Darkmoon (#5) (The Cain Chronicles) (26 page)
Read Darkmoon (#5) (The Cain Chronicles) Online
Authors: SM Reine
She couldn’t finish the sentence. She clapped a hand to her mouth to muffle her cry as her eyes welled with tears.
Abel pulled her against his chest. “The twins?”
Rylie had to take a breath before she could speak again. “They’re on the other side with Scott and Gwyn. They have all the supplies, too, so everyone will be okay until they can find a town. We packed a lot of formula, so it’s not like they’ll go hungry, at least, and I know Gwyn will take good care of them, even if we can’t be with them, and…”
She was babbling. Rylie forced herself to stop speaking, but once she wasn’t talking, she was crying again. It felt like she was the one whose heart had been cut in half by a serrated silver blade.
Even though she had only been a mother for a few hours, she still felt like she was missing something huge. Rylie wanted to hold her babies again, but there was too much rubble, a closed door, and an entire dimensional rift between them. And knowing that Gwyn was gone, too, made it only hurt worse.
“We can still reach them,” Abel said. “We still have time.”
She couldn’t speak, so she just nodded.
Rylie wrapped her arms around Abel’s neck and kissed him again. For the first time, she felt no doubt, and no guilt. She only felt a powerful sense of rightness. She thought that she had been waiting for him ever since they first danced together at her high school prom, and she felt like she was finally complete.
Except that she was missing one critical thing. Two of them, actually.
Abel must have felt the same absence, because he released her too quickly, though he clenched her hand tight in his.
There was a noise in the tunnel. Rylie tensed—but it was Seth who slid down to the cave, looking out of breath and muddy.
She almost dropped Abel’s hand when she saw him, but instead, she tightened her fingers. Even with their children on the wrong side of the door, Rylie had still made her decision, and it was only fair for Seth to know.
It only took him a moment to see everything in the cave and realize what had happened. Rylie saw his eyes scan the rubble, and then drop to the place that she was joined with Abel, and understanding crashed over his face. She wasn’t sure how she expected him to react, but he didn’t look surprised.
“Cain?” Seth asked.
Rylie bit her bottom lip. “He’s dead, but—”
“Good.”
“Gwyn and the babies passed through,” Abel said.
“So they’re safe. That’s good, too.”
“Seth, I’m sorry,” Rylie said, but before she could go on, Seth cut her off.
“I know,” he said. “You don’t have to say anything.”
Rylie couldn’t stand Seth looking so sad. She reached out to him, but he only stared at her without moving. “Come on,” Abel said, and he gripped his brother’s wrist tightly in a handshake. After a moment, Seth returned it.
The three of them stood at the mouth of the cave and stared at the rubble that marked the end of an era.
Cain’s body was under the rocks, the last part of Eleanor’s nightmarish legacy laid to rest. Gwyn and the twins were in the Haven. And Abel and Rylie were together, finally together, with Seth at their side.
After a moment of grave silence, Seth stepped away. “Time is wasting. Let’s dig out this door.”
E
PILOGUE
Hello
The pack arrived a few
minutes after Seth did, and everyone got to work clearing the cave.
The damage was worse than they anticipated, and even with the full force of a werewolf pack behind them, it took hours to make a dent in the rubble. Every time they removed a large portion of earth, more rocks would fall in its place. It was like trying to dig their way out of the bottom of an hourglass.
Rylie tried not to count the hours and imagine all of the things she was missing in the Haven.
Had the twins already learned how to walk? Had they started to talk? What had Gwyn named Rylie’s son?
Even knowing that her aunt was experiencing those moments with the twins didn’t make it hurt less. Rylie was missing her babies’ infancies as she struggled to get back to them, and there was nothing else she could do but continue to dig.
The pack sat together under the stars on that first night, taking a few minutes to rest around a campfire.
“Are you okay?” Rylie asked Levi. He looked worst out of all of them.
His brow creased. “Tate’s still with the Union.” Levi didn’t have to say any more than that for Rylie to understand the pain he must have been feeling. He was an asshole, but she still ached for him—and Rylie hadn’t thought she had any more room for sorrow in her heart.
She reached out and took his hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said, meeting Levi’s gaze.
He nodded slowly. “I’m sorry, too. For everything.”
The entire pack joined hands, one by one, until everyone around the campfire was linked. Rylie was Alpha, and the wolves shared in her pain. Everyone was crying, from Bekah to Crystal and even Abel. Sharing her pain didn’t make it easier, but it did fill her with a sense of warmth: the knowledge that losing her children didn’t mean she had lost all of her family.
Rylie slept on Abel’s chest that night and thought about what twelve hours meant in the Haven. The babies would already be celebrating their second birthday. They would be learning to talk, and their first words wouldn’t be “mama” or “dada.”
“I’m coming for you,” she whispered to the stars. “I promise.”
Abel’s hand tightened on hers.
It took over a week to reach the door.
