Page 126 of This Blood that Bonds Us

In a blink, the baby blue sky filled with cotton-candy clouds was gone and replaced with a navy sky. The vast lake met the horizon, but it seemed to go on forever. A glassy marble of twinkling stars surrounded us. It was just Kimberly and me.

A soft angelic sound caught my attention, and I examined those twinkling stars.

It was . . . singing. Soft, incoherent singing came from the sky, along with whispering too low for me to hear. I listened harder, and soft giggling echoed around me.

Aaron Calem is here. Aaron Calem. Tell him. Aaron Calem.

The stars said my name over and over again.

Kimberly’s hand tightened around mine as she watched the stars dance around us.

“How did we win?” I asked. At that moment, it seemed like the only important question.

“I was the opening, and you were the key.”

“I’m the key . . . What does that mean? If this is a riddle, I promise I’m not smart enough to figure it out.”

Kimberly smiled and placed a delicate hand on my cheek. “You’ll know what to do . . . bond breaker.”

I awoke to her lying on my chest, and my movement stirred her. We were tired from the blood loss and must have drifted to sleep.

“Did you have a dream?”

I said nothing, letting the emotion of seeing my brothers again wash over me, but most of all, the peace and the sadness that it wasn’t true.

“Was it a bad dream? What did She show you?”

“I didn’t dream of Her. It was of you. All of us together. We . . . won.”

Her lips curled into a sleepy smile, and I kissed her forehead.

I’d spent so long being terrified of getting too close to her. Afraid I might snap. I pondered why I’d run away from it for so long—afraid to love her to the fullest extent.

I wasn’t afraid anymore . . . of anything.

As we repositioned and I stared up at the sky, all of it surged through me.

Hope and love danced like the stars in the sky.

We would win.

Fifty-Five

Aaron

I whistled as I slid into the kitchen in my socks, with a new sense of excitement and vigor. The birds chirped outside in a chatter, and the smell of coffee hit me like a freight train.

“Someone’s happy this morning,” Mom said as I swooped in to kiss her cheek.

“Oh, very.”

I picked up various things in the kitchen while she washed dishes.

For the first time in a long time, everything felt clear.

Kimberly sat at the table with her head in her notebook, scribbling down something. The plan was to go to Kilian’s and continue finalizing our plan. I came up beside her and kissed her forehead before sitting across from her. The blush on her cheeks brought a smirk to my lips.

“Hey family.” Presley came through the front door carrying a paper bag.