THE RETURN AND THE RECKONING: DEAD AND BACK

The last thing, the very last thing, Adam needed or wanted that morning was the knock at his door.

He had a feeling he knew who it was. He had already been warned in a dream that she would be returning. His journey with her was about to begin again.

Since no one knew him by the name he had once had, she would have to be careful never to mention it. She would not have her other name either, and he would never call her by it.

Now they had been destined to return to each other, and a new future awaited them together; their spirits were about to be reunited in the flesh.

Dressed in a deep ocean blue gown with a black hooded cape, her high laceup boots, and her gloves on her delicate, slender hands, she knocked again. What brought her here was only vaguely evident, but when the door opened, she realized why.

He answered the door wearing a simple pair of tan buckskinned trousers and a black cotton shirt, open at the neck, his gold-red hair slightly unruly and climbing down his shoulders in waves and curls. His features were classic-aquiline nose, heavy lidded deep set sky blue eyes, straight brows, full lips, fair skin.

And in that one split second, they were brought together by fate for the second time.

She could hardly believe it!

"It's you!" she breathed, a smile on her lips that unnerved him, and before he knew what would happen next, she was in his arms, clinging to him.

When he felt the warmth of her body heat, something inside him melted. He shook inside, and wanted to react, but somehow he froze instead, bereft of feeling, yet feeling so many emotions at once it was hard to choose one to act on! It had been so long, so very long!

Feeling his cool attitude toward her, the lack of emotion in him, she looked up, wondering what was wrong.

"Jeremy? It's me! It's Callie! Don't you remember?" she pleaded, looking up at him, she, a whole head shorter than her husband, who was six feet one.

He looked down into her deep blue sapphire eyes and wanted for all the world to say the right thing, but what the right thing was escaped him. He didn't want to lose her again, and was afraid he would. If he lost her once, and their children once, then what was preventing fate from doing it again? Yet he had a part to play, and he was duty bound to follow it. He had to be true to his destiny. He had to respond!

"I remember," he said, heaving a great sigh, then a twinkle in his blue eyes unraveled in hers, and he finally smiled. "They sent me news of your return in a dream. I'm afraid I didn't believe them!"

"Or you were afraid it was true," she said sadly. "They told me of your disheartening. The hatred toward people. The habits you have now. I understand, and I don't blame you for it," she said, conceding that there were changes in her husband she had never thought would occur. Once he had been such a jolly, merry man, always happy, always smiling. Now it seemed a job of work just to get a half a grin from him.

He looked upon the most beautiful woman he had ever known, and then smoothed a tentative hand down one side of her tumbled, windblown auburn tresses. He felt silk under his fingers, and he watched and marveled at the way it shone in the sunshine from the window in the kitchen. Her expressive, thin face wore worry on its features, yet there was a deep hope in her eyes.

What would he say that would assuage her fears?

"We'll be all right now...no matter what else happens, we'll be all right." he told her, not knowing if he was convincing enough, or too convincing. The only one who seemed to believe him was himself, unless he was reading the expression on her face wrongly.

"I'll help you, and one day you'll smile again, and when you do, you'll see the world is not the same one we left, the same one we knew before." She drew him down beside her on the couch before the fireplace, which was roaring and ablaze with a vigorous flare of flames. It was chilly out, and he was cold, so he'd built up the fire.

"I pray you're right," he confessed, tired of fighting, weary of being alone. "I could never bear to lose again, the lifetime we lost together hanging on that tree...knowing our children were lost to us forever, and hoping we were not lost to each other!"

"I promised you I would see you again, and we're here together now! Did you not think we'd see each other again?" she asked, smoothing her husband's palm in her two small hands. "Did you lose hope that I would find you?"

"It's been hard, waiting, but I never lost hope, no," he said, trying to find the courage to accept her back into his life, knowing he ran the risk of losing her again. And again.

"Then why, why aren't you happy? I'm here, I came back,as I promised you I would! We'll have children, they'll be the light of our lives, as it was before!" she promised faithfully, knowing she wanted another family with the man she had watched Lamar Trask hang. The only man she ever loved or who had ever loved her. The father of her children, the joy of her lifetime! Now he was cold, unreachable! Where was his soul? Had it been lost?

"The family is dead now, save for the twin girls who were separated, Brianna and Theresa, both of whom are married now, only one of whom lives in the Realm. She is married not a fortnight now, and is with her Dhamphir Prince on their wedding trip to the Cairns. His name is Mikael Gareth Leonardo, and he is the second son of King Gareth Gabriel Leonardo. He is King of the Dhamphir. They slay the Stregoi. There are nests of them in all parts, hiding in the catacombs and caverns, the secret passageways, the portals...they are scourge! Chase them from one part, they find the other... Our first property is still cursed, and an Entity has taken over One Pond Road, where our Amelia lived. Theresa visited her there, and nearly died before she was rescued and she is married now, and lives in Colorado. She married three months ago.. a singer, a minstrel. Both girls are very much in love with their men. They are fine women, very sensitive, as were you, and I, at one time in our lives. I worry for the youngest, Brianna, five minutes younger than Theresa. She has been deemed barren by the Sage, Cyrus Longworth...the doctor. He knows much of Fae health problems. She had been much abused, and the love between she and her Prince was almost not to be! Lady Johanna Howe and UcenterDress wedding items online store sale Cyn Clancurrie , the White Lady, the White Witch, some call her, they both saved her. And Lady Josephine, as well, lay the light of the sword of truth on her. There have been many changes here since we were last together. Not all bad, not all good. There is still the Trask family, and still the Entities are in unrest. The Collins family is still living and thriving. We need to fulfill our destinies, but this time, we need to be more careful about it."

She searched her husband's eyes and tried to decipher the message of emotions in his voice. "What do you mean?" asked Callie wonderingly.

"If, just if, we complete our mission, there might be a chance we can be immortal, immortal for all time! I've been working on theories, not just for us, but for all of us! I've been trying different experiments, and I found herbs and chemicals that may help!" Adam, whom Callie knew as Jeremy, was excited at his discoveries, and anxious to fill her in on all he knew.

But Callie was more interested in him than in his theories and experiments and ideas about herbs. She was convinced something dire had happened to him and wondered if somehow it could be restored so that he would return to the Jeremy she once knew and loved so much!

But that remained to be seen. There were many people with a hand in this, and who may have a way to help. Questions abounded, and hope was all either had to help them on their mission now!