“I found it!” Abel called
triumphantly, and Seth and Rylie ran down the tunnel again, leaving the pack behind on the surface. Abel had burrowed straight through to the back wall and exposed dull brown petroglyphs.
But they couldn’t expose the door, because there was no door to expose. Most of the petroglyphs had been cracked. There was no open gateway to the other side; only bare rock.
The three of them stared at the broken entrance to the Haven. “Where is it?” Rylie asked, running her hands over the empty wall. “Why isn’t it open? There should be an arch here, shouldn’t there?”
Seth and Abel exchanged looks.
“Let’s go up for air,” Abel said. His voice was heavy, and his grip on Rylie’s hand was tight.
“Wait,” she said, trying to shake him free. “We found the door. We should be able to get through now.”
“Rylie…”
“No! We have to cross over!”
“Rylie,” Abel snapped, sharper this time. He pulled her around to face him, hands clenched tight on her arms. “The door is closed. We have no way to open it. There’s nothing we can—” He cut himself off with a choked sound, and he had to swallow hard before speaking again. “We can’t do anything.”
The grief hit her all at once. She sagged against him, and he held her as she cried.
“I love you, Rylie,” he murmured, softly enough that nobody else would be able to hear him. Abel stroked the hair back from her tearful face. “The twins are going to be happy with Gwyn. And they’re safe from the Union, the OPA, and everything horrible in this world. They’re never gonna know the hell you and I have known. So whatever this is? It’s not a tragedy. We’re the only ones hurting.”
She buried her face in his chest. “But it hurts so much.”
“Yeah,” he said.
They kissed again, and their joined lips tasted like the salt of tears.
“I love you, too,” Rylie said. “I don’t think I’ve told you that yet.”
Abel didn’t respond, but his eyes warmed. He lifted an eyebrow. “You can tell me more about that later.” He dropped one more kiss on her lips. “I’m going to get the Chevelle ready.”
They climbed the ramp out of the cave, and Abel drifted off to talk to Seth, who was sitting on the hood of the car. They spoke in low voices. Rylie probably could have listened in if she wanted to, but she didn’t.
She stared up at the sunlight filtering through the trees and wrapped her arms around her body to hold her broken heart together.
Abel was right. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t a tragedy. There was nobody better in the entire world to raise her kids than her aunt. And Gwyn would be fine as long as Scott was alive—he probably wouldn’t be able to resurrect any new zombies in the Haven, but his necromantic magic should be strong enough to maintain Gwyn in her condition.
They were all together. One safe and happy family.
Rylie closed her eyes, feeling the sun warming her face. She imagined her daughter running in a wild, open world as a wolf, the wind in her fur and no hunters to attack her. She thought of paws beating against the ground. The taste of spring on the air, and the invitation of endless, twilit sky.
Summer was free.
Definitely not a tragedy. Not a tragedy at all.
Then Rylie heard something scraping in the tunnel leading out of the cave—something that sounded like human motions. But the entire pack was in the forest.
She opened her eyes, wiped the tears off her cheek, and turned to see two people clamber onto the surface.
A young man and woman emerged, both of whom looked to be about Rylie’s age. The girl had long black curls. The boy’s head was shaved bare. Their skin was dark brown…and they both had silver eyes.
The young man helped the girl to her feet, and Rylie couldn’t breathe as they stopped just a few feet away from her.
Those eyes. The girl’s chin—the boy’s nose—those features were all so familiar.
Seth and Abel noticed that people had joined them, and their conversation cut off. Rylie couldn’t speak or breathe, but she instantly knew who they were. She would have recognized her babies anywhere.
Summer pushed her hair out of her face and smiled a crooked smile that looked just like Seth and Abel’s.
“Hi, Mom,” she said.
Rylie’s mind whirled with the mental calculations. It had been over a week since they were separated. How many minutes was that? How many hours? How many years?
It didn’t matter, in the end. She opened her arms wide and her kids stepped forward to embrace her. She didn’t care that they were so tall and lanky. It felt right to hold them again. They smelled like family, like pack, and she never wanted to let them go.
Rylie’s children had come home.
T
HIS ISN’T THE END OF THE STORY!
That’s the end of The Cain Chronicles, but it’s not the end for the gang! My next book is going to be about how the twins got back to Rylie, and you can look forward to seeing it in March 2013.
Seth deserves a happy ending, too! Can you help me decide what lucky lady will heal his heart in a future book? Tell me what you think on my Facebook:
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And make sure to sign up for my mailing list so you know the instant the next book is out:
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Author's Note
Thanks for joining me with The Cain Chronicles. You guys have all been so wonderful helping me with this story. The support for Abel was staggering! It’s been so much fun, and I can’t wait to start on the next series about Rylie and friends.
I’m a full-time writer these days, so I really appreciate all your help spreading the word about my books. If you want to get involved, go ahead and…
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Happy reading!
Sara (SM Reine)
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