Order of the Omni: A Supernatural Romantic Suspense Novel (The Immortalies Book 1) by Penny Knight (good english books to read txt) 📗

She needs hate. She needs to hate me to live with what happened. I will take this decision from her. I will give her the strength she needs to get stronger.

And my penance.

I stand.

She will never be mine again.

I walk to her side and press my lips to hers. There is no need to whisper my sorry, nor my sentiments of love. They are fruitless.

"I will protect him." This I promise her.

With that, I stand and don't look back. Leaving her to wake, alone and childless.

The baby has been placed in her room. Set up with all the equipment to help develop a premature baby.

I stand before the plastic incubator at the future King of the Immortalies.

How lucky he is to have the blood of the woman who birthed him. He will rule with strength and courage.

"Is it time?" Broderick comes to stand by my side.

I swallow the lump that forms. "Keep her safe. But let her live free." I squeeze his shoulder. "What we went over? Make sure it happens, and only if her life is in danger, intervene. Give her, her life back."

The one that I took.

"It won't be long. You can explain when you're back," he reminds me.

"What road back would end with me getting the girl?" I laugh at the irony, I thought finally I had found my peace in this existence of repeated war and loss.

Broderick stays silent.

I lift the lid, and with careful hands lift my boy out. The warmth of his body, that lay comfortable under the warm lights, fades.

I nuzzle him to my chest and make a promise.

"She will live in the stories I will tell you."

I kiss his tiny forehead.

TWO WEEKS LATER

The crisp grass tickles my feet running barefoot across the field. Anna laughing loudly while I fetch the darn frisbee.

My throw turns it, making it just propel back to my face. I duck and barely escape without it making contact.

Apparently, that makes my beautiful girl laugh.

“How did you even get this thing, anyway?” I say, scooping it up.

I jog back to my position to try my throw again.

“Dad gave it to me.” I freeze mid throw.

“Oh.” I know Leo comes to see her. She’s told me before. Sometimes when I close my eyes, wanting to see her again. It’s blocked, and I can’t get through. Those nights, I’m forced to relive my nightmares. I know it’s him here with her.

Most of the time, though, I get to see her.

If I could, I would stay here forever.

I continue with my throw. He will not plague me here. Not when I know I will be awake soon.

This trip has been long.

She almost catches it. Not because she can’t, but because I suck at throwing the frisbee. It’s not like me and Franziska, were out tossing a few around when I was a kid.

I laugh at the thought.

Then the familiar sting of troubles unresolved follow.

I push it away and stay in my heaven. Just a little longer.

Once she picks up the frisbee, she plops herself on the grass. “I’m pooped.”

I chuckle, jogging to lie beside her. Putting my hands behind my head, I look up to the thick white clouds.

“If you are always here, how can you be living back there?” she asks. Her head brings shade from the sun, outlining her silhouette.

A perfect picture. One I’d take if we were in real life with a camera. Keep it forever, beside me.

Anna has answered her own question. How can I live over there? It’s rhetorical, as the answer is obvious.

I can’t.

I wanted nothing more than my normal life back. My weak wants and needs of success and money. What I thought was safe and stable.

I have that now.

Thanks to the bankroll Leo gave me, for services rendered. The money he deposited in my account. Familiar fire burns, anger boils. The white clouds darken and swirl, wanting to dance together.

“Mummy,” I hear her calming voice.

“I like it here.” I smile up at her. She eases the darkness away, something that doesn’t happen when I’m in that world. The tension in the clouds simmer and dance away. Only here can I feel like this. “What? Don’t you want me around?” I tease.

When she giggles, it fills the emptiness. “I do. But you can’t do this forever.”

She’s broached the subject a couple of times now. Every time she says it, I find it hard to understand why not.

Why stay there when the anger and pain is debilitating?

“It isn’t over Mommy.” Those four words have me sitting up, her voice distant, her gaze over the rusting fence. “But you have to be ready for when it comes.” Her sad smile shatters my heart. “You are not ready Mommy.”

I can’t argue with that. I have barely bathed for the last few weeks, let alone even talk if I didn’t have to.

I am not ready for anything.

“Ready for what?” I say, knowing this is what will make her happy.

She lifts my hand. “For anything.” Her eyes twinkle, “For everything. We have forever here.”

I look around this field of ours and nod. This is ours and it feels like forever.

“But he will need you, too.” My head snaps back to her.

“I’m sure Daddy has enough help, there isn’t anything he would need me for,” I say, and her smile falters. Instant regret slams me. How do I control the anger I feel when the thought of him is in my head?

“Not Daddy.” Her words silence me.

Does she mean?

“Nate might need you, too. Someday.” Nate? She calls him Nate.

“Why do you call him Nate?” My voice is barely audible to even me.

“He likes it.” I blink and the tear rolls down my jaw to my neck.

“You see him?” My son, Nathaniel. I know his name. Broderick had asked me to name him. Right after I was told he was gone.

I said