Analise sobbed, unable to hold her emotions in anymore.
Emmalyn’s brow wrinkled and she opened her eyes once again. “Stop that,” she whispered. “’S okay.”
“You already said that,” Analise pointed out, trying to get more of a rise out of her sister as they always did to each other.
Emmalyn flashed a brief smile, despite her closed eyes.
“Do you need us to do anything? Do you want anything at all?” Everly asked.
“So…” she said, taking long, slow breaths between her words, “tired.”
“You rest. We’re right here. Nobody’s going anywhere,” Barron said. “You’re safe, Em.”
Emmalyn didn’t say anything, but her hand squeezed Barron’s several times.
“We’ll be right here when you wake up again,” Barron promised, leaning over to kiss her cheek.
Emmalyn clung to Barron’s hand as she let herself fall back into a healing sleep. She wasn’t sure about much of anything except that her family was here with her, and Barron’s hand anchored her to the only place that really mattered to her — home. And somewhere deep inside of her she finally understood that Barron was her home.
Once she’d settled and her breathing indicated she was sleeping soundly again, Analise opened the bedroom door to let everyone know she’d actually spoken to them, but everyone already knew. They were all crowded in the hallway outside Barron’s bedroom and had heard everything.
“She spoke to us,” Analise said.
“We heard,” Avaleigh said.
Delilah swiped at her eyes, then leaned into Kaid’s embrace. It was a difficult thing to watch your child struggle through the possibility of losing their mate. Thankfully, she’d pulled through.
There wasn’t a person there that wasn’t relieved and sending up little prayers of thanks to whatever entity they happened to believe in.
Standing just inside the living room alone out of sight of everyone crowding in the hallway outside Barron’s bedroom, Brandt held Tempest in his arms as they stood quietly, listening to Emmalyn’s weakly spoken words, then everyone’s response to knowing she was okay.
“She’s very lucky,” Tempest said, smiling softly as she rested her head against Brandt’s chest. “I feel terrible that all this happened to Emmalyn.”
“It’s not your fault. You had to take a step back when you started feeling off balance.”
“I know, but still. Maybe if I’d stayed more in tune with everybody, I’d have known she needed help.”
“You have to do what’s best for you right now. And if that means turning off some of your abilities for the time being, then that’s what it means. Besides you can’t accept responsibilities for all of us and every little thing that happens. We’re all adults here, and we were taking care of ourselves all our lives.”
“Yeah, but now you’re my people.”
“And nothing is gonna change that. But there’s always another way. If not, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“I’m really glad to hear her voice, though.”
“Me, too.”
“I don’t even want to imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t found her when we did.”
Tempest lifted her head and rested her forehead against his. She shrugged slightly. “I’d have tried to bring her back.”
“You can’t do that,” Brandt said.
“Maybe, maybe not. I’ve never tried. I’ve always believed that if nature decides it’s someone’s time, it’s their time. But it wouldn’t have been nature deciding this. It would have been a mad man, and I couldn’t have let her life just end that way.”
“Tempest…”
