Dragging me closer.
I swallowed hard, and my feet planted against the ground. Body frozen in a shroud of fear. “I’m not sure I can go in there.”
I didn’t have an answer as to why.
I just knew I couldn’t.
That it was too much, the buzz of energy that radiated back.
“You need to see this, Ian. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t,” Jace told me.
Fear clamored through my senses. This shame that I could never be the good guy.
That I was bad.
The devil.
But I didn’t want to be him anymore.
Beating back the demons howling from my soul, I gave them a tight nod and followed them around the old building.
Anticipation billowed, unease and excitement.
Could feel the greatness radiating from the brick walls.
Something good and right.
Jace swung open the door, guiding his wife inside, glancing back at me in some kind of silent invitation.
To step up.
To be the man he’d tried to teach me to be when I’d been just a kid.
I’d thought that meteor in my throat had already crashed to the ground and obliterated everything, nothing but dust and destruction in its wake. But there it was, bobbing so heavy I could barely see when I stepped into the old bookstore.
Tons of old books lined the shelves. Other displays boasted new titles and the latest bestsellers.
But I saw none of that. Only thing I could see was the crowd that had gathered for a signing at the back of the room, the long, excited line twisting all the way back through the aisles of shelves.
It was the woman sitting behind the table, her blonde hair tumbling down around one shoulder as she angled her head and signed a big book that stunned me.
Knocked the breath right out of me.
Kick-started my damned heart that until right that very moment had forgotten to beat.
My battered Cinderella.
My Angel Girl.
This girl who I’d had all wrong. She wasn’t close to being broken.
She was real and perfect and whole.
The bright, bright light in the middle of my darkness.
She smiled and handed the book back to the little girl who was waiting for it.
It was big and square and illustrated.
A children’s book.
My chest squeezed, and Jace and Faith started walking that direction. That was when I saw Faith’s parents up close to the table, Mack dressed up and chatting with them.
The sweetest kind of torture speared me when I saw Thomas wearing a suit where he stood next to them, holding a cup of punch while he looked around in awe.
Little Sophie Marie was on the ground coloring something.
It was Mallory who saw me first.
Her face split into the biggest smile. Big enough to shatter the earth.
She gasped and threw her arms in the air. “Ian-Zian the Great!” She dropped the animated conversation she was having with Bailey.
She snatched one of the books from the table by her mother and came bounding my direction.
Energy and light.
She skidded to a stop a foot away, holding out the book, so proud. “Ian, look it, you got your very own book! Ian-Zian the Great Saves the Ruby Prince and the Priceless Princesses. That’s because he’s our hero and we love him so, so, so much! I got to help Mom write all the words and then she found someone so special to color all the pages and now we’re going to sell them and it’s going to be a bestseller! I told you I was a writer and I was going to sell all the books!”
My chest tremored. Ripples of waves. Quivers of emotion that kept rolling in. Getting greater with each second that passed.
No ebbing. It was just a constant flow.
My lips parted, awe taking hold of me when I reached out and took the book, eyes moving over the cover.
It depicted a toppled castle tower. A dragon circling overhead. A prince that wore a ruby crown, and two tiny princesses cheering, a big diamond pendant on the older one, a sapphire ring on the small, small child, the beautiful handmaiden who looked a whole lot like Cinderella at their side.
I was in the middle of it, holding the sword of a saint.
Staggered, I squeezed my eyes closed, not sure how to accept that this was the way they viewed me.
Like I was their hero when I’d been the one to blame. When I’d been so close to ruining everything for Grace and her family because I’d gone after a girl I knew I could never keep.
Then my staggered world froze when Grace looked up, that sea of bottomless blue capturing me.
Taking me over.
Flooding me with so much love I didn’t know how to stand.
She stood slowly, like she was in her own shock, unsure that I would come.
Her sweet body trembled all over.
But it was her belly that was big and round that sent me reeling forward, feet barely functioning as I fumbled across the space.