From Darkness (Hearts & Arrows Book 3)(101)

She could save Josie from the suffering she would endure from losing him, the pain that Artemis knew so well. She could save Jon from Orion’s fate. She could set everything to rights.

She could close the circle.

Artemis reached into the pouch on her belt and retrieved one of Apollo’s tokens. She crossed the room and handed it to him. “Save him, please.”

Apollo nodded and turned his attention to the screen. He glowed, his lips and eyes illuminated, growing so bright, she shielded her eyes against the light.

The paramedic felt for Jon’s pulse. “I’ve got a heartbeat!” he yelled.

And Josie fell to her knees.

The room let out a collective sigh, and one of the gods let out a whoop, followed by soft chuckles from others.

Dita rushed her, almost knocking her down with an embrace. “Thank you, Artemis. Thank you,” she whispered.

Artemis hugged her back, relieved and exhausted. “It was the only thing to do.”

Dita released her, and the look on her face spoke volumes. They turned to the screen where Jon lay on a stretcher being wheeled toward an ambulance.

A police officer laid a blanket over Josie’s shoulders as she watched them take Jon away. Two detectives made their way to her and pulled out pads and pens to take her statement, and she stood, numb and cold, barely aware as the sun rose behind her, and the sky caught fire alongside her heart.





Day 13





JOSIE SAT NEXT TO Jon’s hospital bed with her hand in his, listening to the machines beep, willing him to wake.

They’d said he was lucky.

He had died for almost a full minute before the paramedics started his heart again, and they’d told her they wouldn’t know if he would be all right until he woke up, if he woke up. They were the words that Josie had had to repeat to Tori, and they had held each other, cried together, not knowing what their futures held.

And then Josie waited. She wished and hoped. She tried not to cry, but when the night fell and the hospital was dark and quiet, her tears fell as she sat next to him, begging him to open his eyes. Wanting to hear her name on his lips. She thought of every word she’d said to him, every mistake she’d made. He’d given so much of himself, and she would do anything, give anything for the chance to make him happy after she’d caused him so much pain.

Her body ached from sitting in the stiff chair she’d pulled up to his hospital bed. Her fingers were wrapped around his as she stroked his arm around the hospital bracelets and IV, but the contact wasn’t enough. She awkwardly climbed into bed with him, not caring about her own comfort, only wanting to be close to him. She slid down on the bed and rested her head in the crook of his shoulder, her abdomen clenching at the thought of the bullet hole in his chest as she listened to the beep of the machine, reminding her that his heart was still beating.

“I don’t know if you can hear me,” she said as hot tears burned the corners of her eyes, “but I need to tell you what I should have said from the start. Not just before today or yesterday, but when you came back. Even before that.”

She took a shaky breath.

“All these years, I have loved you, even when I shouldn’t and even when I wouldn’t admit it to myself. It’s always been you—from the minute I first saw you until now and every moment in between. I love you and I need you and you can’t die. You can’t…” A sob escaped her. “You…you saved more than my life, Jon. You brought me back from the dead and showed me what I had left to lose. You never gave up. You never let me go, even at my worst, and you have to wake up. Please, you have to…you have to be okay because I don’t want to live without you. So please, come back to me. Come back,” she whispered.

Her eyes were pinned shut, her fingers clutching his hospital gown, her heart ripping to shreds as she held on to him like she’d sink if she let go.

“Don’t cry, Josie.” The words were weak and thin, barely a whisper, and she felt his hand in her hair.

She sat up, dumbfounded, blinking at him as he smiled up at her, his eyes shining.

“I always knew you still loved me; that’s why I never gave up. Took you long enough to figure it out.”

She laughed and cried as she leaned over him, laying kisses on his lips, his cheeks, “Jon. My God, Jon,” she said in wonder as she held his face. “Nurse,” she called over her shoulder as she fumbled for his call button.

“Jo,” he whispered.

“What?” she answered, concerned.

“Think you could quit gettin’ me shot at?”

“I’ll try,” she said on a laugh, punctuating her promise with a kiss.

The nurse rushed in, and Josie moved out of the way as she checked the machines and helped him take a drink of water. He teased and charmed her, like he did everyone, even after everything he’d been through, and Josie stood stupidly at the foot of his hospital bed with her fingers to her lips, giggling through her tears, marveling at Jon, whole and alive.

Once the nurse left, Josie took her place next to his bed.

He looked up at her with sparkling eyes and reached for her hand. “I have something I wanted to give you.”

“Give me? How?”

“Where’s my bag?”

“It’s right here.”

He jerked his chin toward it. “Go look in the outside pocket for my notebook.”