was too much I wanted him gone, and I had to make sure that this time, I wouldn’t fail. So I had Maria do a spell to seal the entire house so people could enter but they couldn’t leave. Because of my father’s condition and his pride, he drove all wolves away from the main house, so it wasn’t hard to get him alone. But then…” He stopped talking for a moment, pain flashing across his eyes for a second. “My mother and Elaine’s parents came home early. They weren’t supposed to, and I tried everything to stop it. But Maria couldn’t undo the spell, and I watched my mother…”
I reached out, placing my hand on top of his, silently telling him that he didn’t have to continue.
Him being responsible for their deaths hadn’t been intentional, and I knew I had worked up different scenarios of how he had killed his parents in those five days he disappeared. It always came down to cold–blooded murder because of the way he
WILL
And that had almost happened with his father. But that didn’t change the fact that he carried the weight of deaths he hadn’t
meant to cause.
Maybe I was being biased because of what I felt for him, but at the same time.. I just couldn’t bring myself to judge him.
I was just about to tell him that it wasn’t his fault when the monitor in the ward suddenly began to emit a shrill, continuous tone, the flatline unmistakable. My heart leapt into my throat as 1 shot to my feet, instincts kicking in. Across the room. Mikayla’s eyes snapped open, wide with panic, her gaze darting to her mother.
“No, no, no!” Mikayla’s voice broke into a scream, raw and terrified. She pushed herself of the chair and stumbled toward the bed, clutching Tessa’s pale hand. “Mom, wake up! Please, wake up!”
o step
I stepped closer, my voice steady and professional despite the turmoil inside me. “Mikayla,” I began softly. “You need to out of the room for now.
Her head shook violently, tears streaming down her face. “No! I’m not leaving her! I can’t leave her! Please don’t make me
Ho!”
I placed a hand on her trembling shoulder, my tone gentle yet in. “I know this is hard, but you can’t stay here right now. We need to take care of your mom, and I promise I’ll do everything I can. But you have to go.”
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She collapsed into sobs–clutching her mother’s lifeless hand tighter. My heart cracked, but I forced myself to stay calm, to stay professional. Before I could say anything else, Grayson appeared behind her, his face unreadable but his movements
deliberate.
“Come on,” he said softly, placing a hand on Mikayla’s shoulder. Let’s go
“No!” she cried again, her body resisting even as Crayson gently guided her away from the bed. He didn’t drag her, didn’t force her, but his quiet strength left no room for argument. Her dries turned into soft whimpers as he led her to the door.
Just as they stepped out, Mikayla turned back one last time, her ear–streaked face breaking into a trembling, hopeful smile as if she believed, somehow, that her mother would wake up. Then the door shut behind them, sealing me in the quiet hum of the hospital ward.
The monitor’s flatline continued, a haunting, unbroken note that echoed through the sterile room. My eyes stayed fixed on Tessa, her still form almost peaceful in its stillness. I clung to the faintest shred of hope that the magic ring Grayson had placed on her finger would work.
But seconds turned into minutes, and still, nothing happened. I waited, each tick of the clock stretching into an eternity. The room felt suffocating, the weight of failure pressing down on me
Finally, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting the weight of professionalism take over. The soft click of the door opening pulled me from my thoughts. A team of nurses rushed in, their movements brisk and efficient.
One of them glanced at me, waiting for confirmation. I nodded once, my voice steady as I announced, “Time of death: 4:33
PM
SEND GIFT
